|
on Efficiency and Productivity |
|
Issue of 2015‒01‒03
twenty-two papers chosen by |
| By: | Paula Puskarova; Philipp Piribauer |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to identify the contribution of knowledge capital and its determinant - human capital - to total factor productivity differences among regions within a regression framework in general and the impact of their spillovers on regional total factor productivity in particular. The focus is laid on interregional spillovers between the Western and Eastern EU and namely, within the triangle of capital regions Vienna-Budapest-Bratislava. The results challenge some previous empirical studies in the sense that once the human capital is accounted for, the significance and magnitude of spillovers from conventional reservoirs of knowledge - patent stocks - falls. Vienna appears to be the largest contributor to the productivity increases in Bratislava. Budapest's productivity seems to be sensitive to knowledge and human capital endowments of EU, but not those of Vienna. Keywords: knowledge capital, knowledge spillover, human capital, human capital spillover, total factor productivity, spatial panel |
| Keywords: | knowledge capital; knowledge spillover; human capital; human capital spillover; total factor productivity; spatial panel |
| JEL: | O33 O47 R12 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p1813&r=eff |
| By: | Petrovska, Marina; Manevska-Tasevska, Gordana; Martinovska-Stojceska, Aleksandra |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to analyse the technical efficiency of pig production farms in the Republic of Macedonia. The Macedonian pig production sub-sector become increasingly inefficient during the period of economic transition; the country is net-importer of pig meat from countries that produce at lower production costs. Farmers are faced with the challenge to increase their efficiency of production thus to become more competitive; this is affected by the decisions made with regard to the quantities of utilised inputs and produced outputs. In this study technical efficiency is explained from output oriented perspective, assessing the possibility of farmers to increase the efficiency by producing maximum output quantities. The technical efficiency is estimated by employing the parametric Stochastic Frontier Analysis. An empirical analysis was carried out on the data collected by questionnaires in 2010. The results show altered technical efficiency levels in each decision making unit. |
| Keywords: | Farm Management, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:slco13:183914&r=eff |
| By: | Kryklii, Olena; Pavlenko, Ludmila; Podvihin, Sergei |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to determine the scale, technical and overall efficiency of the banking system of Ukraine using the DEA method in dynamics in the post-crisis period. The DEA method belongs to the group of non-parametric methods based on front’s technology analysis and allows considering the totality of impacts both the input parameters (resources) and output (products / services). The structure of banks included 24 banks of Ukraine with total assets amounted to 806.7 billion UAH (72 % of banking system assets). Banks were classified into state-owned banks and banks in which the state has a controlling interest, banks with domestic capital, banks with Russian capital and banks with foreign capital (excluding Russia). Empirical data analysis demonstrated that over the period of analysis the effectiveness of large-scale banks increased, while pure technical remained at a moderate level. Most of the banks included in the sample operate with average effective or ineffective. |
| Keywords: | the scale, technical and overall efficiency; the banking system; DEA method. |
| JEL: | C14 G21 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60481&r=eff |
| By: | Tasso Adamopoulos; Diego Restuccia |
| Abstract: | We assess the effects of a major land-policy change on farm size and agricultural productivity using a quantitative model and micro-level data. We study the 1988 land reform in the Philippines that imposed a ceiling on land holdings and severely restricted the transferability of the redistributed farm lands. We study this reform in the context of an industry model of agriculture with a non-degenerate distribution of farm sizes featuring an occupation decision and a technology choice of farm operators. In this model, a land reform reduces agricultural productivity not only by misallocating resources from large/high productivity farms to incumbent small/low productivity farms, but also by distorting farmers' occupation and technology adoption decisions. The model, calibrated to pre-reform farm-level data in the Philippines, implies that on impact the land reform reduces average farm size by 34% and agricultural productivity by 17%. The government assignment of land and the ban on its transfer are key for the magnitude of the results since a market allocation of the above-ceiling land produces only 1/3 of the size and productivity effects. These results emphasize the potential role of land market efficiency for misallocation and productivity in the agricultural sector. |
| Keywords: | agriculture, misallocation, within-farm productivity, land reform. |
| JEL: | O11 O14 O4 |
| Date: | 2014–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-525&r=eff |
| By: | Doraszelski, Ulrich; Jaumandreu, Jordi |
