Why Productivity Matters?

21 September - 30 October 2020 What is productivity? How can you measure productivity? Why improving productivity is essential to compete in the market? How to share productivity gains? The course “Why productivity matters” give answers to the these and many other questions. It is an introductory approach to the theory surrounding productivity and how this could be applied in practice. The course targets principally analysts and advisors of Employers and Business Membership Organizations involved in wage negotiations, design of macroeconomic policies and enterprise development strategies. It is also an eye-opener to anyone who wants to know how productivity is measured and be able to understand productivity statistics. OBJECTIVES • Better understand the productivity concepts and be able to correctly interpret productivity statistics • Learn how to measure productivity at the national, sectoral, enterprise and production unit level • Influence policy-makers and public institutions for the development of sound national and sectoral productivity policies • Analyse the links between wages and productivity • Use productivity variables and its proxies in wage negotiations CONTENT The course covered the following topics: • Productivity as engine of economic growth and socio-economic development • Selected elements of macroeconomics and microeconomics • The concepts of productivity: labor productivity, capital productivity, and multifactor productivity • The key determinants of productivity • Productivity measurements • Productivity gains and wage negotiations • Evaluation of public policies aimed at productivity improvement ACHIEVEMENT Each week during the 6 weeks of the training , participants had to attend a 90-minute webinar and complete asynchronous learning activities including self-paced modules, selected readings, submission of assignments, quizzes and mandatory inputs in the technical forum. Weekly training load: 10 hours The final exam consisted in a MCQ quiz and an open question. The final marking was the results of the quality of the participation in the distance learning activities (65%) and result in the final exam (35%).