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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2010‒11‒13
24 papers chosen by |
| By: | Andrew Sharpe; Eric Thomson |
| Abstract: | This report presents new estimates of the levels and growth rates of labour, capital and multifactor productivity for the Canadian provinces by industry for the 1997-2007 period at the market sector, two-digit, and three-digit NAICS industry levels. Also, estimates of the sources of labour productivity growth (capital intensity, labour quality, and multifactor productivity) are presented. Furthermore, this report examines the labour productivity gap between the provinces and the Canadian average. The report closes with a provincial and industry-level perspective on Alberta‘s relative productivity performance. |
| Keywords: | productivity, labour productivity, multifactor productivity, capital productivity, labour productivity growth, capital intensity, labour quality, Canada, Alberta, industry |
| JEL: | J01 J24 D24 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:1006&r=eff |
| By: | Miaojie Yu (China Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores how processing trade, jointly with tariff reduction, can improve a firm's productivity. Tariff reductions generate productivity gain via competition, whereas processing export does so via spillovers. Using mostly disaggregated Chinese product-level trade data and firm-level production data from 2000--2006, after constructing firm-level tariffs based on product information and controlling for possible endogeneity, I found that a 10% tariff decrease generates a 12% increase in a firm's productivity gain. In addition, processing firms enjoy significant productivity gains via spillovers, with heterogeneity across firms divided according to ownership. These findings are robust to various econometric methods, disaggregated specifications, and measures. |
| Keywords: | Processing Trade, Productivity, Firmís Heterogeneity, Chinese Plants |
| JEL: | F1 L1 O1 O2 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:tradew:2337&r=eff |
| By: | Bezabih, Mintewab; Holden, Stein |
| Abstract: | The importance of providing secure land rights to smallholder farmers in developing countries is now widely recognized. In line with this, our paper analyzes the impact of land certification on boosting productivity of female-headed households in Ethiopia, which are believed to be systematically more tenure insecure than their male counterparts. Based on parametric and semi-parametric analyses, the impact of certification on plot-level productivity is positive and significant. However, certification has different impacts on male and female productivity: male-headed households gain significantly and women gain only modestly. Hence, the results indicate that, while certification is clearly beneficial to farm-level productivity, it does not necessarily lead to more gains for female-headed households. |
| Keywords: | productivity, female-headed households, land certification |
| JEL: | D2 Q12 Q15 |
| Date: | 2010–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-10-23-efd&r=eff |
| By: | Baghana, Rufin (Ministère des Finances, Québec) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses empirically the impacts of public R&D grants on private R&D investments and on the productivity growth of the manufacturing firms in a context where fiscal incentives are present. Using the conditional semiparametric differenceindifferences estimator on longitudinal data from Quebec we show that firms that use public grants for R&D in conjunction with tax credits for R&D perform better in terms of R&D input additionality than firms that use only tax credits for R&D. We then use a production function to assess the effectiveness of public R&D grants in the productivity growth of firms. We find that for each additional dollar of public R&D grant, output increases by 0.134 dollars. We conclude that the additional return of direct subsidies is positive but lower than the return on the R&D financed by own funds or R&D tax credits. |
| Keywords: | R&D, Public subsidies, Quebec, Productivity, Difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | H25 O32 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2010055&r=eff |
| By: | Lahcen Achy (INSEA); Samy Ben Naceur; Adel Ben Youssef; Samir Ghazouani |
| Abstract: | The aim of the present paper is to analyze the impacts of the upgrading policies adopted by Morocco for almost ten years. We apply the stochastic frontier approach initiated by Battese and Coelli (1995) to a panel of 282 firms from Morocco during the period [1998–2005]. Such parametric methodology leads to estimating the technical efficiency for Moroccan firms and we obtain an average of no more that 13.3 percent, which is considered very low. Yet what is important is the possibility to conduct, in a second stage, an evaluation of the impact of some environmental factors on pure technical efficiency. In this sense, improvement of technical efficiency is detected for firms which have officially subscribed in the upgrading process. |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:565&r=eff |
| By: | Lööf, Hans (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology); Johansson, Börje (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Firms display persistent differences as regards both internal and external characteristics, and these differences correspond to asymmetries in the performance of firms with regard to productivity level and growth as well as innovativeness. This paper focuses on one internal characteristic and one external factor by distinguishing between firms with persistent R&D efforts and other firms and firms located in a metropolitan region versus firms with other locations. Applying Swedish data on individual firms and their location, the paper shows that firms that follow a strategy with persistent R&D efforts have a distinctly higher level of productivity across all types of location. In addition, the productivity level of firms with persistent R&D is augmented in a significant way when such firms have a metropolitan location and, in particular, a location in a metropolitan city |
