Productivity in Australia's Wholesale and Retail Trade

This Staff Research Paper by Alan Johnston, Darrell Porter, Trevor Cobbold and Robert Dolamore examines the productivity performance of the wholesale and retail trade sectors in light of their significant contribution to Australia's record productivity performance in the 1990s.

Fundamental changes in the nature and operations of wholesale trade, in particular, have brought marked improvements in productivity performance over the 1990s. The paper examines the main sources of the improved productivity growth in wholesale and retail trade including the adoption of productivity-enhancing and labour saving technologies, the role of increased competition as a catalyst for rationalisation, institutional reforms such as changes to industrial relations legislation, and factors specific to particular sub-industries, such as underlying demand conditions.

The paper is part of a stream of ongoing work at the Productivity Commission on microeconomic reform, productivity growth and adjustment.