| Abstract: | Technological change can increase the productivity of the various factors of production in equal terms or it can be biased towards a specific factor. We develop an estimator for production functions when productivity is multi-dimensional. We directly assess the bias of technological change by measuring, at the level of the individual firm, how much of it is factor neutral and how much is labor augmenting. Applying our estimator to panel data from Spain, we find that technological change is indeed biased, with both its factor-neutral and its labor-augmenting component causing output to grow by about 2% per year. |
| Keywords: | biased technological change; production function estimation; productivity |
| JEL: | D24 L60 O30 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10275&r=eff |
| By: | Julieta Llungo-Ortiz |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the efficiency of the telecommunications sector in Latin America. The great dynamism acquired by this sector has been due to external factors of change such as privatization processes that took place mainly during the nineties, technological changes, market liberalization and internationalization of services and funds lender firms. In this regards, the purpose of this paper is to assess the evolution of telecommunications by valuing the two main responsible factors: privatization and technological advances. In order to understand privatizations in economic policies carried out in Latin as well as to assess its efficiency and to what extent it accounted as a dynamic component in the telecommunications case, this work accounts privatizations as a changing element of economic policies in Latin America. A close look at the motivations and characteristics behind privatizations in the telecommunications sector in Latin America is shown. Finally, a measure on the results of the privatizations in terms of efficiency is obtained. To measure the efficiency of the telecommunications sector at regional, country and company levels, methodology of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used, complemented with Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and Index of Malmquist. The results indicate that the process of privatization and technological advances have been two distinguish elements for the development of telecommunications, improving the service provided to society, as well as their efficiency and productivity rates. |
| Keywords: | Privatization; telecommunications; Latin America; efficiency |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p1455&r=eff |
| By: | Francesco Aiello; Fernanda Ricotta |
| Abstract: | There is a substantial heterogeneity in productivity when comparing individual firms. However, even when heterogeneity is found, some questions still remain unaddressed. For instance, when focusing on EU nothing is known about the importance of firms' heterogeneity compared with that of location. This is a point to be addressed on empirical grounds: location is expected to affect firms, but there is no evidence quantifying the magnitude of these two effects across Europe. How much the difference is due to individual heterogeneity and how much it is a result of territorial influences? We depart from these arguments and contributes to the issue of EU TFP divide by questioning if differences in TFP levels depend on firms and regional specific effects. In other words, does location matter in understanding TFP regional disparities across Europe? If it does, how much of TFP variability is the result of being located in a region instead of in another. And, what about country-effects? In order to answer to these questions, we proceed by using data of firms operating in the seven European countries comprised in the EFIGE dataset (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, henceforth, EU7-EFIGE countries). In this respect, when focusing on these countries, the role of being located in different regions will be investigated, net of the country-effect. Furthermore, a deep-analysis on the impact of regionalism within a given country, will be made by focusing on France, Italy and Spain. The key variable of the study is the TFP, which has been calculated at firm level by Bruegel for 2008 by employing the Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) approach. The empirical setting we propose is consistent with the type of analysis we carry out. Indeed, in order to explain the role of different factor in explaining firms' TFP, we consider the multilevel approach. This model allows us to evaluate whether and to what extent space matters in determining firms' performance. In fact, multilevel regressions combine different levels of data aggregation and relate them in ways that render the simultaneous existence of distinct level-one and level-two equations explicit. After having found high TFP heterogeneity across firms and regions, we confirm that firm-specific characteristics greatly affect individual TFP. They dominate to location. Another evidence regards the regional effect. It is high when estimations disregard the country-effects: in such a case, location across EU regions explains about 15.2% of the firms differences in TFP. After controlling for country-effects, we find that about 95.3% of the variance in European firms' TFP is due to firms' characteristics and 4.7% is ascribable to regionalism. These proportions slightly differ when considering the case of France, Italy and Spain and when regressions attempt to capture the role of sectoral membership. |