| Keywords: | R&D; innovation-strategy; productivity; metropolitan; externalities |
| JEL: | C23 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2010–11–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0242&r=eff |
| By: | Vinish Kathuria |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies on total factor productivity growth (TFPG) in developing countries highlight trade openness, research and development and market structure as being the most important determinants of TFPG. The role of human capital remains overlooked in the literature on the determinants of TFPG of Indian manufacturing sector. In this paper, we look into the role of human capital formation as proxied by literacy rate in influencing TFPG, using Indian manufacturing as a case-study. To compute TFPG, we use firm level data for both the formal and informal manufacturing sector. We correct for the simultaneity bias associated with the production function approach for TFPG estimation by employing a method recently developed by Levinsohn and Petrin. We compute period-average adult literacy rate for 15 Indian States over the period 1994-2005, and then use them in TFP growth equations to estimate the effect of literacy on TFPG. The results indicate that literacy has positively affected the TFP growth of Indian industry. The effect however is primarily for the formal sector. |
| Keywords: | literacy rate, TFP, TFP, manufacturing, industrial economics, Economics, state-business Relation, Productivity growth, Formal sector, Informal sector, Levinsohn-Petrin method, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:3118&r=eff |
| By: | Lakner, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates regional cluster of organic grassland farms with respect to technical efficiency. The data-base consists of organic grassland and mixed farms in Germany from 1994/95 to 2005/06. In a first step five inputs and one output are analyzed by means of a stochastic frontier production function, allowing for heteroscedasticity and technical effects. The selection of determinants of technical efficiency is based on location theory. Since organic farming has regional centers, technical efficiency (TE) of organic farms is found to be affected by regional variables (such as agglomeration effects). In a second step we identified regional clusters of organic farms and analyzed the technical efficiency of the regional clusters. The results show that organic farms in distinct regions show different efficiency performance - suggesting that there are agglomeration and urbanization effects in the organic market. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, Agglomeration Effects, Organic Farming., Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2010–10–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa116:95053&r=eff |
| By: | Forslid, Rikard (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University); Okubo, Toshihiro (Kobe University) |
| Abstract: | The present paper focuses on sorting as a mechanism behind the well-established fact that there is a central region productivity premium. Using a model of heterogeneous firms that can move between regions, Baldwin and Okubo (2006) show how more productive firms sort themselves to the large core region. We extend this model by introducing different capital intensities among firms and sectors. In accordance with empirical evidence, more productive firms are assumed to be more capital intensive. As a result, our model can produce sorting to the large regions from both ends of the productivity distribution. Firms with high capital intensity and high productivity as well as firms with very low productivity and low capital intensity tend to relocate to the core. We use region and sector productivity distributions from Japanese micro data to test the predictions of the model. Several sectors show patterns consistent with two-sided sorting, and roughly an equal number of sectors seem to primarily be driven by sorting and selection. We also find supportive evidence for our model prediction that two-sided sorting occurs in sectors with a high capital intensity. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration; firm heterogeneity; productivity; spatial sorting |
| JEL: | F12 F15 F21 R12 |
| Date: | 2010–11–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2010_0017&r=eff |
| By: | Kim, Hanho; Gopinath, Manisamy |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of trade cost changes on the spatial productivity distribution in Korea. Data on gross value added and primary factors for 163 spatial units during 2000-2005 are assembled to estimate local TFP using a value-added function. In our application, we control for agglomeration economies so as to identify factors shifting the regional raw-productivity distribution over time. The TFP estimation results show that the Korean regional economy exhibits constant returns to scale, along with significant localization economies. We find that and trade costs reduction and infrastructure improvement significantly shift to the right all percentile values of the regional productivity distribution, while amenity does not affect the movement of the distribution. An important policy implication of this study is that a country pursuing foreign market opportunities to boost economic growth and to raise incomes, like Korea, should also consider the consequent spatial realignment of resources. Also, productivity enhancements along with transfers to alleviate adjustments to trade-cost changes cannot be space blind. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration economies, spatial productivity distribution, trade cost, Community/Rural/Urban Development, F1, R3, |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa118:94896&r=eff |
