|
on Efficiency and Productivity |
|
Issue of 2021‒02‒22
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Gomez-Gonzalez, Jose Eduardo; Rodríguez Gómez, Wilson; Rodríguez Gómez, Efrén |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the determinants of student performance in the PISA 2018 tests in Colombia focusing on the rural-urban gap. Using quantile regression, a student-level education production function at different points along the achievement distribution is estimated. Applying the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, estimates of how much of the achievement differential between urban–rural students can be explained by different aspects including individual characteristics, family characteristics, and school characteristics are reported. Results indicate that mean differences in performance between students in rural and urban Colombian schools are significant. Observable factors, especially school characteristics, are the main drivers of the performance gap. Substantial differences are observed when different test percentiles of the performance distribution are considered. Our results suggest that one way in which education can reduce student performance gaps is by investing in improving school quality in rural areas in Colombia. |
| Keywords: | Rural-urban education gap; PISA 2018; Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition; Quantile regression; Education policy; Developing countries |
| JEL: | I21 I25 R58 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rie:riecdt:74&r=all |
| By: | Ganau, Roberto; Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés |
| Abstract: | We investigate the extent to which regional institutional quality shapes firm labour productivity in Western Europe, using a sample of manufacturing firms from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, observed over the period 2009–2014. The results indicate that regional institutional quality positively affects firms' labour productivity and that government effectiveness is the most important institutional determinant of productivity levels. However, how institutions shape labour productivity depends on the type of firm considered. Smaller, less capital endowed and high-tech sectors are three of the types of firms whose productivity is most favourably affected by good and effective institutions at the regional level. |
| Keywords: | cross-country analysis; labour productivity; manufacturing firms; regional institutions; Western Europe |
| JEL: | C23 D24 H41 R12 |
| Date: | 2019–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:100416&r=all |
| By: | Cuong Le Van (CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Ngoc-Sang Pham |
| Abstract: | Productivity is a key concept in economics and crucial for economic growth. By using different theoretical models, we show the role of several kinds of productivity, including total factor productivity (TFP) and labor productivity. |
| Keywords: | Productivity,TFP,labor productivity,competitiveness,growth |
| Date: | 2021–02–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03139392&r=all |
| By: | Lise Clain-Chamosset-Yvrard (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon); Xavier Raurich (UB - Universitat de Barcelona); Thomas Seegmuller (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship, growth and total factor productivity are larger when there is a financial bubble. We explain these facts using a growth model with financial bubbles in which individuals face heterogeneous wages and returns on productive investment. The heterogeneity in the return of in- vestment separates individuals between savers and entrepreneurs. Savers buy financial assets, which are deposits or a financial bubble. Entrepreneurs incur in a start-up cost and borrow to invest in productive capital. The bubble provides liquidities to credit-constrained entrepreneurs. These liquidities increase investment and entrepreneurship when the start- up cost is large enough, which explains that growth and entrepreneurship can be larger with bubbles. Finally, productivity can be larger when the bubble further increases the investment of more productive entrepreneurs. This can occur when the return of investment is correlated with wages. |
| Keywords: | bubble,entrepreneurship,growth,productivity |
| Date: | 2021–02–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03134474&r=all |
| By: | Chaoran Chen; Diego Restuccia; Raul Santaeulalia-Llopis |
| Abstract: | We assess the effects of land markets on misallocation and productivity both empirically and quantitatively. Exploiting variation from a land certification reform across time and space in Ethiopia, we find that certification facilitates rentals and improves agricultural productivity. We calibrate a quantitative macroeconomic model with heterogeneous household farms facing institutional costs to land markets using the micro panel data. The effect of a counterfactual reallocation from no rentals to efficient rentals increases zone-level agricultural productivity by 43 percent on average. While our estimated institutional costs are strongly associated with land certification across zones, there are nontrivial residual frictions to rental market activity, implying that land certification only partially captures the overall effects of rentals. A full certification reform accounts for just one-fourth of the overall productivity gains from land rentals. This result highlights the importance of comprehensive reforms alleviating frictions to land transactions beyond the granting of certificates. |
| Keywords: | Land, Markets, Rentals, Misallocation, Productivity, Inequality, Panel Data. |
| JEL: | E02 O10 O11 O13 O43 O55 Q15 Q18 Q24 |
| Date: | 2021–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-688&r=all |
| By: | De Bonis, Riccardo; Ferri, Giovanni; Forte, Antonio; Silipo, Damiano Bruno |
| Abstract: | Finance is a salient driver in promoting growth also by supporting changes in the specialization of production. Thus, it is paramount that finance goes to sunrise productive branches embodying more technology and so higher growth potential. Is it so in reality? We address this question by investigating the long-run allocation of bank loans in the bank-dependent Italian economy. We reach three main findings. First, banks lent more to the branches where value added was growing more rapidly, while loans went less to riskier sectors with higher bad loans ratios. Second, the allocation of loans was, however, insensitive to the growth of productivity and did not support the higher technology branches. Third, the allocation of loans to the more technology-oriented branches improved since the early 1990s, when credit markets were liberalized. Overall, in our assessment banks were rather following than leading productive transformations, but managed to avoid large scale misallocation of credit. Hence, we give banks just a pass grade. |
| Keywords: | Allocation of bank loans; Branch productivity and value added; Long-run perspective; Non performing loans. |
| JEL: | G20 G21 O30 O47 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:106123&r=all |
| By: | Heyman, Fredrik (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Norbäck, Pehr-Johan (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Persson, Lars (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | We propose a model with asymmetric firms where new technologies displace workers. We show that both leading (low-cost) firms and laggard (high-cost) firms increase productivity when automating but that only laggard firms hire more automation-susceptible workers. The reason for this asymmetry is that in laggard firms, the lower incentive to invest in new technologies implies a weaker displacement effect and thus that the output-expansion effect on labor demand dominates. Using novel firm-level automation workforce probabilities, which reveal the extent to which a firms’ workforce can be replaced by new AI and robotic technology and a new shiftshare instrument to address endogeneity, we find strong empirical evidence for these predictions in Swedish matched employer-employee data. |
| Keywords: | AI&R Technology; Automation; Job displacement; Firm Heterogeneity; Matched employer-employee data |
| JEL: | J70 L20 M50 |
| Date: | 2021–02–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1382&r=all |