Chau, K W (1998) The implications of the difference in the growth rates of the prices of building resources and outputs in Hong Kong. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 5(1), pp. 38-50. ISSN 0969-9988
Abstract
The prices of construction resources (construction cost) have been increasing faster than construction output prices (construction price) in Hong Kong since the mid-1970s, giving rise to a long-term divergence between the two price trends. As the difference has existed for quite a long time, it cannot be adequately explained by a short-term change in supply and demand conditions. The present paper introduces the major indices that reflect the trends of the prices of construction resources and outputs in Hong Kong. It also attempts to explain, from an economic point of view, the major factors which contributed to the divergence between the long-term trends of the prices of construction resources and outputs. One of the conclusions is that, for the past 25 years, the productive efficiency of the Hong Kong building industry has benefited from and been greatly upgraded by imported construction technologies, as well as by a burgeoning quality of human resources. The data and examples quoted in the present paper are sided towards building construction. Therefore, the scope of investigation of this paper, strictly speaking, is confined to the building industry, and does not include the building services and civil engineering subsectors. However, because of the higher degree of mechanization and faster technological progress in the civil engineering and building services subsectors, the present author believes that the results and conclusions should also be applicable to the whole construction industry.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Hong Kong; productivity; resource; technology; tender price index |
| Index terms: | human resource, tender price index, construction output, building construction, building industry, investigation, construction industry, construction technology, supply and demand, efficiency, building service, Hong Kong, construction cost, productivity |
| Subjects: | Geography, quantity surveying, management, performance management, industry analysis, market analysis, building construction, engineering systems, data collection methods, digital engineering, financial and cost management, operations management |
| Topics: | Procurement, Construction Technology, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Project Management, Digital Applications, Quality Management, Human Resources |
| 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