| By: | Stern, David I. |
| Abstract: | This study uses a stochastic production frontier to model energy efficiency trends, in 85 countries over a 37 year period. No structure is imposed on technological change over time, although differences in technology level across the countries are modelled as a stochastic function of explanatory variables. These variables are selected by a literature survey and a theoretical model of energy-efficient technology choice. An improvement in a countryâs energy efficiency is measured as a reduction in energy intensity, while holding constant that economyâs mix of inputs and outputs. All other things remaining constant, the country using the least energy per unit output is on the global best-practice frontier. The model is used to derive decompositions of energy intensity and carbon emissions. It also examines whether there is a convergence across countries. The study shows that energy efficiency rises with increasing general total factor productivity. Energy efficiency is also higher in countries with undervalued currencies. Higher fossil fuel reserves are associated with lower energy efficiency. Energy efficiency converges over time across countries. Technological change was the most important factor counteracting the effect of economic growth in increasing global energy- use increase and carbon emissions. |
| Keywords: | Energy, efficiency, carbon, emissions, technological change, between estimator, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, O13, O33, O47, Q43, Q54, Q55, Q56, |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eerhrr:94950&r=eff |
| By: | Schaffer, Axel; Simar, Léopold; Rauland, Jan |
| Abstract: | Applying an outlier robust extension of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) followed by a geoadditive regression analysis, this study identifies and decomposes the efficiency of 439 German regions in using infrastructure and human capital. The findings show that the regions' efficiency is driven by a spatial and a non-spatial, arguably structural factor. As a consequence, concrete regional funding schemes, shaped by best practice results, might not be appropriate for all regions. Instead, a more differentiated funding scheme that accounts for both spatial and structural factors seems more promising. -- |
| Keywords: | outlier robust DEA,regional efficiency,geoadditive regression |
| JEL: | C14 R12 R15 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:kitwps:10&r=eff |
| By: | Valérie Vierstraete (GREDI, Department of Economics, Université de Sherbrooke); Eric Yergeau (Department of Vocational Guidance, Université de Sherbrooke) |
| Abstract: | Financial hardship can significantly undermine post-secondary students’ ability to attain their academic goals: completing their training and obtaining degrees with good grades. This study considers which method of financing studies—loans and bursaries from the Government, student aid granted directly by universities, scholarships or on-campus jobs, off-campus jobs or parental financial contribution—will best help students attain academic success. For these purposes, we use a non-parametric data envelopment method, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) which will enable us to determine a theoretically efficient production frontier against which the efficiency of students will be measured. Depending on the financing methods used, the conclusions of this study show efficiency differences. |
| Keywords: | Data Envelopment Analysis, efficiency, student aid, university |
| JEL: | I23 I28 |
| Date: | 2010–10–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shr:wpaper:10-24&r=eff |
| By: | Iraj Hashi; Nebojsa Stojcic |
| Abstract: | The impact of innovation on firm performance has been a matter of significant interest to economists and policy makers for decades. Although innovation is generally regarded as a means of improving the competitiveness of firms and their performance on domestic and foreign markets, this relationship has not been supported unambiguously by empirical work. Innovative activities of firms influence their performance not necessarily directly but through the production of useful innovations and increased productivity. Therefore, in recent years, the relationship between innovation and firm performance has been modelled by a multistage approach. However, the findings from existing studies differ in many respects which suggests that there is the need for further research. In this paper we employ firm level data from the fourth Community Innovation Survey (CIS4), covering some 90,000 firms in 16 West and East European countries in order to assess the drivers of the innovation process in two different institutional settings, a number of mature market economies of Western Europe and a number of advanced transition economies from Central and Eastern Europe. A four-equation model, originating in the work of Crepon et al., (1998), has been used to link the innovation decision of firms to their performance through the impact of innovation input on innovation output and the innovation output on productivity and better performance. Our findings confirm the positive relationship between innovation activities and productivity at the firm level and provide further evidence on the relationship between size and innovation activities. |
| Keywords: | innovation, firm performance, multi-stage model, Community Innovation Survey 4 |
| JEL: | O31 L25 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sec:cnstan:0410&r=eff |
