| Summary: | This thesis reports an analysis of the competitive position
of the Canadian food and beverage industry with respect to the
U.S. industry for the year 1986. The main contribution is in
providing measures of Canada/U.S. variable factor productivity
for 38 food processing and beverage industries. It is an
improvement over previous work for two reasons. First, the
analysis is conducted at a more disaggregated level than
previous studies, that is, below the Canadian SIC level.
Secondly, in using 1986 data for analysis it is the most up to
date productivity study of the industry available.
The study uses the index number approach to productivity
measurement. For each industry, relative Tornqvist price
indexes for commodity outputs and materials, labour, and energy
inputs were constructed. These indexes, along with data for
industry shipments and expenditures on materials, labour, and
energy, were then used to develop input and output relative
Tornqvist quantity indexes, and hence, measures of relative
physical productivity. Sources of Canadian data were Statistics
Canada publications containing data for 1986 while data for U.S.
industries were obtained from the 1987 Census of Manufactures
and 1986 Annual Survey of Manufactures.
The results indicate that in 1986 the Canadian industry was
not well placed with respect to its U.S. counterpart. On
average, relative variable factor productivity for each Canadian
industry was estimated to be 7.6 percent lower. Relatively
lower Canadian physical productivity was exacerbated by
relatively higher input prices, so that average output cost
competitiveness was 15.5 percent lower in Canada. Average input
cost competitiveness was found to be 4.8 percent lower in
Canada. Correlation analysis found no strong evidence of a link
between these two measures of cost competitiveness.
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