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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2014‒02‒08
nine papers chosen by |
| By: | Diaz-Mayans, M.Angeles; Sánchez, Rosario/R |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the relationship between exports, innovative activities and size and their effect over firms’ technical efficiency and then over their productivity. The analysis takes, also, into account other variables that could affect productivity as industrial sector, or firms’ financial conditions. We use a micro panel data set of Spanish manufacturing firms, during the period 2004–2009, to simultaneously estimate a stochastic frontier production function and the inefficiency determinants. The data source is published in the Spanish Industrial Survey on Business Strategies (Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales, ESEE), collected by Fundación SEPI. Our results show that exporting firms are more efficient than non-exporting firms; and that small and medium-sized firms’ tent to be more efficient when they focus on international markets. |
| Keywords: | exports, firms, technical efficiency, productivity, innovative activities, R&D expenditures |
| JEL: | F14 L25 L60 |
| Date: | 2014–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:53230&r=eff |
| By: | Damiani, Mirella; Pompei, Fabrizio; Ricci, Andrea |
| Abstract: | The authors analyzed the role of Performance Related Pay (PRP) in a sample of Italian manufacturing and service firms and presented standard quantile estimates to investigate heterogeneity in pay-performance impacts on labor productivity and wages. In a second stage, the endogeneity of PRP was taken into account by using instrumental variable quantile regression techniques. They find considerable heterogeneity across the distribution of labor productivity and wages, with the highest role of PRP obtained at the lowest and highest quantiles. However, for all quantiles, the comparison of productivity and wage estimates suggests that PRP might not only be rent-sharing devices, but also incentive schemes that substantially lead to efficiency enhancements. These findings are confirmed for firms under union governance and suggest that well designed policies, that circumvent the limited implementation of PRP practices, would guarantee productivity improvement. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, Wages, Performance–related pay, unions |
| JEL: | D24 J31 J33 J51 |
| Date: | 2014–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:53341&r=eff |
| By: | Joana Reis (Faculdade de Economia do Porto); Rosa Forte (Faculdade de Economia do Porto) |
| Abstract: | The process of globalization of economies and markets has led firms to consider entry into foreign markets. Exporting is the simplest foreign market entry mode, but also the most common, not requiring high financial and human resources. Hence it is important to study the factors that can affect the firm’s export intensity, measure commonly used to assess the export performance. Several authors have studied the factors that influence the firm’s export performance, but few have addressed the relationship between industry characteristics and export intensity. Thus, the objective of the present study is to analyze the impact of industry characteristics (capital intensity, R&D intensity, labor productivity, export orientation, and concentration level) on the firm’s export intensity, seeking to add empirical evidence to this relatively neglected research area. Based on a sample of 1,425 Portuguese firms during the period 2008-2010, and using panel data estimation, the empirical results show that some industry characteristics (labor productivity, export orientation, concentration), as well as firm characteristics (labor productivity, size) are important determinants of a firm’s export intensity. In particular, we conclude that firm export intensity is positively affected by labor productivity (at industry and firm level), corroborating the idea that firms and governments need to direct their policies towards increased productivity in order to improve competitiveness in foreign markets. |
| Keywords: | Export performance, export intensity, Portuguese firms, industry characteristics |
| JEL: | L25 L69 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:524&r=eff |
| By: | Halkos, George; Papageorgiou, George |
| Abstract: | This paper computes and analyses for the first time environmental efficiencies in waste generation of 160 European regions in NUTS 2 level in seven European countries. For this reason different Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model formulations are used modeling the pollutant in the form of waste generation as a regular output and as a regular input. In the latter case we also use the notion of eco-efficiency. The empirical findings reveal environmental inefficiencies among the regions indicating the lack of a uniform regional environmental policy among the European countries. This finding is observed not only between countries but also between regions in the same country, implying the need for implementation of appropriate municipal environmental policies in waste management. |
