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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2009‒02‒22
eleven papers chosen by |
| By: | Manello Alessandro (Ceris - Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth, Moncalieri (Turin), Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at analyzing trends in TFP and labour productivity growth. Data Envelopment Analysis is used to estimate a technological frontier and to compare all nations to it. The estimation of Malmquist productivity index as TFP indicators allows to decompose labour productivity growth in efficiency change, technical progress and capital accumulation. This framework is used in the convergence analysis to investigate the role of every single component in the process. The results in term of ß-convergence are compared to other studies, to the evidence of s-convergence analysis and to the results obtained by kernel distribution. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, TFP, Convergence, DEA, Efficiency, Technical Progress |
| JEL: | O33 O47 O57 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csc:cerisp:200807&r=eff |
| By: | Michele Imbruno |
| Abstract: | The ongoing process of international economic integration has induced several academic researchers and policy makers to deepen increasingly issues about the relationship between international trade and economic growth. More in particular, the attention is increasingly focusing on the link between exporting and firm performance, acknowledging the extreme relevance of 'firm heterogeneity'. This paper investigates empirically the exporting-productivity linkage in the Italian manufacturing sector, following a brief overview of recent literature. By using firm-level panel data for the years 2000 and 2003, we find that exporters are more productive than non-exporters and this productivity gap could be due to the self-selection mechanism – solely the high-performance firms are able to serve foreign markets – rather than post-entry effects. |
| Keywords: | Trade, Productivity, Heterogeneous firms, Self-selection, Learning-byexporting. |
| JEL: | D21 F14 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ufg:qdsems:21-2008&r=eff |
| By: | Coccia Mario (Ceris - Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth, Moncalieri (Turin), Italy) |
| Abstract: | Governments in modern economies devote much policy attention to enhancing productivity and continue to emphasize its drivers such as investment in R&D. This paper analyzes the relationship between productivity growth and levels of public and private R&D expenditures. The economic analysis shows that the magnitude of R&D expenditure by business enterprise equal to 1.58% (% of GDP) and R&D expenditure of government and higher education of 1.06 (% of GDP) maximize the long-run impact on productivity growth. These optimal rates are the key to sustain productivity and technology improvements that are more and more necessary to modern economic growth. |
| Keywords: | R&D investment, Productivity growth, Optimization |
| JEL: | E60 H50 O40 O57 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csc:cerisp:200805&r=eff |
| By: | C. Veeramani (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research) |
| Abstract: | Knowledge accumulation in the richer countries provides them with comparative advantages in higher productivity products. The countries that import the higher productivity intermediate products and capital equipments produced in the richer countries, however, derive benefits from knowledge spillovers. The empirical analysis in this paper shows that what type of intermediate goods and capital equipments a country imports and from where it imports indeed matters for its long-run growth. Using highly disaggregated trade data for a large number of countries, we construct an index (denoted as IMPY) that measures the productivity level associated with a country's imports. Using instrumental variable method (to address the endogeneity problems), we find that a higher initial value of the IMPY index (for the year 1995) leads to a faster growth rate of income per capita in the subsequent years (during 1995-2005) and vice versa. The results imply that a 10 increase in IMPY increases growth by about 1.3 to 1.9 percentage points, which is quite large. |
| Keywords: | Imports, Intermediate and Capital Goods, Economic Growth, Productivity |
| JEL: | F10 F43 O40 O47 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2008-029&r=eff |
| By: | Michele Imbruno |
| Abstract: | The potential linkage between international trade and economic growth is always at the core of large and intense debates amongst academic researchers and policy makers. Recently, the attention is increasingly moving towards the exporting-productivity relationship, acknowledging the important role played by the heterogeneous firms and the trade policy. After having provided an overview of the recent theoretical and empirical literature – by focusing especially on Meltiz-Ottaviano model (2008) – this paper is aimed at investigating empirically the link between exporting and firm productivity in Italy within the context of European integration. By using a panel of Italian manufacturing firms for the years 2000 and 2003, we document coherently with the theory that: firstly, exporters turn out to have a higher performance than firms solely oriented to the home market; and secondly, the average firm productivity is higher as the industry export propensity towards more integrated European markets is considered. |
| Keywords: | Exporting, Productivity, Heterogeneous firms, European integration. |
| JEL: | D21 F14 F15 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ufg:qdsems:22-2008&r=eff |