| Keywords: | Total Factor Productivity; Firms? Heterogeneity; Sectoral innovation; Geography; Cross-Classified Models; |
| JEL: | L60 L25 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p808&r=eff |
| By: | Kuboniwa, Masaaki |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:rrcwps:49&r=eff |
| By: | Zotti, Roberto; Barra, Cristian |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we test whether economic growth depends on human capital development using data disaggregated at territorial level and propose the use of efficiency estimates, measured using a non-parametric technique, as an alternative quality measure of higher education institutions (HEIs). The nature of knowledge spillovers is also taken into account to examine the existence of geographically localized spillovers, from the presence of efficient universities, on local growth. Results show that the efficiency of universities has a positive and significant effect on GDP per worker. Moreover, we find evidence that productivity gains are larger in areas in which the most efficient universities are located, suggesting that investment in tertiary education may affect geographical distribution of economic activity as well as its level. |
| Keywords: | Human capital; Higher education; Knowledge spillovers; Local economic development; Non-parametric technique. |
| JEL: | C14 C67 I21 I23 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60065&r=eff |
| By: | Silvia Albrizio; Tomasz Koźluk; Vera Zipperer |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of changes in the stringency of environmental policies on productivity growth in OECD countries. Using a new environmental policy stringency (EPS) index, it estimates a reduced-form model of multi-factor productivity growth, where the effect of countries' environmental policies varies with pollution intensity of the industry and technological advancement. A multi-layer analysis provides insights at the aggregate economy, the industry and the firm level. At the aggregate economy level, a negative effect on productivity growth is found one year ahead of the policy change. This negative “announcement effect” is offset within three years after the implementation. At the industry level, a tightening of environmental policy is associated with a short-term increase in industry-level productivity growth, for the most technologically advanced country-industry pairs. This effect diminishes with the distance to the global productivity frontier, becoming insignificant at larger distances. At the firm level, only the technologically most advanced firms show a positive effect on productivity growth from a tightening of environmental policies, while a third of firms, the less productive ones, experience a productivity slowdown.<P>Données empiriques sur les effets de la sévérité des politiques environnementales sur la croissance de la productivité<BR>Ce document étudie l’impact qu’ont les modifications de la sévérité des politiques environnementales sur la croissance de la productivité dans les pays de l’OCDE. À l’aide d’un nouvel indice de sévérité des politiques environnementales (SPE), il estime un modèle en forme réduite de la croissance de la productivité multifactorielle, dans lequel l’effet des politiques environnementales des pays varie selon l’intensité de pollution de l’industrie et le degré d’avancement technologique. Une analyse multicouche donne des indications au niveau macro-économique, à celui de l’industrie et à celui des entreprises. Au niveau macro-économique, un effet négatif sur la croissance de la productivité est observé un an avant la modification des politiques. Cet « effet d’annonce » négatif est compensé dans un délai de trois ans après la mise en oeuvre. Au niveau de l’industrie, le durcissement des politiques environnementales est associé à une accélération à court terme de la croissance de la productivité pour les couples pays-industrie les plus avancés d’un point de vue technologique. Cet effet diminue jusqu’à devenir insignifiant à mesure qu’on s’éloigne de la frontière de productivité mondiale. Au niveau des entreprises, enfin, seules celles qui sont les plus en pointe du point de vue technologique voient la croissance de leur productivité influencée de façon positive par un durcissement des politiques environnementales, tandis qu’un tiers des entreprises, en l’occurrence les moins productives, accusent un ralentissement de leur productivité. |
| Keywords: | multifactor productivity, Porter hypothesis, environmental regulations, environmental policies, environmental policy stringency, sévérité des politiques environnementales, productivité multifactorielle, réglementation environnementale, hypothèse de Porter |
| JEL: | O44 O47 Q50 Q58 |
| Date: | 2014–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1179-en&r=eff |
| By: | Nicholas Apergis (School of Economics and Finance , Curtin University, Perth, Australia); Goodness C. Aye (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); Carlos Pestana Barros (ISEG, University of Lisbon. Rua Miguel Lupi, 20. 1247-978 Lisbon.); Rangan Gupta (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); Peter Wanke (COPPEAD Graduate Business School, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Rua Paschoal Lemme, 355, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil CEP 21949-900.) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an efficiency assessment of selected OECD countries using a Slacks Based Model with undesirable or bad outputs (SBM-Undesirable). In this research, SBM-Undesirable is used first in a two-stage approach to assess the relative efficiency of OECD countries using the most frequent indicators adopted by the literature on energy efficiency. Besides, in the second stage, GLMM-MCMC methods are combined with SBM-Undesirable results as part of an attempt to produce a model for energy performance with effective predictive ability. The results reveal different impacts of contextual variables, such as economic blocks and capital-labor ratio, on energy efficiency levels. |
