Recent trends in labor productivity
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-03-2021-0111 |
| Published date | 23 December 2021 |
| Date | 23 December 2021 |
| Pages | 785-802 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Guzel Salimova,Alisa Ableeva,Aygul Galimova,Ramzilya Bakirova,Tatiana Lubova,Aidar Sharafutdinov,Irek Araslanbaev |
Recent trends in labor productivity
Guzel Salimova and Alisa Ableeva
Department of Accounting, Statistics and Information Systems in Economy,
Federal State Budgetary Educational Establishment of Higher Education
“Bashkir State Agrarian University”, Ufa, Russian Federation
Aygul Galimova
Department of Sociology of Labor and Economics of Entrepreneurship,
Federal State Budgetary Educational Establishment of Higher Education
“Bashkir State University”, Ufa, Russian Federation
Ramzilya Bakirova
Department of Accounting, Audit, Statistics,
Ufa Branch of the Federal State Educational Budgetary Institution of
Higher Education “Financial University Under the Government of the Russian
Federation”, Ufa, Russian Federation, and
Tatiana Lubova, Aidar Sharafutdinov and Irek Araslanbaev
Department of Accounting, Statistics and Information Systems in Economy,
Federal State Budgetary Educational Establishment of Higher Education
“Bashkir State Agrarian University”, Ufa, Russian Federation
Abstract
Purpose –Using the example of Russia, this paper studied and analyzed productivity of the labor force in
agriculture as an important industry for ensuring the sustainable development of the country.
Design/methodology/approach –At the first examination stage, the time series of data on labor
productivity and real wages in agri-food companies were examined as modern works on the matter tend to
highlight the relationship between productivity and remuneration insufficiently. At the second stage, labor
productivity was assessed through the rate of change in the share of wages in the gross domestic product. At
the last stage, an applied model of the relationship between labor productivity in agriculture and various
impact factors was developed.
Findings –It showed that the efficiency of the labor force in the considered area depends greatly on technical
equipment and crop yield. Besides, the study findings revealed that the traditional economic relationship
between productivity and wages is invalid in the examined regions of Russia. There is a significant reserve for
increasing labor productivity by providing additional motivation for employees.
Originality/value –The successful development of agricultural production can be achieved by implementing
innovations,facilitating digitalization, attracting investments, increasing the level of interest of those employed
in labor results and producing high-quality goods.
Keywords Dependence analysis, Production efficiency, Wages
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The effectiveness of business entities’activities in various sectors of the economy is an essential
conditionfor the development of anycountry. One of themain indicatorsof such effectiveness is
labor productivity. Economists, business representatives and politicians widely use this concept
in their analyses, research, forecasts and strategies. However, modern realities are making their
own adjustments to the already seemingly properly developed labor productivity models. Thus,
the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the global economy into its deepest recession since the
Trends in labor
productivity
785
Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public,
commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 16 March 2021
Revised 20 July 2021
26 November 2021
Accepted 1 December 2021
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 44 No. 4, 2022
pp. 785-802
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-03-2021-0111
SecondWorld War (The World Bank, 2020). In 2020, per capita incomes are expected to decline
in about 90% of countries, the largest share since 1870 (The World Bank, 2020). As a result, the
pandemic may leave long-lasting economic scars through reduced investment, human capital
destruction due to unemployment and educational losses and a retreat from global trade and
production ties. These effects can also have an adverse effect on economies’productivity and
ability to raise real incomes in the long term. Economists worldwide feel incredibly concerned
that the pandemic has occurred immediately after a steep 360-degree slowdown in productivity
growth following the 2007–2009 global financial crisis. The urgent nature of this issue is caused
by thefact that productivity growthremains theprimary sourceof continuousper capita income
rise, which in turn is the primary driver of poverty reduction (The World Bank, 2020).
The current research interest covers various areas related to the labor productivity
domain. The most popular study directions in this field include the impact of digitalization of
the economy, robotization aspects (Dekle, 2020;Zaynagabdinov et al., 2020), consequences of
the COVID-19 (Balwinder-Singh et al., 2020;The World Bank, 2020), structural changes in the
economy resulting from the above factors (Ayed Mouelhi and Ghazali, 2021;Deleidi et al.,
2020;Pariboni and Tridico, 2020;Zhang and Diao, 2020) and migration processes (Balwinder-
Singh et al., 2020;Ren et al., 2020;Tipayalai, 2020). The issues of the dependence between
labor productivity and wages do not lose their relevance as well. The considerable attention
of the world academic community paid to this area fully confirms this statement (Gardiner
et al., 2020;Gricar et al., 2020;Kong et al., 2020). Thus, Gardiner et al. (2020) have investigated
regional differences in labor productivity and found that they depend greatly on employees’
wages. Gricar et al. (2020) have analyzed the causal relationship between wages and labor
productivity. Their results for the tourism industry show that labor force efficiency must
increase in line with the rise in real wages. In the meantime, Kong et al. (2020) have
investigated the impact of nonmanagement employees on corporate innovation. Their study
findings provide evidence that paying higher wages to ordinary workers contributes to better
innovation outcomes in terms of patent quantity and quality. Technological advancement
represents a mechanism by which frontline workers can affect productivity growth and
thereby the whole economy.
The investigation of the impact of robots’introduction to equilibrium labor demand in an
entire economy was successfully conducted by Dekle. To do this, he used long-term (1979–
2012) industry-level panel data from Japan, a country that is over ten times as intensive in the
use of robots as in the USA. As a result, beneficial consequences of robotization on labor
demand in Japan were fully proved (Dekle, 2020). The experience of analyzing panel data over
a long time period seems methodologically useful and applicable in present conditions when
humanity is faced with the need to introduce digital technologies in all spheres of life due to
the vitalness of this process.
Ning and Wang (2020) have studied the effect of the COVID-related shock on labor
productivity and household consumption in China. Parteka, in turn, has examinedthe impact of
differences in productivity andlabor force composition on the exportstructure usinga group of
developedand developingcountries as an example.As a result, she suggests thatsuch a global
event as the 2020 coronavirus outbreak can only strengthen the interest in modeling trade
diversification as a key factor in countries’vulnerability to external shocks (Parteka, 2020).
Another study carried out against the COVID-19 backdrop by Gricar et al. (2020) outlines causal
relationships between wages and labor productivity in Croatia and Slovenia. This work used
cointegration methods based on data from monthly time series of labor productivity variables
and real gross wages in the tourism during December 1999–January 2020. In a similar vein,
Gnocato et al. (2020) have measured the extent to which labor market reforms of temporary
contractsintroduced in Italyat the beginning of the century influenced aggregate productivity
via their effects on resource allocation efficiency.
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