| By: | Savita Bhat; N S Siddharthan |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the importance of human capital in determining the inter-state differences in labour productivity and its growth in India. The paper also examines the impact of human capital differences on the growth of employment for a cross section of Indian states for the period 2003- 2007. It argues that the current technology is human capital and knowledge intensive and cannot be used in the absence of skill development. Due to the presence of skill bias in the new technology, persons with less education would become victims. The panel model results of Generalised Least Squares using cross section weights show that after controlling for other determinants, variables representing human capital emerge significant determinants of productivity. Furthermore, higher enrolments in high schools not only contribute to higher labour productivity but also to higher growth in productivity. In addition, states that have higher high school enrolment rates have been enjoying higher growth rates of employment. On the whole the results presented show strong skill bias in productivity and employment growths across states. |
| Keywords: | human capital, skill development, technology, education, high school enrollments, productivity, Economics, Labour Economics |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:3110&r=eff |
| By: | Hussinger, Katrin |
| Abstract: | Inventors often experience a low productivity after their company has been subject to a merger or acquisition (M&As). It is of central managerial interest to identify factors facilitating the integration of new inventive staff and thereby counteracting innovation declines after M&As. This paper provides empirical evidence into the role of acquiring firms' absorptive capacity for the post-merger patent productivity of the acquired inventors. Based on a sample of 544 inventors employed by European acquisition targets in the period 2000-2001 it is shown that the post-merger productivity of acquired inventors is significantly higher within acquiring firms with a distinct absorptive capacity. It can be concluded that absorptive capacity is a firm capability that enhances the integration of inventors after firm takeovers. -- |
| Keywords: | M&As,absorptive capacity,inventor productivity |
| JEL: | O30 O32 G34 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:10066&r=eff |
| By: | Ferreira, Pedro Cavalcanti; Trejos, Alberto |
| Abstract: | We develop and calibrate a model where di¤erences in factor en-dowments lead countries to trade di¤erent goods, so that the existenceof international trade changes the sectorial composition of output fromone country to another. Gains from trade re ect in total factor produc-tivity. We perform a development decomposition, to assess the impactof trade and barriers to trade on measured TFP. In our sample, themedian size of that e¤ect is about 6.5% of output, with a median of17% and a maximum of 89%. Also, the model predicts that changes inthe terms of trade cause a change of productivity, and that e¤ect hasan average elasticity of 0.71. |
| Date: | 2010–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:epgewp:711&r=eff |
| By: | Cai, Wenbiao |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a general equilibrium model to quantitatively explain high labor share, low productivity and small farm size in agriculture in low income countries. The model features individual heterogeneity in skill that is augmentable over time and endogenous occupation choice. Calibrated to the U.S, the model can reproduce bulk of the observed variations in agriculture employment, agriculture output per worker and mean farm size across countries in the sample. In addition, the model generates endogenous farm size distributions that closely resemble the empirical counterpart for a large set of countries. Counterfactual exercises show TFP to be the main source of productivity differences. |
| Keywords: | Income differences; agricultural productivity; Skill investment; farm size distribution |
| JEL: | O11 O15 O13 O14 |
| Date: | 2010–10–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:26439&r=eff |
| By: | Campos, Monica; JakliÄ, Tina; JuvanÄiÄ, Luka |
| Abstract: | The paper is investigating the recent evolution of farm productivity in five EU New Member States (NMS): Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Poland and Slovenia. More precisely, the paper deals with determinants influencing farm productivity in a changing market and policy environment brought by their full integration to the CAP. With a combination of multivariate statistics and econometric techniques, it attempts to identify and explain the patterns of agricultural labour productivity change in the period 2003-2005. Results suggest that adjustment patterns are diverging and are region-specific, depending mainly on the initial farm structural conditions, and availability of non-farm jobs. Policy implications of the paper suggest that agricultural policy should move away from the concept of transfers to agriculture to more pro-active role in creating conditions for job creation in rural areas. |
| Keywords: | structural adjustment, farm productivity, farming types, EU-accession, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Q12, R11, |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa118:95315&r=eff |
