In: Economics
Explain how an increase in the productivity of labour would affect the demand for labour in: (a) the short-run (b) the long-run.
In short run, an improvement in labor productivity causes an
increased demand for labor. It just sounds wrong.because if
productivity increases, firm won't need as much labor to produce
given amount of output as they produced before. So labor demand
will fall. So increase in labor productivity has a potential to
reduce employment growth in the economy. Because firm will be able
to satisfy demand using fewer workers to given output. If overall
demand in the economy has not expanded, then an increase in labor
productivity could lead to fall in employment level in short
run.
In long run, firm want to produce higher amount of output. So
increase in labor productivity results rising labour demand. As a
result output and employment will be higher. The increase in demand
for labor will tend to boost labor wages. At higher wages labor
will increase their labor supply. As additional workers employed
marginal productivity of labor will diminish greater than labor
wages. It will reduce the demand for labor in long run.