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Worker productivity is meaningless if the secular trends (read:code requirements) increase in complexity over time. This analysis approach and outcomes are gar
by tomrod 4y ago
Worker productivity is meaningless if the secular trends (read:code requirements) increase in complexity over time.
This analysis approach and outcomes are garbage, in my professional opinion. While I generally appreciate Dr. Goolsbee's research, here the causality as presented here is seriously off.
The assumption is that the productivity has decreased. However, the factors of this aren't a shift in the supply curve, but rather an increase in labor supply willing to perform the work more cheaply in real terms and increased complexity in construction codes. Add to that the actual materials have been engineered to improve productivity, and I think you have a complete picture.
It would be accurate to say the output of the median construction employer has changed, but that accounts all the above factors. What Goolsbee is claiming is that the productivity curve has decreased, and I don't think that is true.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoI think it's an accurate way of looking at it but not the only one. Different company goes from making 10 widgets and 10 hours to One widget in 10 hours plus paperwork, that is a productivity loss in terms of widgets. Sure, and entirely misses any difference in quality certification of the widget. However, the point that you are fewer widgets per hour still stands. It is a starting point for further questions. For example, Do you really need all that paperwork for the widgets? In this case the analysis was conducted on housing square footage built and we are building less per hour. If we accept that we can ask further questions.
- tomrod 4y agoThe issue is the attribution. Here, workers are attributed (even at a high level, consider the title). But it's not the workers, it's bad policy and bad management.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoThink a lot of people on this thread are making the mistake of confusing attribution and blame. If you tie a worker's hands behind their back, you will have low worker productivity. A spade is a spade. Asking why workers have low productivity is an entirely different question. People seem Primed to assume that anyone saying workers are unproductive means that they're lazy. This is obviously not the case. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together should know that low worker productivity is not a root cause itself. I don't think that the article claims this at all. Furthermore, if it is the case of bad management or is some in this thread claim bad regulation, you can't determine that without first demonstrating a decrease in worker productivity. Bad management is bad because it causes lower worker productivity.