Australia's bid to close a major economic gap with the United States may rest in the hands of the office boss.
A new Productivity Commission report shows Australia remains far behind the US when measuring national wealth per hours worked.
The typical Australian worker takes five days to produce what their US counterparts would achieve in four, the commission said.
Australia's distance from other countries and the nation's low population density - making it less competitive in manufacturing - are only part of the cause.
The disadvantages count less for its services sector, which make up most of the national economy.
Despite being less constrained by distance, Australian service industries are up to 60 per cent less productive than in the US, the nation held up in the report as "the productivity frontier".
Australia could close some of the productivity gap if its bosses improved their skills managing businesses, the Productivity Commission report said.
The skills of Australian bosses in digital management are particularly weak, it said.
"The pervasive importance of digital technology through the economy - across both goods and service sectors - suggests improvement in management capability may yield substantial improvements in productivity over time," the report said.
It was one of many factors the national economic advisory body said could make Australia more innovative, a goal that would drive productivity growth the most in the long run.
Education was another driver, but Australia's downward trend in school achievement was "cause for concern", the report said.
"It is, and should be, a focus for policy attention," it said.
"Nonetheless, there is little reason to believe that differing levels of educational attainment are contributing to the present productivity gap with the US."
Lifelong skills, and cities that linked skilled workers to jobs, would also become more important as Australia's economy became more service-driven.
"Overall, there is reason to believe that Australia's underlying innovative capability is strong, but could be improved," the report said.
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"Although it is not an obvious source of the gap between Australian and US productivity levels, it might still provide some indication as to where Australia's focus should be in lifting productivity growth."
While Australia has one of the world's highest living standards, and some of its longest hours worked per person, the nation is further behind the US in productivity levels than in the 1970s and early 1980s.
The national economic advisory body has found in previous reports Australia's productivity growth has slowed, although not as much as many other developed countries.
