The labor productivity and the level of consumption: cross-country comparisons (empirical analysis)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the correspondence between the dynamics of the labor productivity and the one of the level of consumption. The purpose of this paper is to identify the trends of cross-country convergence-divergence of considered indicators. Particular attention is given to China's role in contemporary processes of globalization. The traditional methods of mathematical statistics are used to measure differentiation. The empirical base is the data for the period of 1980-2010, covering about thirty countries, which are developed and emerging markets (according to the IMF classification).

The of work resulted in revealing a fundamentally new phenomena of the 2000s coming from the cross-country convergence of indicators such as productivity and consumption due to the dominating growth of these indicators in the countries-outsiders. It is concluded that the global space of consumption per capita and labor productivity is narrowed to a certain extent. However, excluding China convergence process is not visible or almost not visible.

It was shown at the same time that the predominant (compared with productivity) dynamics of consumption is not always accompanied by a high growth rate of consumption over a long time interval.