An Analysis of Productivity Trends in the Forest Products Sector in Canada

The objectives of this study are to provide a comprehensive overview of the productivity situation in the forest products sector at the national and provincial level in Canada, to compare this situation to that in other countries with important forestry product sectors, and to offer some explanation of the trends discovered. The report covers seven major areas. The first provides a detailed examination of trends in output in the forest products sector, which includes three industries, logging and forestry, wood products, and paper products. The second discusses trends in employment and hours worked in the sector and the third trends in the capital stock. The fourth section provides estimates of labour (output per hour), capital productivity, and total factor productivity for the three forest product industries and the sector aggregate for Canada for the 1961-2000 period and cyclically neutral sub-periods. The fifth section compares labour, capital, and total factor productivity growth rates and levels in Canada, the United States and Finland over the 1975-99 period. The sixth section outlines 13 determinants of productivity growth and then uses these variables to shed light on productivity trends in the three forest products sectors in Canada.