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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2008‒01‒05
eleven papers chosen by |
| By: | Fukunishi, Takahiro |
| Abstract: | It has been argued that the slow growth of productivity is one of critical sources of stagnation of the African manufacturing sector but empirical supports are limited. Using the inter-regional firm data of the garment industries, productive efficiency and its contribution to unit costs are compared between Kenya and Bangladesh which is the one of the largest exporters in the world. Our estimates have indicated that there is no clear gap in the average technical efficiency of the two industries despite conservative estimation, while allocative efficiency is significantly lower in the Kenyan industry. Unit costs greatly differ between the two industries, where impact of inefficiency on unit costs is small and labour cost appears to have the largest impact. Productivity accounts little for the stagnation in the garment industry. |
| Keywords: | Technical efficiency, Allocative efficiency, Manufacturing, Sub-Saharan Africa, Productivity, Manufacturing industries, Kenya, Bangladesh |
| JEL: | D24 L67 O33 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper129&r=eff |
| By: | Jozef Konings; Hylke Vandenbussche |
| Abstract: | We analyze the relationship between Antidumping (AD) Protection and the productivity of EU domestic firms in import-competing industries. For this purpose we identify a panel of domestic firms between 1993 and 2003 that at some point during this period are affected by AD initiations. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find that AD measures result in improvements of measured productivity for domestic firms. Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of protected firms increases by 2% in the short-run and by 5% to 13% in the long-run. However, there is substantial heterogeneity across firms. The effect of protection depends on the initial “distance-to-the-frontier firm” in the industry. While protection raises TFP of “laggard” domestic firms, it lowers TFP for “efficient” firms that operate close to the efficiency frontier. These results are consistent with recent theoretical work supporting the view that trade policy, under certain conditions, can induce technological catching-up. While this paper evaluates the effectiveness of AD policy it does not engage in a welfare analysis. |
| Keywords: | Total Factor Productivity, Antidumping protection, technological catching-up |
| JEL: | F13 L41 O30 C2 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:19607&r=eff |
| By: | Paloma López-García (Banco de España); Sergio Puente (Banco de España); Ángel Luis Gómez (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | We have constructed a new database aimed at the study of the relation between firm demography and labour productivity, with a large number of Spanish firms from both industry and service sectors. This database allows us to analyze in detail the degree of dispersion and persistence of productivity levels, as well as the contribution of firm demography to productivity growth. This analysis has been done at different levels of sector aggregation. We have also studied explicitly the differential role of small and large firms. |
| Keywords: | entry and exit, micro-data, labour productivity |
| JEL: | D24 J24 L11 L25 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:0739&r=eff |
| By: | Alex Coad (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, Max Planck Institute of Economics - Evolutionary Economics Group); Tom Broekel (Max Planck Institute of Economics - Evolutionary Economics Group) |
| Abstract: | This paper offers new insights into the processes of firm growth by applying a reduced form vector autoregression (VAR) model to longitudinal panel data on French manufacturing firms (1996-2004). We observe the co-evolution of key variables such as growth of employment, sales, and gross operating surplus, as well as growth of multifactor productivity. It seems that employment growth is negatively associated with subsequent growth of productivity. This latter result, however, is sensitive to our choice of productivit indicator, i.e. multifactor productivity or labour productivity. |
| Keywords: | Firms growth, Panel VAR, productivity growth, industrial dynamics, non-parametric frontier analysis. |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00200086_v1&r=eff |
| By: | Alex Coad (Max Planck Institute of Economics et Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Tom Broekel (Max Planck Institute of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper offers new insights into the processes of firm growth by applying a reduced form vector autoregression (VAR) model to longitudinal panel data on French manufacturing firms (1996-2004). We observe the co-evolution of key variables such as growth of employment, sales, and gross operating surplus, as well as growth of multifactor productivity. It seems that employment growth is negatively associated with subsequent growth of productivity. This latter result, however, is sensitive to our choice of productivit indicator, i.e. multifactor productivity or labour productivity. |
| Keywords: | Firm growth, Panel VAR, productivity growth, industrial dynamics, non-parametric frontier analysis. |
| JEL: | L25 L20 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:r07072&r=eff |
| By: | Alfons Palangkaraya (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Jongsay Yong (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | We study the link between exporting and productivity using unpublished establishment level data of the Australian manufacturing from 1994 to 2000. We find there is significant difference in the first moment as well as the whole distribution of productivity between exporters and non-exporters. At the mean level, the average productivity differentials between Australian exporters and non-exporters are comparable to that of, for examples, the United States, Germany, or Taiwan. More importantly, as also found in almost all other countries, we find that the bigger and more productive firms appear to self-select into the export market. In addition, we also find that a higher intensity and longer period of export market exposure is associated with a higher level of productivity, indicating a possible learning-by-exporting effect. JEL Classification: D21; F21 |