| By: | Enjing Li; Paavo Suni; Yanyun Zhao |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : This study focuses on the labour cost competitiveness of fabricated metal industry in China and Finland in particular, using the corresponding German, the US and Estonian industries as a point of comparison in the early 2000s. This study deepens the analysis of the earlier study of the cost competitiveness of the manufacturing industries in the same group of countries. Separate studies focusing on the labour cost competitiveness are carried out in a parallel manner on the paper and pulp and metal industries. The results of these three sector studies deepen the knowledge about the change of competitiveness and its level. Large unit labour cost differences in a common currency were obviously a key factor behind exceptionally rapidly changing international production and trade structures in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Chinese fabricated metal industry grew by about 22 per cent per year in 2000-2007 as the average annual growth of the value added of world manufacturing volume was only 3 per cent in 2000-2006. Nominal wages as such do not imply good international competitiveness. Chinese wages are, however, low even if their low labour productivity is taken into account and costs per unit of production are compared in a common currency. The relative levels of the Chinese unit labour costs vis-à-vis Germany, using the unit value ratios (UVR) to make the production volumes comparable, were estimated to be about 2 per cent in the fabricated metal industry. The ratio has even declined in early 2000s and has stayed relatively stable after that till 2007. Improving labour productivity in China had compensated for the effects of rapidly rising wages and an appreciating Renminbi. The outlook of the fabricated metal industry is clouded by the difficult global financial crisis, which strongly restricts export possibilities and dampens also the domestic markets of industry. On the other hand the stimulus packages of the government target especially the key demand sectors of the fabricated metal industry. |
| Keywords: | competitiveness, unit value ratio, UVR, fabricated metal industry, NACE 28 |
| Date: | 2008–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1172&r=eff |
| By: | Claudia Kemfert; Hans Kremers |
| Abstract: | This paper applies the concept of damage coefficients introduced in Houba and Kremers (2008) to provide an estimate of the cost of climate change - in particular the cost of changes in mean regional temperature and precipitation - to the fruit vegetation sector. We concentrate on the production of apples in the German 'Alte Land' region. The estimated cost of climate change on apple-growing in the 'Alte Land' is dependent on the assumptions regarding developments in the rentability of land not related to climate change in the fruit sector. |
| Keywords: | fruit vegetation, Alte Land, climate change, land productivity, land rentability, cost of climate change |
| JEL: | D01 D21 D24 D61 D62 Q12 Q24 Q51 Q54 R32 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp857&r=eff |
| By: | Greta Falavigna (Ceris - Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth, Moncalieri (Turin), Italy) |
| Abstract: | In the last decades, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been deeply studied. Many researchers focused on the best social report form underlining advantages, and they shown that these documents follow more and more often balance-sheets. This work analyses the relation between the writing of social report and both with the profitability and with the technical efficiency. The outcomes suggest that Corporate Social Responsibility improves firm profitability and expands firm market share. Moreover, the relation between the writing of social report and technical efficiency shows that firms interested in Corporate Social Responsibility are also the most efficient, from a technical point of view. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Firm technical efficiency, Firm profitability, Data Envelopment Analysis, Bootstrap |
| JEL: | B21 C14 L20 Z13 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csc:cerisp:200810&r=eff |
| By: | Du, Jun; Girma, Sourafel |
| Abstract: | Using a comprehensive firm-level dataset spanning the period 1998-2005, this paper provides a thorough investigation of the relationship between firm size, total factor productivity growth and financial structure in China, controlling for the endogeneity of the latter. Generally, it finds financing source matters for firms of different size, and the extent to which financing source matters for firm growth is greater for small firms than big firms. Self-raised finance appears to be most effective in promoting small firms to grow, and bank loan seems to be more supportive to big firms. The relationship between size, finance and growth also depends on ownership. In addition, there exist strong complementarities between formal and informal finance, as well as between indigenous and foreign finance. |
| Keywords: | China, finance, firm size, growth |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:rp2009-03&r=eff |
| By: | Thang, N.; Buyens, D. (Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews theory and empirical findings on the relationship between training and firm performance. We describe the various important theoretical approaches and proposed a framework for analyzing training and firm performance issues. Data from previous studies is used to assess the effects of training on firm performance. The research results show that training has a positive and significant impact on firm performance. Finally, we identify the limitations of these previous studies and directions for future research on this topic. |
| Keywords: | Training; Human resource outcomes; Firm performance |
| Date: | 2008–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vlg:vlgwps:2009-01&r=eff |
| By: | Tatsuyoshi Miyakoshi (Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University); Pekka Ilmakunnas (Helsinki School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to investigate what decreases TFP, why TFP has decreased in some countries and how large the decreases of TFP are. We focus on the quality of labor and capital inputs and use cross country data for the manufacturing industries of some OECD countries. We provide a comprehensive empirical investigation based on two hypotheses, substitutability and complementarity of labor input age and skill categories. Further, we provide an aging index, which tells how much the share of ICT capital should be increased to counterbalance decreases of TFP caused by the aging of the labor input. |
| Keywords: | TFP; quality of labor and capital, substitutability and complementarity of age and skill groups, aging index |
| JEL: | O11 J00 J80 O40 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0903&r=eff |