nep-eff New Economics Papers
on Efficiency and Productivity
Issue of 2015‒06‒27
twenty-one papers chosen by



  1. Productivity lessons for the Asian region By Jungsoo Park, Lawrence Lau
  2. Macroprudential regulation and bank performance:Does ownership matter? By Ghosh, Saibal
  3. Temporary employment protection reforms and productivity: evidence from an industry-level panel of EU countries By Kristel Jacquier
  4. Comparing Micro-Evidence on Rent Sharing from Three Different Approaches By Dobbelaere, Sabien; Mairesse, Jacques
  5. Appropriability Mechanisms, Innovation and Productivity:Evidence from the UK By Hall, Bronwyn H.; Sena, Vania
  6. Spillovers from the global productivity frontier and public policy: Industry-level evidence By Alessandro Saia; Dan Andrews; Silvia Albrizio
  7. The UK's Productivity Puzzle By Bryson, Alex; Forth, John
  8. Exploring the link between innovation capability and financial performance By Salih Ye; Ahmet Kaya
  9. Empirical Evidence from Canadian Firm-level Data on the Relationship Between Trade and Productivity Performance By Baldwin, John R.; Yan, Beiling
  10. Braaaaaaaains! The Undead Humbug Production Function: Now With Human Capital By Mike Isaacson
  11. Agricultural Extension and Technology Adoption for Food Security: Evidence from Uganda By Stephen C. Smith
  12. “Differences in efficiency between Formal and Informal Micro Firms in Mexico” By Antonio Báez-Morales
  13. Not Working at Work: Loafing, Unemployment and Labor Productivity By Burda, Michael C.; Genadek, Katie R.; Hamermesh, Daniel S.
  14. Norwegian Rhapsody? The Political Economy Benefits of Regional Integration By Campos, Nauro F; Coricelli, Fabrizio; Moretti, Luigi
  15. Paving the way for better telecom performance: Evidence from the telecommunication sector in MENA countries By Riham Ahmed Ezzat
  16. Does Worker Wellbeing Affect Workplace Performance? By Bryson, Alex; Forth, John; Stokes, Lucy
  17. A quarter century effort yet to come of age : a survey of power sector reforms in developing countries By Jamasb,Tooraj; Nepal,Rabindra; Timilsina,Govinda R.
  18. Micro-Evidence on Product and Labor Market Regime Differences between Chile and France By Dobbelaere, Sabien; Lauterbach, Rodolfo; Mairesse, Jacques
  19. Real unit labour costs in Eurozone countries: Drivers and clusters By Javier Ordóñez; Hector Sala; José I. Silva
  20. Changes in the size and structure of the European Union banking sector – the role of competition between banks By Małgorzata Pawłowska
  21. Trade, Migration and Productivity: A Quantitative Analysis of China By Trevor Tombe; Xiaodong Zhu

  1. By: Jungsoo Park, Lawrence Lau
    Abstract: This study investigates how the patterns of productivity growth have changed over the past few decades for the Asian economies in comparison with the advanced economies. The findings indicate that the Asian economies are in the process of transition in terms of pattern of growth. It seems that the 4 NIEs have already transitioned from input-based growth to productivity-based growth, and the remaining Asian economies are starting to show signs of transition in the past decade. Scrutinizing the recent trends in human capital, R&D, patent statistics, and inward FDIs, they all indicate that the productivity growth will be stronger in the Asian region than before and will constitute the major basis for growth.
    Keywords: total factor productivity, Asian economies, economic growth
    JEL: O47 O57
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:macroe:24840&r=eff
  2. By: Ghosh, Saibal
    Abstract: Employing data on Indian banks for 1992-2012, the article examines the impact of macroprudential measures on bank performance. It finds that state-owned banks tend to have lower profitability and soundness than their private counterparts. Next, it tests whether such differentials between state-owned and private banks are driven by macroprudential measures; it finds strong support for this hypothesis.
