No. 10

Ypma, Gerard and Bart van Ark, Employment and Hours Worked in National Accounts: A Producer’s View on Methods and a User’s View on Applicability, (August 2006)

This paper provides a detailed assessment of the methods and procedures used for integration of labourinput measures in the national accounts for 31 countries. The paper provides detailed bridge tables which were based on the outcomes of an OECD/Eurostat questionnaire. Hence the quantitative impact on the numbers of persons employed and hours worked is indicated. The paper also groups countries depending on the basic primary sources (labour force survey, business statistics and administrative sources) that are used. The paper does not only adopt a producers’ perspective but also looks at these measures from a user’s point of view. For example, national accounts-based measures of labour input are an obvious source to be used more intensively for productivity research. However, given the large differences across countries, a careful judgement from the perspective of the user is required before jumping to use these national accounts series. This issue is explicitly addressed in the framework of the productivity databases of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre and The Conference Board and in the EU KLEMS project. On the whole, from the perspective of productivity there seems to be a greater usefulness for national accounts-based measures of labour input when these are based on business surveys, and in particular when used in combination with working time accounts.
Country sheets and bridge tables are under revision and will appear later.