| By: | Lorenzo Cappellari (DISCE, Università Cattolica); Carlo Dell'Aringa (DISCE, Università Cattolica); Marco Leonardi (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Aziendali e Statistiche Università degli Studi di Milano) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we provide evidence on the effects of temporary employment on job flows, labour productivity and investment. As a source of identification, we exploit reforms in the legislation of fixed-term and apprenticeships contracts whose implementation varied over regions and industries. Results indicate that the reform of apprenticeship contracts has increased the turnover of workers and has induced capital-labor substitution in favour of labour, with an overall productivity-enhancing effect. The reform of fixed-term contracts instead does not seem to have had the intended results and may have made the use of these contracts more costly rather than less costly. Ineffectiveness of the reform may also depend on firms substituting across different types of labour: we estimate elasticities of substitution that are consistent with this interpretation. |
| Keywords: | employment contracts, productivity, institutional changes |
| JEL: | J24 J41 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie4:ieil0060&r=eff |
| By: | Göbel, Christian; Zwick, Thomas |
| Abstract: | In this study, we investigate the effect of five specific human resource measures for old employees (SMOE) on their relative productivity. Despite the fact that SMOE are applied in the majority of establishments, this is the first representative study on the effectiveness of these measures. We find that the relative productivity contributions of old workers are significantly higher in establishments that provide either specific equipment of work places or age-specific jobs for old workers. In establishments that apply mixed-age working teams the productivity contributions of old and of young employees are significantly higher than in establishments without this measure. Working time reductions and specific training for old employees are not associated with higher relative productivity of these employees. Our paper provides a joint explanation for two recent findings, the only modest decline of the productivity contributions of old workers and the high variance for estimates of age-productivity profiles. -- |
| Keywords: | ageing workforce,age-productivity-profile,personnel management,HRM |
| JEL: | J11 J14 J21 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:10069&r=eff |
| By: | Enrico Marelli (Faculty of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Brescia); Marcello Signorelli (Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Economics, Finance and Statistics, University of Perugia); Joanna Tyrowicz (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, National Bank of Poland, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis) |
| Abstract: | The aim of the paper is to investigate the short-term joint dynamics of productivity and employment during the economic down cycles in the EU economies over the past 20 years. Disentangling the shift in labour demand into a change of employment-productivity schedule and a movement along it, we focus on the last 2-3 crises, highlighting the peculiarities of the last recession. Namely, we demonstrate that many of the EU countries – unlike the United States –do not follow the RBC pattern. We also suggest some possible institutional fundamentals that could explain this phenomenon. |
| Keywords: | recession, employment and productivity dynamics, RBC, labour hoarding |
| JEL: | E32 J21 J23 O47 O52 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2010-14&r=eff |
| By: | Valérie Vierstraete (GREDI, Department of Economics, Université de Sherbrooke) |
| Abstract: | The human development index (HDI) is a measure of development published annually by the UNDP. This index allows countries’ development to be assessed on the basis of three indicators that measure the health, education, and standard of living of the population. The UNDP also computes a human development that excludes this last indicator, the HDI*. The global average of the HDI is approximately 0.75, but like the HDI*, it presents some striking inter-country disparities. In this study, we wish to demonstrate that efficiency in the utilization of public resources can have an incidence on HDI* scores. Thus, owing to a certain “waste” in their use of resources, countries with similar levels of government spending may end up with differing levels of human development. We measure this efficiency using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. Relative efficiency in resource use is thus computed by comparing the countries in the study amongst themselves. |
| Keywords: | Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA, efficiency, development, human development index, HDI |
| JEL: | O15 O57 |
| Date: | 2010–10–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shr:wpaper:10-25&r=eff |
| By: | Mario Fortin (GREDI, Département d'économique, Université de Sherbrooke); André Leclerc (Université de Moncton) |
| Abstract: | Le faible niveau moyen d’efficience des institutions bancaires habituellement trouvé dans les études empiriques a été qualifié de « boîte noire » par Berger et Mester (1997). Cette étude cherche à identifier si les caractéristiques de l’environnement de même que celles qui sont propres à une coopérative d’épargne et de crédit pourraient expliquer une partie des écarts de performance apparaissant dans les scores d’efficience. Le modèle de coût que nous avons estimé est basé sur la valeur ajoutée par l’intermédiation financière. Par ailleurs, pour limiter la perte d’informations découlant de la borne à l’unité des scores d’efficience découlant du DEA, nous avons comparé les résultats d’une analyse avec le score d’efficience et de super efficience. Nos résultats montrent qu’au moins 34% des écarts de scores peuvent être expliqués par un ensemble limité de variables : taille de la coopérative, le taux de capitalisation, l’épargne par membre, le nombre de membres et le type de marché. |
| Keywords: | Banking efficiency, DEA, credit unions |
| JEL: | G21 L25 |
| Date: | 2010–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shr:wpaper:10-23&r=eff |