    Keywords: banking; macroprudential; capital adequacy; loan classification; provisioning; ownership; India
    JEL: G21 L51 P52
    Date: 2013–09–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65212&r=eff
  3. By: Kristel Jacquier (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - Paris School of Economics)
    Abstract: We investigate the impact of reforms on employment protection for temporary contracts on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) using panel data of industries across 14 European countries. Within-industry variation over the period 1992-2007 is exploited to capture reforms. The legislation on temporary contracts (EPT) affects the use of such contracts, making it a valid instrument to prove a causal relationship between a change in legislation and macroeconomic performances. Indeed, the two stage estimates emphasize the negative relationship between the share of temporary employment and TFP at the industrial level. Marginal effects prove that increasing regulation on temporary jobs has a strong negative impact on the use of fixed-term contracts if employment protection on regular contract (EPR) is low. When employment protection on open-ended contract reaches its highest level; this effect is stronger. Our study shows that asymmetric institutional change might indeed leads to lower productivity growth through a surge in temporary employment
    Keywords: Productivity; employment protection
    JEL: E02 O43
    Date: 2015–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:15028&r=eff
  4. By: Dobbelaere, Sabien (VU University Amsterdam); Mairesse, Jacques (CREST-INSEE)
    Abstract: Empirical labor economists have resorted to estimating the responsiveness of workers' wages on firms' ability to pay to assess the extent to which employers share rents with their employees. This paper compares this labor economics approach with two other approaches that rely on standard micro production data only: the productivity approach for which estimates of the output elasticities of labor and materials and data on the respective revenue shares are needed and the accounting approach which boils down to directly computing the extent of rent sharing from firm accounting information. Using matched employer-employee data on 60,294 employees working in 9,849 firms over the period 1984-2001 in France, we quantify industry differences in rent-sharing parameters derived from the three approaches. We find a median absolute extent of rent sharing of about 0.30 using either the productivity or the accounting approach. Only exploiting firm-level information brings this median rent-sharing parameter down to 0.16 using the labor economics approach. Controlling for unobserved worker ability further reduces the median absolute extent of rent sharing to 0.08. Our analysis makes clear that the three different approaches face important trade-offs. Hence, empirical economists interested in establishing that profits are shared should select the appropriate approach based on the particular research question and on the data at hand.
    Keywords: rent sharing, wage equation, production function, matched employer-employee data
    JEL: C23 D21 J31 J51
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9124&r=eff
  5. By: Hall, Bronwyn H. (University of California at Berkeley and University of Maastricht; NBER, IFS London, and NIESR); Sena, Vania (Essex Business School, University of Essex)
    Abstract: We use an extended version of the wellestablished Crepon, Duguet and Mairesse model (1998) to model the relationship between appropriability mechanisms, innovation and firmlevel productivity. We enrich this model in several ways. First, we consider different types of innovation spending and study the differences in estimates when innovation spending (rather than R&D spending) is used to predict innovation in the CDM model. Second, we assume that a firm simultaneously innovates and chooses among different appropriability methods (formal or informal) to protect the innovation. Finally, in the third stage, we estimate the impact of the innovation output conditional on the choice of appropriability mechanisms on firms’ productivity. We find that firms that innovate and rate formal methods for the protection of Intellectual Property (IP) highly are more productive than other firms, but that the same does not hold in the case of informal methods for the protection of a firm’s IP, except possibly for large firms as supposed to SMEs. We also find that this result is strongest for firms in the services, trade, and utility sectors, and negative in the manufacturing sector.
