Superstatistics of Labour Productivity in Manufacturing and Nonmanufacturing Sectors

TL;DR

This paper applies superstatistics to analyze labour productivity distributions across manufacturing and nonmanufacturing sectors, introducing a new demand index and revealing power-law behaviors and sector-specific phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces the demand index within the superstatistics framework and extends the analysis to nonmanufacturing sectors, highlighting new phenomena requiring expanded theoretical models.

Findings

Power-law distributions observed for firms and workers

The demand index κ is effective in manufacturing sector analysis

Novel nonmanufacturing sector phenomena suggest negative temperature superstatistics

Abstract

Labour productivity distribution (dispersion) is studied both theoretically and empirically. Superstatistics is presented as a natural theoretical framework for productivity. The demand index $\kappa$ is proposed within this framework as a new business index. Japanese productivity data covering small-to-medium to large firms from 1996 to 2006 is analyzed and the power-law for both firms and workers is established. The demand index $\kappa$ is evaluated in the manufacturing sector. A new discovery is reported for the nonmanufacturing (service) sector, which calls for expansion of the superstatistics framework to negative temperature range.