Productivity growth is the key driver of living standards over the long run. Over the past 30 years, labour productivity growth has accounted for around 80 per cent of growth in real income per capita in Australia. Addressing the productivity slowdown observed since the mid‑2000s will be important to achieving long-run policy objectives.

This edition of the Treasury Round Up looks at a range of issues that affect productivity in the Australian economy.

The edition contains five articles:

1. Understanding productivity in Australia and the global slowdown – an overview of the productivity slowdown and why productivity growth is important for rising living standards
2. Competition in Australia and its impact on productivity growth – how competition drives productivity growth via more innovative and dynamic markets
3. How dispersed are new technologies in the Australian job market – the diffusion and adoption of new technologies in Australia
4. Why the real wages of graduates with bachelor’s degrees have fallen – the causes of the fall in real wages for graduates over the 2010s
5. Children and the gender earnings gap – the increase in the gender earnings gap due to parenthood.