Factors Influencing Labor Productivity in Modern Economies: A Review and Qualitative Text Analysis

Abstract

We conduct a semi-systematic literature review and a qualitative text analysis of 141 publications on labor productivity. We have identified 12 factors that play a leading role in economic research of labor productivity: (i) agglomerations effect; (ii) business cycles and market selection; (iii) cross-country institutional differences; (iv) environmental aspects; (v) foreign direct investment (FDI); (vi) globalization and international trade; (vii) global value chains (GVC); (viii) human capital; (ix) information and communications technology (ICT); (x) labor allocation; (xi) R&D and innovation; (xii) regional differences. When it comes to the quotes count, the most prominent factor is (xi) R&D, followed by (vi) globalization and (viii) human capital. When it comes to the co-occurrence and c-coefficient, the most prominent factor is (viii) human capital, closely followed by (i) agglomerations, then either (xi) R&D or (vi) globalization. Network analysis reveals two communities, the bigger one centered around (i) agglomerations, and the smaller one centered around (vi) globalization.