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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2005‒07‒11
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Marcela Meléndez; Katja Seim; Pablo Medina |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effects on Colombian manufacturing productivity of tax and foreign trade policy changes during the 1990s. Our results indicate that between 1977 and 1999, aggregate manufacturing productivity largely stagnates and even declines in some of the larger industries. There is little entry and exit of plants or reallocation of labor. The productivity stagnation can be explained by this lack of liquidation of unproductive plants combined with slow technological advance. Dynamics vary significantly across sub-sectors, however, and our findings attribute this variation primarily to within-sector output reallocation. The importance of industrial policy is large. Sector-level productivity declines coincide with protectionist policies in the form of import tariffs or beneficial tax treatments, while higher productivity levels are correlated with sectors’ increasing foreign exposure. Our finding of small productivity effects of preferential treatments further points to the insignificant role played by output reallocation across plants in stimulating productivity growth. |
| Keywords: | Productivity dynamics |
| JEL: | C14 |
| Date: | 2003–08–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001049&r=eff |
| By: | Martha Patricia Cruz; Eduardo Uribe; Harold Coronado |
| Abstract: | Este estudio considera el valor de la productividad marginal del agua en la industria manufacturera colombiana. Su estimación se realiza con información proveniente de aquellos establecimientos industriales que reportaron algún consumo de agua como materia prima, agregados a cuatro dígitos CIIU, en la Encuesta Anual Manufacturera (EAM), durante el periodo 1992 - 1999. A través de la estimación de una función de producción Trans Log, donde el agua (W) se incluye como un insumo fundamental, al igual que el trabajo (L), el capital (K) y la energía (E), se deriva el valor privado de la productividad marginal del agua para cada uno de los sectores industriales seleccionados. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que muchos de los sectores industriales, considerados intensivos en el uso de agua, han logrado reducir notablemente sus costos de acceso el recurso (extracción, tratamiento y distribución) y muestran una baja disponibilidad marginal privada a pagar por el uso de agua como materia prima (DAPMgW). Este es el caso del sector de Alimentos (DAPMgW entre $1,125/m3/mes y $4,177/m3/mes), Bebidas (DAPMgW entre $364/m3/mes y $1,184/m3/mes), Textiles (DAPMgW $1,233 m3/mes y $2,222 m3/mes), Metalurgia (DAPMgW entre $403 m3/mes y $450 m3/mes) y Sustancias Químicas (DAPMgW entre $577 m3/mes y $1,958 m3/mes). Este hecho ha favorecido tanto el incremento en el consumo de agua proveniente de fuentes propias (legales o no), como el pago de un precio muy bajo por el uso del agua que no tiene en cuenta el problema de escasez relativa que enfrenta el recurso. El cobro de una tasa por utilización del agua (TUA), que tenga en cuenta la disponibilidad marginal a pagar privada por el uso de agua como un insumo, puede hacer que este recurso natural de dominio público se distribuya de manera más eficiente entre las diferentes actividades industriales del sector manufacturero, más aún si se tiene en cuenta que este estudio encontró que la elasticidad precio propia del agua como materia prima se encuentra alrededor de -1. |
| Keywords: | productividad marginal |
| JEL: | L60 |
| Date: | 2003–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001067&r=eff |
| By: | Poltavets Ivan |
| Abstract: | Belief that competition is beneficial in general and for productive efficiency in particular is likely to root in competition's well established and rigorously proved positive relation to the optimal allocation of economic resources. This paper looking at the production side of the economy attempts to provide another argument in favor of competition as a productivity enhancing mechanism or to raise the issue of the importance of competition in a transition context. The author suggests an alternative view of the subject, which is merely 'traditional' in the literature devoted to transition economies, by indirect testing of the competition effect on the individual firms' productivity. The project strives to test the relationship between the level of competition and variance of technical efficiency of individual enterprises. |
| Keywords: | Ukraine, competition, market structure, productivity, efficiency. |
| JEL: | L11 L16 D24 C51 |
| Date: | 2005–07–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eer:wpalle:05-09e&r=eff |
| By: | Tsutomu Miyagawa; Yukie Sakuragawa; Miho Takizawa |
| Abstract: | Constructing thirty-seven industries database, we examines whether measured productivity in Japan is procyclical and investigates the sources of that procyclicality using the production function approach employed by Hall (1990) and Basu and Fernald (1995). At the aggregate level, the measured Solow residual shows procyclicality. Large numbers of industries show constant returns to scale. No significant evidence for the presence of thick-market externalities is found. Our results also hold when we consider labor hoarding, part-time employment, and the adjustment cost of investment. The results suggest policies to revitalize the Japanese economy should concentrate on promoting productivity growth. |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:05022&r=eff |
| By: | Areendam Chanda (Louisiana State University); Carl-Johan Dalgaard (University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that a significant part of measured total factor productivity (TFP) differences across countries is attributable not to technological factors that affect the entire economy neutrally, but rather, to variations in the structural composition of economies. In particular, the allocation of scarce inputs between agriculture and non- agriculture is important. We provide a framework which maps the composition of the economy to measured aggregate TFP. A decomposition analysis suggests that as much as 85 percent of the international variation in TFP can be attributed to the composition of output. Estimation exercises indicate that recent findings of the conduciveness of good institutions, and, to some extent trade, on levels of TFP, may be thus explained. |
| Keywords: | Development Accounting, Dual Economy, Structural Change, Total Factor Productivity, Institutions, Geography, Multisector Growth Models |
| JEL: | O41 O47 O50 |
| Date: | 2005–07–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0507003&r=eff |