Recent Trends in New Zealand Agricultural Productivity and its Measurement

This paper updates the results of an earlier paper (Johnson 1996) exploring productivity trends 1972-92 prepared for the OECD. Tornqvist indexes are used to compensate for changes in the mix of outputs and inputs. Capital is charged at service prices. Present indications are that labour and capital inputs have not increased in the last ten years but total factor productivity has increased at the rate of around 4 per cent per year reflecting past investments and adaptation to new challenges. Comparisons are made with indexes based on static factor shares and suggestions are made on the construction of more ideal index numbers for measuring productivity change where the data is available