| Keywords: | Energy, OECD, SBM-Undesitable, Two-stage GLMM-MCMC |
| JEL: | C6 D2 Q4 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201477&r=eff |
| By: | Shiyi Chen; Wolfgang K. Härdle; Li Wang; |
| Abstract: | The development of shadow banking system in China catalyzes the expansion of banks’ off-balance-sheet activities, resulting in a distortion of China’s traditional credit expansion and underestimation of its commercial banks’ overall risk. This paper is the first to incorporate banks’ overall risk, endogenously into bank’s production process as undesirable by-product for the estimation of banks’ total factor efficiency (TFE) as well as TFE of each production factor. A unique data sample of 171 Chinese commercial banks, which is the largest data sample concerning with Chinese banking efficiency issues until now as far as we know, making our results more convincing and meaningful. Our results show that, compared with a model incorporated with banks’ overall risk, a model considering on-balance-sheet lending activities only may over-estimate the overall average TFE and under-estimate TFE volatility as a whole. Higher overall risk taking of banks tends to decrease bank TFE through ‘diverting effect’. However, significant heterogeneities of bank integrated TFE (TFIE) and TFE of each production factor exist among banks of different types or located in different regions, as a result of still prominent unbalanced development of Chinese commercial banks today. Based on newly estimated TFIE, the paper also investigates the determinants of bank efficiency, and finds that a model with risk-weighted assets as undesirable outputs can better capture the impact of shadow banking involvement. |
| Keywords: | Total Factor Efficiency, Unbalanced Development, Shadow Banking, Global SBM |
| JEL: | C14 C33 G21 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2014-068&r=eff |
| By: | Soushi Suzuki |
| Abstract: | Japan is faced with "the Fukushima' problem," in which a single nuclear accident has led to drastic electrical power shortages. Owing to the strong backlash of public opinion, almost all of Japan's 54 nuclear plants suspended operations. An intensive search has started for alternative forms of energy, ranging from fossil fuels to new energy, such as solar, wind, geothermal, small-scale hydroelectric and biomass energy. There is no clear-cut direction for energy policy, as each option involves costs and CO2 consequences and Japan has even withdrawn from the Kyoto protocol. A policy that balances energy and the environment is difficult to achieve in the short term; therefore, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive efficiency analysis of new energy in Japan. A popular tool for judging the efficiency of a Decision Making Unit (DMU) is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The development of multiple efficiency improvement solutions based on DEA has progressed in recent years. An example is the Distance Friction Minimisation (DFM) method, based on a generalised distance function, which serves to improve a DMU's performance by tracing the most appropriate movement towards the efficiency frontier. To produce a more realistic improvement plan for low efficiency DMUs, we proposed a Target-Oriented (TO) DFM model that allows reference points that remain below the efficiency frontier. TO-DFM model specifies a Target-Efficiency Score (TES) for inefficient DMUs. This model is able to compute an improvement projection that an input reduction value and an output increase value in order to achieve a TES, even though in reality these values may have an infeasible case, for example Net-Working Rate may be required more than 100% in improvement projection, but it exceed a physical limit. This paper aims to present a newly developed adjusted DEA model, emerging from a blend of the TO-DFM and the Improvement Restriction (IR) approach, for generating an appropriate efficiency-improving projection model. The IR approach specifies a restriction input/output items based on absence or presence of the DMU's improvement limit. This approach can compute an input reduction value and an output increase value in order to achieve a TES that maintains an improvement restriction. The above-mentioned Improvement Restriction TO-DFM model will be applied to an efficiency analysis and will produce a realistic efficiency-improvement projection for new energies in Japan. |
| JEL: | C44 C61 Q42 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa14p223&r=eff |
