3 questions on the productivity of labour

[CatsAttack]

1. What is it?

2. How is it measured?

3. Why were socialist countries unable to raise it above western countries?

[Luís Henrique]

1. What is it?

It is a function of capital. You can make more holes in the soil with a backhoe loader than with a shovel. The difference between these is a difference in productivity.


2. How is it measured?

Output divided by labour hours.


3. Why were socialist countries unable to raise it above western countries?

Because of lower accumulation of capital.

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The concept is often confused with intensity of labour, which is a not a function of capital, but of organisational measures (and, to a smaller extent, of individual characteristics of workers). Usually when it is said that the "productivity" of "socialist" countries was lower than that of western countries, what is being talked about is intensity, not productivity.

Luís Henrique