| Keywords: | Environmental efficiency; Waste generation; European regions; Data Envelopment Analysis |
| JEL: | C6 O13 O52 Q50 Q53 Q56 R11 |
| Date: | 2014–02–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:53400&r=eff |
| By: | Larry Qiu (University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research); Miaojie Yu (Peking University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the effects of one-sided tariff cuts on firms' export product scope. The theoretical model explicitly incorporates cost of management in addition to the commonly used production cost. Firms are heterogeneous in terms of managerial efficiency but homogenous in terms of production productivity. The analysis predicts that the home country's tariff cut reduces all home firms' export product scope, whereas in response to the foreign country's tariff cut, a home firm's export product scope expands (shrinks) if the firm's management cost is low (high). These predictions are supported by our empirical analysis based on data on Chinese firms from 2000 to 2006. |
| Keywords: | Multiproduct Firm, Management Cost, Managerial Efficiency, Export Product Scope, Trade Liberalization, China |
| JEL: | F12 F13 F15 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hkm:wpaper:022014&r=eff |
| By: | Josheski, Dushko |
| Abstract: | In this paper are presented essential themes in the subject of personnel economics. In the first part analysis has been conducted on the impact of peer pressure on workplace behaviour. Then again models for compensation structures within firms, and their influence on the utility of work by employees. In the final section of the paper the productivity spillover effect has been analyzed, and the causes of existence of spillovers and their impact on workers’ productivity |
| Keywords: | Personnel economics, compensation structures, peer pressure, spillover effect |
| JEL: | M52 M55 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:53343&r=eff |
| By: | Francisco ALVAREZ-CUADRADO; Ngo Van LONG; Markus POSCHKE |
| Abstract: | Long run economic growth goes along with structural change. Recent work has identified explanatory factors on the demand side (non-homothetic preferences) and on the supply-side, in particular differential productivity growth across sectors and differences in factor proportions and capital deepening. This paper documents that there have also been differential trends in labor and capital income shares across sectors in the U.S. and in a broad set of other industrialized economies, and shows that a model where the degree of capital-labor substitutability differs across sectors is consistent with these trends. The interplay of differences in productivity growth and in the substitution elasticity across sectors drive both the evolution of sectoral factor income shares and the shape of structural change. We evaluate the empirical importance of this mechanism and the other mechanisms proposed in the literature in the context of the recent U.S. experience. We find that differences in productivity growth rates between manufacturing and services have been the most important driver of structural change. Yet, differences in substitution elasticities are key not only for understanding the evolution of sectoral and aggregate factor income shares, but also for the shape of structural change. Differences in capital intensity and non-homothetic preferences have hardly mattered for the manufacturing-services transition. |
| Keywords: | structural change, labor income share, capital-labor substitution |
| JEL: | O40 O30 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtl:montec:01-2014&r=eff |
| By: | Andrés Rodríguez-Pose; Marco Di-Cataldo |
| Abstract: | Although it has frequently been argued that the quality of institutions affects the innovative potential of a territory, the link between institutions and innovation remains a black box. This paper aims to shed light on how institutions shape innovative capacity, by focusing on how regional government quality affects innovative performance in the regions of Europe. By exploiting new data on quality of government (QoG), we assess how government quality and its components (control of corruption, rule of law, government effectiveness and government accountability) shape patenting capacity across the regions of the European Union (EU). The results of the analysis – which are robust to controlling for the endogeneity of institutions – provide strong evidence of a causal link between the quality of local governments and the capacity of territories to generate innovation. In particular, low quality of government becomes a fundamental barrier for the innovative capacity of the periphery of the EU, strongly undermining any potential effect of any other measures aimed at promoting greater innovation. The results have important implications for the definition of innovation strategies in EU regions. |
| Keywords: | Institutions, Quality of government, Innovation, Regions, Europe |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1406&r=eff |
| By: | HATAMI-MARBINI, Adel; TAVANA, Madjid; SAATI, Saber; AGRELL, Per J. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvrp:-2475&r=eff |