| By: | Emran, Shahe; Shilpi, Forhad |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence on the effects of agricultural productivity on wage rates, labor supply to market oriented activities, and labor allocation between own farming and wage labor in agriculture. To guide the empirical work, this paper develops a general equilibrium model that underscores the role of reallocation of family labor engaged in the production of non-marketed services at home (`home production'). The model predicts positive effects of a favorable agricultural productivity shock on wages and income, but the effect on hired labor is ambiguous; it depends on the strength of reallocation of labor from home to market production by labor surplus and deficit households. Taking rainfall variations as a measure of shock to agricultural productivity, and using subdistrict level panel data from Bangladesh, this paper finds significant positive effects of a favorable rainfall shock on agricultural wages, labor supply to market work, and per capita household expenditure. The share of hired labor in contrast declines substantially in response to a favorable productivity shock, which is consistent with a case where labor-deficit households respond more than the labor-surplus ones in reallocating labor from home production. |
| Keywords: | Labor Policies,Labor Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Rural Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2014–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7056&r=eff |
| By: | Bloom, Nicholas; Lemos, Renata; Sadun, Raffaella; Scur, Daniela; Van Reenen, John |
| Abstract: | Over the last decade the World Management Survey (WMS) has collected firm-level management practices data across multiple sectors and countries. We developed the survey to try to explain the large and persistent TFP differences across firms and countries. This review paper discusses what has been learned empirically and theoretically from the WMS and other recent work on management practices. Our preliminary results suggest that about a quarter of cross-country and within-country TFP gaps can be accounted for by management practices. Management seems to matter both qualitatively and quantitatively. Competition, governance, human capital and informational frictions help account for the variation in management. |
| Keywords: | management; organization; productivity |
| JEL: | L2 M2 O14 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10013&r=eff |
| By: | Jürgen Bitzer (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg); Erkan Gören (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg and Aarhus University); Sanne Hiller (Ruhr-University Bochum and Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of immigrant employees for a firm’s capability to absorb international knowledge. Using matched employer-employee data from Denmark for the years 1999 to 2009, we are able to show that non-Danish employees contribute significantly to a firm’s economic output through their ability to access international knowledge. The immigrants’ impact increases if they come from technological advanced countries, have a high educational level, and are employed in high skilled positions. However, the latter does not hold for immigrant managers. |
| Keywords: | R&D Spillovers, Absorptive Capacity, Firm-Level Analysis, Foreign Workers, Immigrants |
| JEL: | D20 J82 L20 O30 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:323&r=eff |
| By: | Thierry Mayer (Département d'économie); Marc J. Melitz (Department of Economics); Gianmarco Ottaviano (Università di Bologna) |
| Abstract: | We build a theoretical model of multi-product firms that highlights how competition across market destinations affects both a firm's exported product range and product mix. We show how tougher competition in an export market induces a firm to skew its export sales toward its best performing products. We find very strong confirmation of this competitive effect for French exporters across export market destinations. Theoretically, this within-firm change in product mix driven by the trading environment has important repercussions on firm productivity. A calibrated fit to our theoretical model reveals that these productivity effects are potentially quite large. |
| JEL: | D21 D24 F13 F14 F41 L11 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6g0gsihsjmn5snc9pb0jo6hhp&r=eff |
| By: | Levchenko, Andrei A. (University of Michigan); Zhang, Jing (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | We estimate productivities at the sector level for 72 countries and 5 decades, and examine how they evolve over time in both developed and developing countries. In both country groups, comparative advantage has become weaker: productivity grew systematically faster in sectors that were initially at greater comparative disadvantage. These changes have had a significant impact on trade volumes and patterns, and a non-negligible welfare impact. In the counterfactual scenario in which each country's comparative advantage remained the same as in the 1960s, and technology in all sectors grew at the same country-specific average rate, trade volumes would be higher, cross-country export patterns more dissimilar, and intra-industry trade lower than in the data. In this counterfactual scenario, welfare is also 1.6% higher for the median country compared to the baseline. The welfare impact varies greatly across countries, ranging from −1.1% to +4.3% among OECD countries, and from −6% to +41.9% among non-OECD countries. |
| Keywords: | technological change; sectoral TFP; Ricardian models of trade; welfare |
| JEL: | F11 F43 O33 O47 |
| Date: | 2014–10–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-2014-12&r=eff |
| By: | Mamatzakis, E; bermpei, t |
