Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mmarq 1517 days ago
Productivity doesn’t only depend on hard work, but also on many other factors, such as capital intensity and institutions.

One example that comes to mind is that in the UK I get a new laptop every other year and whatever software licence or training I may need. My brother in Italy was given a 5 year old laptop that would crash every other hour and his budget for software and training was 0. The result is that he used to work twice as hard as me, while being half productive.

EDIT: if you want data, compare the GDP for hour worked in Italy with Germany or the US: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_labour_...

1 comments

> EDIT: if you want data, compare the GDP for hour worked in Italy with Germany or the US: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_labour_... That's what they get paid, not what they produce
No:

> Labor productivity is the gross domestic product generated per hour of working time.