| Keywords: | Productivity; Exports, Australia; Manufacturing; Establishment; Exit; Employment. |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n04&r=eff |
| By: | Arkadiusz Wisniowski (Warsaw School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We employ Bayesian approach to the analysis of economic growth in Poland. The results of estimation of a stochastic frontier model applied to production function of Polish voivodships in 2000 - 2004 are presented. Stochastic frontier approach allows to decompose growth into technological change, input change and efficiency change. In order to compute the posterior characteristics of the growth components we employ the Gibbs MCMC sampler. |
| Keywords: | Bayesian analysis, Gibbs sampler, economic growth, stochastic frontier analysis |
| JEL: | C11 C33 O49 |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wse:wpaper:23&r=eff |
| By: | Sparber, Chad (Department of Economics, Colgate University) |
| Abstract: | This paper employs industry-level US Census data from 1980-2000 to assess the aggregate effects of racial diversity. While most international accounts find that diversity reduces productivity, I argue that the US experience is more nuanced. Unqualified statements about the costs and merits of diversity are unwarranted, as racial heterogeneity increases productivity within many, but not all, industries. Sectors employing a large number of workers responsible for creative decision-making and customer service experience gains from diversity, while industries characterized by high levels of group effort suffer losses. The results thus reconcile two competing literatures by suggesting that diversity improves decision-making and problem solving, but also encumbers common action and public goods provision. |
| Keywords: | Racial Diversity, Productivity |
| JEL: | O40 J24 O51 |
| Date: | 2007–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgt:wpaper:2007-02&r=eff |
| By: | Anup Kumar Bhandari (Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata); Subhash C. Ray (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | The Indian textiles industry is now at the crossroads with the phasing out of quota regime that prevailed under the Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) until the end of 2004. In the face of a full integration of the textiles sector in the WTO, maintaining and enhancing productive efficiency is a precondition for competitiveness of the Indian firms in the new liberalized world market. In this paper we use data obtained from the Annual Survey of Industries for a number of years to measure the levels of technical efficiency in the Indian textiles industry at the firm level. We use both a grand frontier applicable to all firms and a group frontier specific to firms from any individual state, ownership, or organization type in order to evaluate their efficiencies. This permits us to separately identify how locational, proprietary, and organizational characteristics of a firm affect its performance. |
| Keywords: | Data Envelopment Analysis; Meta-Frontier; Technology Closeness ratio |
| JEL: | L67 C61 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2007-49&r=eff |
| By: | Joshua Drucker; Edward Feser |
| Abstract: | In a seminal article, Benjamin Chinitz (1961) focused attention on the effects that industry size, structure, and economic diversification have on firm performance and regional economies. He also raised a related but conceptually distinct question that has been overlooked since: how does the extent to which a regional industry is concentrated in a single or small number of firms impact the performance of other local firms within that industry? He suggested that such regional industrial dominance may impact input prices, limit capital accessibility, deter entrepreneurial activity, and reduce the regional availability of agglomeration economies such as specialized labor and supply pools In this paper, we use an establishment-level production function to quantify the links between industrial dominance, agglomeration economies, and firm performance. We consider two questions. First, do greater levels of regional industrial dominance lead to lower economic performance by small, dominated manufacturing plants? Second, are small plants in dominated regional industries more limited in capturing regional agglomeration benefits and therefore do they face rigidities in deploying production factors to maximum advantage? Our results suggest that regional industrial organization does influence productivity but that the effect tends to be a direct one, rather than an indirect effect via its influence on agglomeration economies. |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:07-31&r=eff |
| By: | Katleen Van den Broeck (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Carol Newman (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin); Finn Tarp (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | In most of the empirical literature on land titling, the household is regarded as unitary, and land rights are found to have ambiguous effects on land allocation, investment and productivity. Using data from 12 provinces in Vietnam, we diversify land titles, and show in a household fixed effects analysis of plot level rice yields that land titles are indeed important. Only exclusively held titles have the expected positive effects, and the positive effect on yields is found in male headed households. Furthermore, a household level rice yield function reveals that exclusive user rights are inefficiency decreasing, while jointly held user rights have no efficiency effects. Finally, once the gender of the head of household is controlled for, exclusively held female titles have a greater positive effect on the efficiency of the household than that of male held titles. |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuiedp:0732&r=eff |