Shiftwork, Capital Hours and Productivity Change

by Murray F. Foss

Overview

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 sks or the services yielded by those sks-typically makes no allowance for the changing hours worked by capital. Capital services are assumed to be propor­ tional to the sks. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792399551
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	06/30/1997
Edition description:	1997
Pages:	399
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.04(d)

Table of Contents

Preface. Part One. 1. Two Views of Capital Hours. 2. Continuous Process, Data, and a Research Agenda. Part Two. Section 1. 1. The Utilization of Capital Equipment. Section 2. 1. Introduction. 2. Changes in the Plant Workweek for 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, 1976-1988, and Their Significance for Productivity Change. Name Index. Subject Index. About the Author.

Editorial Reviews

Brings together and expands upon a body of previously published research the author began in the early 1960's. Making use of the new multifactor productivity statistics that are now being published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for detailed (two-digit) manufacturing industries, he presents the main facts about long-term change in hours worked by capital and then puts them in a growth- accounting framework to see their effect on multifactor productivity change from the 1920's to the 1980's. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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