Shiftwork, Capital Hours and Productivity Change

This volume brings together and expands on a body of research that I began in the early 1960s and have continued up to the present. It deals mainly with shiftwork-work that is performed during other than normal daytime hours. Shiftwork is a characteristic of economic life in the United States and abroad that has increased in importance over the years; according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one out of five full-time and part-time employees in the United States works on shifts. My interest in this field concerns fixed capital, specifically, changes in weekly hours worked by capital over long periods of time, and the signifi cance of those changes in the measurement oflong-run productivity change. In studies of growth, the measurement of capital input-by capital stocks or the services yielded by those stocks-typically makes no allowance for the changing hours worked by capital. Capital services are assumed to be propor tional to the stocks. Consequently, in analyses of output growth in a growth accounting framework, the effect of longer capital hours is a component of multifactor or total factor productivity growth.

Klappentext

This volume deals with shiftwork-work that is performed during other than normal daytime hours. Shiftwork is a characteristic of economic life in the United States and abroad and has increased in importance over the years. The book examines changes in weekly hours worked by fixed capital over long periods of time, and the significance of those changes in the measurement of long-run productivity change. The analysis provides a link between a technology rooted in physical capital with one rooted in human capital. Shiftwork, Capital Hours and Productivity Change, which emphasizes empirical research, should be of interest because of its use of original data, because of the progressive nature of the research, and because it ultimately brings that research to bear on a number of issues that are in the forefront of public discussion. Making use of the new multifactor productivity statistics that are now being published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for detailed (two-digit) manufacturing industries for the postwar period, the author shows the changing influence of plant-hour change from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Inhalt
One.- 1. Two Views of Capital Hours.- 2. Continuous Process, Data, and a Research Agenda.- Two.- Section 1.- 1. The Utilization of Capital Equipment: Postwar Compared with Prewar.- Section 2: Changes in the Workweek of Fixed Capital: U.S. Manufacturing, 1929 to 1976.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Changes in the Plant Workweek from 1929 to 1976 and Their Relation to Key Ratios.- 3. Reasons for Changes in Average Weekly Plant Hours from 1929 to 1976.- 4. Concluding Remarks.- Section 3: Changing Utilization of Fixed Capital: An Element in Long-Term Growth.- 1. Introduction and Main Findings.- 2. Estimating Average Weekly Plant Hours in Manufacturing for the Period between 1929 and 1976.- 3. Evaluating the Manufacturing Results for Interim Years.- 4. Nonmanufacturing Industries.- 5. Office Equipment and Computers.- Section 4.- 1. Operating Hours of U.S. Manufacturing Plants, 19761988, and Their Significance for Productivity Change.- Name Index.- About the Author.