Wednesday, 8 June 2016

The Straits Times

This was an article contribution by Mr Chua Yeow Hwee, Instructor from the Department of Economics at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, in which he addressed the question on whether automation increases labour productivity in Singapore. Mr Chua noted that automation can help to deepen and broaden labour skills, and develop a better quality of goods and services that might not be reflected by the standard labour productivity formula. He thus proposed the use of a Labour Productivity-Quality Index that takes into account the quality of goods and services being consumed. This could be a weighted sum of indices such as Customer’s Satisfaction. Alternatively, he suggested constructing a new indicator to show how the quality and type of goods and services have evolved.

The “Ask: NUS Economists” column is a monthly series by the NUS Economics Department. Each month, a panel will address a topical issue.

Click here to read the article.