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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2013‒09‒24
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Sauer, Johannes; Gorton, Matthew; Davidova, Sophia |
| Abstract: | Kosovo, like most of rural Central and Eastern Europe, has witnessed substantial out-migration in recent years, prompting debates on the effect of migration on agricultural efficiency. This paper addresses this issue, drawing on a large (n=2217) and representative sample of agricultural households. A two-stage estimation procedure is followed: a frontier technique to estimate the effect of migration on farm efficiency, followed by a matching estimation approach to robustly estimate the sample average effect on efficiency for different levels of migration intensity. Migration has an efficiency decreasing effect which is amplified for better educated and older workers. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Technical Efficiency, Agricultural Households, Kosovo, Agricultural and Food Policy, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi13:156098&r=eff |
| By: | Borowiecki, Karol J. (Department of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates agglomeration effects for classical music production in a wide range of cities for a global sample of composers born between 1750 and 1899. Theory suggests a trade-off between agglomeration economies (peer effects) and diseconomies (peer crowding). I test this hypothesis using historical data on composers and employ a unique instrumental variable – a measure of birth centrality, calculated as the average distance between a composer’s birthplace and the birthplace of his peers. I find a strong causal impact of peer group size on the number of important compositions written in a given year. Consistent with theory, the productivity gain eventually decreases and is characterized by an inverted U-shaped relationship. These results are robust to a large series of tests, including checks for quality of peers, city characteristics, various measures of composers’ productivity, and across different estimations in which also time-varying birth centrality measures are used as instrumental variables. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration economies; density effects; peer effects; productivity; urban history; cities; composer |
| JEL: | D24 J24 N90 R12 Z11 |
| Date: | 2013–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2013_013&r=eff |
| By: | James J. Heckman; Rodrigo Pinto |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an econometric mediation analysis. It considers identification of production functions and the sources of output effects (treatment effects) from experimental interventions when some inputs are mismeasured and others are entirely omitted. |
| JEL: | C21 C38 C43 D24 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19314&r=eff |
| By: | Popovic, Milenko; Cizmovic, Mirjana |
| Abstract: | The topic of this paper is comparative analysis of the economic growth in the former SFRY countries. The paper is primarily devoted to the analysis of the sources of economic growth in these countries. In this regard, apart from conventional decomposition of growth (contributions of capital, labor and total factor productivity), the demand and the industry composition sides of the sources-of-growth analyses have also been considered. Furthermore, the reserves for further rise in GDP per capita have been identified and estimated on the basis of obtained results. Special attention has been paid to possible increase in the total factor productivity induced by the advance in “broader knowledge” as well as to increase in the labor participation rate. Institutional and policy prerequisites for realization of these reserves of growth are also briefly analysed. |
| Keywords: | sources of growth, growth reserves, convergence |
| JEL: | O40 O43 O47 |
| Date: | 2013–07–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49776&r=eff |
| By: | Gehringer, Agnieszka |
| Abstract: | The paper surveys the literature on the effects of finance on productivity growth. In both the theoretical and empirical literature, there is no consensus regarding the contribution of financial liberalization and financial development to growth. Focusing on the direct channels of growth, the author has found both positive and negative contribution of finance to growth. Clearer positive effects emerge when considering growth channels related to productivity dynamics, with the estimated effects being positive and statistically distinguishable from zero. -- |
| Keywords: | FDI,financial liberalization,financial development,productivity,growth,review |
| JEL: | F32 F33 F36 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201346&r=eff |
| By: | McCormack, John; Propper, Carol; Smith, Sarah L. |
| Abstract: | Using a tried and tested measure of management practices which has been shown to predict firm performance, we survey nearly 250 departments across 100+ UK universities. We find large differences in management scores across universities and that departments in older, research-intensive universities score higher than departments in newer, more teaching-oriented universities. We also find that management matters in universities. The scores, particularly with respect to provision of incentives for staff recruitment, retention and promotion, are correlated with both teaching and research performance conditional on resources and past performance. Moreover, this relationship holds for all universities, not just research-intensive ones. |
| Keywords: | management practices; performance; universities |
| JEL: | I32 M51 M54 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9560&r=eff |
| By: | Mark Rosenzweig; Christopher R. Udry |
| Abstract: | We use newly-available Indian panel data to estimate how the returns to planting-stage investments vary by rainfall realizations. We show that the forecasts significantly affect farmer investment decisions and that these responses account for a substantial fraction of the inter-annual variability in planting-stage investments, that the skill of the forecasts varies across areas of India, and that farmers respond more strongly to the forecast where there is more forecast skill and not at all when there is no skill. We show, using an IV strategy in which the Indian government forecast of monsoon rainfall serves as the main instrument, that the return to agricultural investment depends substantially on the conditions under which it is estimated. Using the full rainfall distribution and our profit function estimates, we find that Indian farmers on average under-invest, by a factor of three, when we compare actual levels of investments to the optimal investment level that maximizes expected profits. Farmers who use skilled forecasts have increased average profit levels but also have more variable profits compared with farmers without access to forecasts. Even modest improvements in forecast skill would substantially increase average profits. |
| JEL: | D24 D81 O12 O13 Q12 Q54 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19334&r=eff |