    Keywords: productivity; innovation; intellectual property; appropriability; patents; CDM
    JEL: L25 O30 O34
    Date: 2015–06–18
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0411&r=eff
  6. By: Alessandro Saia; Dan Andrews; Silvia Albrizio
    Abstract: For much of the second half of the twentieth century, labour productivity grew rapidly in most OECD economies, fuelled by the adoption of a large stock of unexploited existing technologies. However, the slowdown in productivity growth over the past decade underscores the idea that as economies converge toward the global technological frontier, the ability to capitalise on new innovations developed at frontier becomes more important. Using industry level data for 15 countries over the period 1984-2007, this paper augments the neo-Schumpeterian framework to identify the relevant channels and policies that shape an economy’s ability to learn from the global productivity frontier. An economy’s ability to benefit from frontier innovation is a positive function of its degree of international connectedness, ability to allocate skills efficiently and investments in knowledge based capital, including managerial capital and R&D. Productivity growth, via more effective learning from the global frontier, is supported by a policy framework that promotes efficient resource allocation – including lower barriers to entrepreneurship, efficient judicial systems and bankruptcy laws that do not overly penalise failure – and fosters the creation of markets for seed and early stage finance. Innovation policies that support basic research and facilitate the absorption of external knowledge for firms – including via university-industry R&D collaboration – also enhance spillovers from the global productivity frontier, and consequently, productivity growth.<P>Retombées des technologies de pointe et politiques publiques : Ce que montrent les données sectorielles<BR>Durant la majeure partie de la seconde moitié du XXème siècle, la productivité du travail a augmenté rapidement dans la plupart des économies de l'OCDE, alimentée par l'adoption d'un grand nombre de technologies existantes mais encore inexploitées. Toutefois, le ralentissement de la croissance de la productivité au cours de la dernière décennie corrobore l'idée selon laquelle au fur et à mesure que les économies convergent vers la frontière technologique mondiale, la capacité à capitaliser sur les innovations développées à la pointe de la technologie augmente. À partir de données sectorielles couvrant 15 pays sur la période 1984-2007, cet article complète le modèle de croissance néo-schumpétérien afin d'identifier les canaux et les politiques qui affectent la capacité d'une économie à apprendre de la frontière de la productivité mondiale. La capacité d'une économie à bénéficier de l'innovation dans les technologies de pointe est une fonction croissante de son degré d’ouverture internationale, de sa capacité à allouer efficacement les compétences et les investissements aux actifs fondés sur la connaissance, y compris le capital managérial et la R & D. La croissance de la productivité, via un apprentissage plus efficace à partir de la frontière technologique mondiale, est soutenue par un cadre politique qui favorise une allocation efficace des ressources - y compris la réduction des barrières à la création d’entreprises, l’efficacité des systèmes judiciaires et les lois sur la faillite qui ne pénalisent pas trop l'échec - et qui favorise la création de marchés du capital d’amorçage et du capital-risque. Les politiques d'innovation qui soutiennent la recherche fondamentale et facilitent l'assimilation des connaissances extérieures par les entreprises - y compris via des collaborations entre les universités et les entreprises en matière de R & D– renforcent également les retombées de la frontière de la productivité mondiale, et par conséquent, la croissance de la productivité.
    Keywords: productivity, spillovers, growth, croissance, rattrapage, productivité
    JEL: C23 L16 L5 O43 O57
    Date: 2015–06–23
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1238-en&r=eff
  7. By: Bryson, Alex (National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)); Forth, John (National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR))
    Abstract: The 2008 Great Recession was notable in the UK for three things: the enormity of the output shock; the muted unemployment response; and the very slow rate of recovery. We review the literature which finds most of the decline in productivity is within sector and within firm before presenting new micro-analysis of workplace-level behaviour between 2004 and 2011 to gain insights into the processes that may have contributed to this aggregate picture. We find clear evidence of labour intensification but employers appeared incapable of turning this effort into improved workplace level productivity. Widespread pay freezes and cuts were often initiated in direct response to the recession. Workplace closure rates were little different to those experienced prior to the recession, but there is some evidence of a "cleansing" effect with poorer performing workplaces being more likely to close. There is some evidence of labour "hoarding", especially hoarding of high skilled labour: this has had no discernible impact on the rate of innovation. There is no impact of recession on either the number of HRM practices workplaces invested in, nor their returns on those investments. There is no evidence that workplaces have benefited from Britain’s "flexible" labour market as indicated by using recruitment channels used by welfare recipients or the use of numerically flexible workers. On the contrary, workplaces with increasing unionisation appeared to benefit in terms of improved workplace performance.
    Keywords: productivity, recession
    JEL: D22 E22 E23 E24 J23 J24 J3
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9097&r=eff
  8. By: Salih Ye (Kaahmramanmara); Ahmet Kaya (Akdeniz Un,versty)
    Abstract: Today’s global and uncertain business world transform the way business is conducted. Companies need to pay attention to the innovation and innovation capabilities for the survival, success and growth. Innovation provides several strategic advantages (e.g., better performance outcomes, efficiency, productivity and competitive advantages) to all types of organisations. This study focuses on innovation capability and explores its effect on firm financial performance. The hypothesis is drawn from existent related literature. Data is collected from fifty four SMEs operating in Gaziantep city of Turkey and tested through correlation and regression analyses. The results reveal that innovation capability is positively related to sales growth but not to the return on assets. The findings and implications are discussed in relation to theory and previous empirical studies.
