Labor productivity-Economics

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Okay, I am 54 years old, just started a college course in Economics and was given these questions on 3 separate occasions by my instructor and have gotten them wrong every time. He stated it would be fine to get tutoring and/or help since it was not a test or exam....here is what has been plaguing me

1. Why do economists consider growth in the average labor productivity to be the key factor in determining long run living standards?

2. And, Let's say that you have hired five workers to work in your Accounting department. Workers without access to computers have zero productivity in accounting. How would you assign computers to workers if you didn't have enough for all five? Discuss the relationship between the availability of labor capital and average labor productivity, and also the concept of diminishing returns to capital.

3.Here are data for Germany and Japan on the ratio of employment to population in 1979 and 2003
1979 for Germany is 0.33
2008 for Germany is 0.49

For Japan
1979 is 0.48
2008 is 0.51

How would I find the average labor productivity for each country in 1979 and in 2008. Between 1979 and 2008, and how would I compute the increase in GDP per capita, in labor productivity and in employment relative to population for each country?

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@mike6623,

I am not at all certain I can help you... But, how is any productivity rate at zero???... Unless the task is considered non productive in itself it cannot be zero... But then, all productivity can be considered as zero from a certain perspective if what you want to measure is change... Part of the problem with capitalism is that people increase productivity by mechanization and technology which has a high cost going in, but on the back side means people laid off are no longer consumers... It is one of the reasons we are so eager to export our capital because foreign production is already saturating our markets, and people are often in the situation that credit must be employed to by necessities, and even to meet daily needs... That is living in the future, spending income that is not at all certain, and when it happens across a society it certainly makes some people rich, and the whole society poor... And Frederic Engles said: The search for markets cannot keep pace with increased ability to produce... For that reason wars are employed to chew up excess populations and production...

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@mike6623,

mike6623 wrote:

1. Why do economists consider growth in the average labor productivity to be the key factor in determining long run living standards?

Because labor productivity is the only factor of the national income that can grow indefinitely in the long run. The national income equals hours worked times labor productivity. Hence, as an alternative to growing average labor productivity, you could have workers work longer hours, or by bring more people into the labor force. But all these alternatives run into limits: No worker can work more than 24 hours a day, no economic policy can recruit more than 100% of the population into the labor force. To repeat, productivity is the only factor here that needn't run into this kind of limit. That's what makes it the key factor.

For a more detailled discussion, you want to look up "Growth theory" in your textbook.

mike6623 wrote:

2. How would you assign computers to workers if you didn't have enough for all five? Discuss the relationship between the availability of labor capital and average labor productivity, and also the concept of diminishing returns to capital.

You figure out how productive each accountant is with a computer. Then you allocate computers in order of productivity, most productive worker first. Again, your textbook's "Growth Theory" chapter should have the details.

mike6623 wrote:

How would I find the average labor productivity for each country in 1979 and in 2008. Between 1979 and 2008, and how would I compute the increase in GDP per capita, in labor productivity and in employment relative to population for each country?

My first stop for foreign labor statistics is the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has a web page on them here

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@Thomas,

I looked at that site, but am still confused about the last question. Have no clue.

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