| Abstract: | This paper examines factors that affect the performance of investment banks in the G7 and Switzerland. In particular, we focus on the role of risk, liquidity and investment banking fees. Panel analysis shows that those variables significantly impact upon performance as derived from stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Given our sample also comprises the financial crisis, we further test for regimes switches using dynamic panel threshold analysis. Results show different underlying regimes, in particular over the financial crisis. In addition, a strong positive effect of Z-Score on performance for banks in the regime of low default risk is reported, whilst fee-income ratio has also a positive impact for banks with low level of fees. On the other hand, liquidity exerts a negative impact. Notably, there is a clear trend of mobility of banks across the two identified threshold regimes with regards to risk a year before the financial crisis. Our results provide evidence that recent regulation reforms regarding capital adequacy and liquidity requirements are on the right track and could enhance performance. |
| Keywords: | Investment Banking, Risk, Liquidity, Fees, Dynamic Panel Threshold Analysis. |
| JEL: | G1 G18 G21 |
| Date: | 2014–11–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60196&r=eff |
| By: | Ajantha Kalyanaratne |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the link between labor productivity of tea-plantation workers in Sri Lanka and their living conditions. The results indicate a significant negative relationship between Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) vulnerable houses and the labor productivity of dwellers. Our analyses suggest that the productivity of a tea worker living in improved houses is 100% to 151% higher than that of a worker living in traditional, IAP vulnerable houses. We also find that a healthy worker plucks 39% more tea leaves than a worker with a respiratory illness. Since investing in housing improvements and new houses for workers yields significant net benefits to both estate management and estate workers, we recommend that estate managers cooperate with the government to develop better estate worker houses. |
| Keywords: | Indoor Air Pollution; Labor productivity; Tea-estate sector; Sri Lanka; Female labor; Benefits to investors |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:snd:wpaper:87&r=eff |
| By: | Roberto Basile (Facoltà di Economia (Faculty of Economics), Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli (Naples Second University)) |
| Abstract: | Using data for the European regions at NUTS-2 level, we test the predictions of a microfounded Schumpeterian growth model with technological interdependence recently developed by Ertur and Koch (2011, EK11). Spatial interdependence is identified by means ofa semiparametric geoadditive spatial autoregressive model which permits us to disentanglethe effect of nonlinearities, spatial heterogeneity and spatial dependence. A control function approach is applied to estimate this particular SAR-type model using the spatial lag of the quality of regional governance and of its components (corruption, rule of law, government effectiveness and accountability) as instrumental variables for the endogenous term Wy. The results corroborate the predictions of EK11’s model: R&D investments and R&D spillovers are important divers of regional growth in Europe. However, spillover effects are much lower after controlling for spatial unobserved heterogeneity. Moreover, important nonlinearities in the effect of physical capital investments emerge, putting into question the strong homogeneity assumption and suggesting a threshold effect in growth behavior. |
| Keywords: | Regional growth, spatial dependence, nonlinearities, semiparametric models |
| JEL: | R11 R12 C14 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cst:wpaper:1&r=eff |
| By: | Taya Dumrongrittikul; Heather Anderson; Farshid Vahid |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates international responses of key macroeconomic variables, particularly real exchange rates, to simultaneous shocks to productivity in the traded sector in eight Asian emerging and developing countries. We use panel estimation techniques to construct component submodels in a thirty country global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model. The GVAR approach can account for interaction among all countries and capture many potential international transmission channels. We identify the shocks by using sign restricted impulse responses. We find that increases in traded-sector productivity in Asian developing countries lead to a real appreciation of the domestic currencies, in line with the Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis. Inflation also increases in many Asian developing countries. After the shocks, nontraded sector productivity in the US and other developed countries increases, suggesting that there is a compositional shift in their production, away from the traded goods toward the nontraded goods. This allows productivity in the nontraded sector to increase. Further, the traded sector productivity shocks in Asia stimulate international trade in most countries. |
| Keywords: | Asian developing countries; Exchange rate fundamentals; Global vector autoregression; Panel vector error correction model; Real exchange rates; Sign restricted impulse response. |
| JEL: | C51 E52 F31 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msh:ebswps:2014-23&r=eff |