Productivity trends in Ireland - a rejoinder

Abstract

In his reply to our earlier note (Sapsford and Kelly , 1980) Katsiaouni (1980) puts forward a number of justifications for the particular choice of sub-periods in his analysis o f trend growth rates in output per man-hour in manufacturing between 1953 and 1973. However, despite these arguments the fact still remains that as a consequence of the incorrect selection of sub-periods, Katsiaouni's parameter estimates are unsatisfactory. In particular, as will be shown in the following section, Katisaouni's estimated growth rate for his first chosen sub-period, is an upward biased estimate of the true growth rate during the "early part " of the study period.