Sveikauskas, L; Rowe, S; Mildenberger, J; Price, J and Young, A (2016) Productivity growth in construction. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 142(10): 04016045, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Measuring productivity growth in construction has been a classic challenge, largely because reliable output deflators are scarce. This paper reports first results from a Bureau of Labor Statistics research group convened to measure construction productivity better. Results show that labor productivity growth has been positive, and fairly substantial, in all four industries where reliable deflators now exist. Shifts of labor between construction industries reduce productivity growth by 0.4% a year. Regulation is a significant negative effect on productivity, but reduces productivity growth by only 0.1% a year. Undocumented immigrants are important in construction, and often work off the books, but reasonable allowance for their increased presence reduces productivity growth by only 0.1% a year. The influences examined are not sufficient to explain why productivity growth is so much lower in construction than elsewhere. Later work will measure productivity growth in a broader range of industries, including some industries representing contractors. However, this further work requires access to restricted Census microdata, and so will take several years more to complete.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | productivity; quantitative methods; regulations; statistics |
| Index terms: | productivity, labour productivity, statistics, quantitative method, regulation, construction productivity, immigrant, presence, economic indicator, construction industry |
| Subjects: | environmental science, industry analysis, demography, mathematical modelling, political science, management, data analysis and analytics, operations management |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Site Management, Research Practice, Project Management, Governance, Business Strategy, Urban Studies |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here