    Keywords: Innovation, Innovation Capability, Performance, Financial Performance, SMEs
    JEL: O31 L25 M10
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:ibmpro:2303841&r=eff
  9. By: Baldwin, John R.; Yan, Beiling
    Abstract: Canada?s aggregate productivity performance has closely tracked changes in Canada?s trading environment. To gain a better understanding of the link, the Economic Analysis Division of Statistics Canada has conducted a set of studies that investigate whether and how changes in the trading environment, brought about by trade liberalization policies and exchange-rate movements, contributed to productivity growth. The firm-level analysis provides insights into the productivity dynamics that arise from within-industry growth and restructuring as resources are shifted from declining to growing industries. The paper provides an overview of the key Canadian empirical findings over the last two decades.
    Keywords: Business performance and ownership, Economic accounts, International trade, Manufacturing
    Date: 2015–06–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp5e:2015097e&r=eff
  10. By: Mike Isaacson (Department of Economics, New School for Social Research)
    Abstract: This paper demonstrates that the human-capital augmented Cobb-Douglas function is identically equal to the rules of aggregate accounting with any factor indices and an arbi- trary `human capital' variable thrown in. It is demonstrated empirically that the term for `total factor productivity' does not show total factor productivity at all, but rather a factor share weighted geometric mean of the prot rate and the quotient of the wage rate and human capital. It is demonstrated empirically with randomly generated data that both the calculation of this term as well as tests of its explanatory power in development economics are the result of using an arbitrary variable correlative with wages. It is also a story about zombies.
    Keywords: Capital, development accounting, human capital, methodology
    JEL: A13 B4 C43 E13 E24
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:1513&r=eff
  11. By: Stephen C. Smith (George Washington University)
    Abstract: This paper evaluates causal impacts of a large-scale agricultural extension program for smallholder women farmers on food security in Uganda through a regression discontinuity design that exploits an arbitrary distance-to-branch threshold for village program eligibility. We find eligible farmers experienced significant increases in agricultural production, savings and wage income, which lead to improved food security. Given minimal changes in adoption of relatively expensive inputs including HYV seeds, these gains are mainly attributed to increased usage of improved cultivation methods that are relatively costless. These results highlight the role of improved basic methods in boosting agricultural productivity among poor farmers.
    JEL: O13 I30 I12 Q12
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2015-11&r=eff
  12. By: Antonio Báez-Morales (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona)
    Abstract: The economic role of micro firms is still the subject of much discussion and debate. While these firms can be seen as potential growth drivers, as they are usually related to entrepreneurship, a relatively high share of micro firms can also be a sign of an underdeveloped productive system, which applies especially to developing countries, where micro firms represent the majority of business activity. Unlike other studies, this research separates formal and informal micro firms in order to test whether there are efficiency differences between them, and to explain these differences. One of the novelties of the study is the use of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method, which enables an analysis of the differences between both groups of firms after controlling for their different allocation of factors. Micro firms in Mexico are taken as a case study, with the Encuesta Nacional de Micronegocios (ENAMIN, or the National Micro Firm Survey), for 2008, 2010 and 2011, used to carry out the analysis. The emprical evidence suggests that output differences can be explained by endowment characteristics, while efficiency differences are explained by endowment returns. The main variables to explain the gap between the groups are the owner’s level of education, the firm’s age, the owner’s motivations, and financing.
    Keywords: informality, micro firms, efficiency, productivity, decomposition method. JEL classification: D00, D22, D24
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:201516&r=eff
  13. By: Burda, Michael C. (Humboldt University Berlin); Genadek, Katie R. (University of Minnesota); Hamermesh, Daniel S. (Royal Holloway; University of Texas at Austin)
    Abstract: Using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) 2003-12, we estimate time spent by workers in non-work while on the job. Non-work time is substantial and varies positively with the local unemployment rate. While the average time spent by workers in non-work conditional on any positive non-work rises with the unemployment rate, the fraction of workers who report time in non-work varies pro-cyclically, declining in recessions. These results are consistent with a model in which heterogeneous workers are paid efficiency wages to refrain from loafing on the job. That model correctly predicts relationships of the incidence and conditional amounts of non-work with wage rates and measures of unemployment benefits in state data linked to the ATUS, and it is consistent with observed occupational differences in non-work.
