Author Description

"This article in the Economic Insights series examines the changes in productivity dispersion in Canadian manufacturing--that is, the difference between the productivity performance of the most productive plants (frontier plants) and the productivity performance of all remaining plants (non frontier plants). It examines the relationship between changes in productivity dispersion, aggregate manufacturing productivity growth and exchange rate movements. This article finds that the difference in labour productivity levels between frontier and non frontier plants in Canadian manufacturing has increased over the period from 1973 to 2015. The productivity growth performance of average frontier plants is similar to that of manufacturing overall except in the latest years (2009 to 2015). For the period from 2009 to 2015, the average labour productivity of frontier plants remained robust while aggregate manufacturing productivity growth was weak. Finally, the article finds that the changes in productivity dispersion are found to be strongly correlated with exchange rate movements"--Page 3.