Macroeconomics 12th Edition by Rudiger Dornbusch ,Stanley Fischer,Richard Startz

Exercise 9

On the Bureau of Labor Statistics website ( www.bls.gov ) mouse over "International" under "Subject Areas." Click on "International Labor Comparisons." Scroll down the page to find "More Tools" and click on "Series Report." Enter the following four data series numbers, one on each line (press enter after each series number) in the box given: INU0002UK0, INU0025UK0, INU0024UK0, INU0005UK0. Click "Next" and select 1950 as the start year and 2011 as the end year.
a. Set up an EXCEL file from the manufacturing data given between 1950-2011. Shown below is what series each series number corresponds to:
INU0002UK0: Manufacturing Output Index
INU0025UK0: Manufacturing Average Hours Index
INU0024UK0: Manufacturing Employment Index
INU0005UK0: Manufacturing Output per Hour Index
These indexes give us the evolution of output, hours, and employment in the manufacturing sector. For example, if the manufacturing output index increased from 110.0 in 2003 to 112.1 in 2004, one can conclude that manufacturing output rose by 1.9 percent in 2004 [(112.1 2 110.0)/110.0 3 100].
b. What happened to manufacturing output, employment, and average hours worked by an employee in the period 1950-2011 What factors could lead to an increase in total manufacturing output, while employment and average hours worked fell considerably