This is the first paper in a series of three papers that lays the groundwork for the Commission’s approach and work program on productivity in South Australia.

The paper is organised as follow. 

• Section 2 reviews the concept of productivity. 
• Section 3 discusses the importance of productivity, and its links to living standards. 
• Section 4 examines the key drivers of labour productivity. 
• Section 5 discusses the key measurement issues of productivity. 
• Section 6 concludes the paper 

The second paper will analyse South Australia’s productivity performance within the context of the framework set out in this paper and highlight the State’s productivity challenge. The third paper will discuss the distribution of productivity gains.