    Keywords: time use, non-work, loafing, shirking, efficiency wage, labor productivity
    JEL: J22 E24
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9095&r=eff
  14. By: Campos, Nauro F (Brunel University); Coricelli, Fabrizio (Paris School of Economics); Moretti, Luigi (University of Padova)
    Abstract: This paper investigates whether joint economic and political integration leads to larger economic benefits than just economic integration. The identification strategy rests on the fact that Norway, at the time of the 1995 Enlargement of the European Union (EU), had successfully completed negotiations and fulfilled all accession requirements, taken membership in the European Economic Area (with full access to the Single Market), but decided in a referendum to reject full-fledged EU membership. Using the differences-in-differences and synthetic control methods with regional data, we find substantial politically driven economic benefits from EU membership: if Norway had joined the EU in 1995, productivity levels between 1995 and 2001 would have been 6% higher on average.
    Keywords: political economy benefits, European Union, labor productivity, synthetic counterfactual method, regional data
    JEL: C33 F15 F43 O52
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9098&r=eff
  15. By: Riham Ahmed Ezzat (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS, FEPS - Faculty of Economics and Political Science)
    Abstract: Since the 1980s, developing countries started adopting telecom reforms due to pressures from international institutions. However, Middle East and North African (MENA) countries lagged in adopting such reforms. Even after introducing telecom reforms in the MENA region beginning in 1995, not all countries became better off in terms of various performance indicators. Therefore, this paper empirically assesses the effects of regulation, privatization and liberalization reforms, as well as their simultaneous presences, in the telecommunication sector on the sector's performance using a sample of 17 MENA countries for the period 1995-2010. We assume that different reforms are affected by institutional, political and economic variables with respect to the level of democracy, the legal origin, the natural resources rents per country and the year of independence from colonization. We correct for the endogeneity of telecom reforms, and we use IV-2SLS (Instrumental Variable-Two Stages Least Squares) estimation to analyze their effect on telecom performance in terms of access, productivity and affordability. We find that the privatization of the main incumbent operator and the fixed-line market's liberalization affect the sector's performance negatively in terms of fixed access and affordability. Moreover, we find that the simultaneous presence of an independent regulator and a privatized incumbent helps to eliminate the drawbacks on the sector performance resulting from privatization. However, the simultaneous presences of the other reforms in terms of regulation-competition and privatization-fixed competition do not help to improve the sector's performance.
    Date: 2015–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01164199&r=eff
  16. By: Bryson, Alex (National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)); Forth, John (National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)); Stokes, Lucy (National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR))
    Abstract: This paper uses linked employer-employee data to investigate the relationship between employees' subjective well-being and workplace performance in Britain. The analyses show a clear, positive and statistically-significant relationship between the average level of job satisfaction at the workplace and workplace performance. This finding is present in both cross-sectional and panel analyses and is robust to various estimation methods and model specifications. In contrast, we find no association between levels of job-related affect and workplace performance.
    Keywords: subjective wellbeing, job satisfaction, job-related affect, workplace performance
    JEL: J28
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9096&r=eff
  17. By: Jamasb,Tooraj; Nepal,Rabindra; Timilsina,Govinda R.
    Abstract: It has been more than two decades since the widespread initiation of global power sector reforms and restructuring. However, empirical evidence on the intended microeconomic, macroeconomic, and quality-related impacts of reforms across developing countries is lacking. This paper comprehensively reviews the empirical and theoretical literature on the linkages between power sector reforms, economic and technical efficiency, and poverty reduction. The review finds that the extent of power sector reforms has varied across developing countries in terms of changes in market structures, the role of the state, and the regulation of the sector. Overall, the reforms have improved the efficiency and productivity in the sector among many reforming countries. However, the efficiency gains have not always reached the end consumers because of the inability of sector regulators and inadequate regulatory frameworks. Reforms alleviate poverty and promote the welfare of the poor only when the poor have access to electricity. From a policy-making perspective, this implies that the reforms need to be supplemented with additional measures for accelerating electrification to help the poor.
    Keywords: Energy Production and Transportation,Infrastructure Regulation,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Electric Power,Infrastructure Economics
    Date: 2015–06–23
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7330&r=eff
  18. By: Dobbelaere, Sabien (VU University Amsterdam); Lauterbach, Rodolfo (Maastricht University); Mairesse, Jacques (CREST-INSEE)
    Abstract: Institutions, social norms and the nature of industrial relations vary greatly between Latin American and Western European countries. Such institutional and organizational differences might shape firms' operational environment in general and the type of competition in product and labor markets in particular. Contributing to the literature on estimating simultaneously product and labor market imperfections, this paper quantifies industry differences in both types of imperfections using firm-level data in Chile –a non-OECD member under the considered time period– and France. We rely on two extensions of Hall's econometric framework for estimating price-cost margins by nesting three labor market settings (perfect competition or right-to-manage bargaining, efficient bargaining and monopsony). Using an unbalanced panel of 1,737 firms over the period 1996-2003 in Chile containing unique data on firm-level output price indices and 14,270 firms over the period 1994-2001 in France, we first classify 20 comparable manufacturing industries in 6 distinct regimes that differ in the type of competition prevailing in product and labor markets. We then investigate industry differences in the estimated product and labor market imperfections. Consistent with differences in institutions and in the industrial relations system in the two countries, we find important regime differences across the two countries. In addition, we observe cross-country differences in the levels of product and labor market imperfections within regimes.
    Keywords: rent sharing, monopsony, price-cost mark-ups, production function, panel data
    JEL: C23 D21 J51 L13
    Date: 2015–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9125&r=eff
  19. By: Javier Ordóñez (Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Hector Sala (IZA and Department of Economics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain); José I. Silva (Department of Economics, Universitat de Girona, Spain)
    Abstract: We examine the trajectories of the real unit labour costs (RULCs) in a selection of Eurozone economies. Strong asymmetries in the convergence process of the RULCs and its components —real wages, capital intensity, and technology— are uncovered through decomposition and cluster analyses. In the last three decades, the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) succeeded in reducing their RULCs by more than their northern partners. With the exception of Ireland, however, technological progress was weak; it was through capital intensification that periphery economies gained efficiency and competitiveness. Cluster heterogeneity, and lack of robustness in cluster composition, is a reflection of the difficulties in achieving real convergence and, by extension, nominal convergence. We conclude by outlining technology as the key convergence factor, and call for a wider strategy in labour market policies, which should be more oriented to promote the sources of productivity growth.
    Keywords: Real unit labour costs, Eurozone, Real wages, Capital intensity, Technology
    JEL: F43 O47 O52
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2015/09&r=eff
  20. By: Małgorzata Pawłowska
    Abstract: The aim of this paper is to present the changes in the banking sectors of European Union (EU) countries both before the last global financial crisis and during the crisis, with particular emphasis on the change in concentration and competition, in an attempt to determine the relationship between competition, concentration, and risk-taking by banks. This paper also addresses the current problems in the banking sector of the EU (i.e., banks are too-big-to-fail (TBTF)), and attempts to solving these problems within the framework of regulatory initiatives. The empirical results based on panel data analysis find that increasing the concentration and size of the banking sectors within EU-27 from the period 2006–2010 had a negative impact on financial stability. The results for competition are unambiguous, as competition had a positive impact on financial stability, mainly within the EU-12 banking sectors.
    Keywords: banking and finance, market structure, competition, European Union (EU), banking regulations, panel data analysis, financial stability.
    JEL: F36 G2 G21 G34 L1
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbp:nbpmis:205&r=eff
  21. By: Trevor Tombe; Xiaodong Zhu
    Abstract: We study how misallocation due to goods- and labour-market frictions affect aggregate productivity in China. Combining unique data with a general equilibrium model of internal and international trade, and migration across regions and sectors, we quantify the magnitude and consequences of trade and migration costs. The costs were high in 2000, but declined afterward. The decline accounts for roughly two-fifths of aggregate labour productivity growth in China between 2000 and 2005. Reductions in internal rather than international costs are particularly important. Despite the decline, migration costs are still high and potential gains from further reform are large.
    Keywords: migration, internal trade, spatial misallocation, gains from trade, aggregate productivity, China
    JEL: F1 F4 R1 O4
    Date: 2015–06–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-542&r=eff

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