nep-eff New Economics Papers
on Efficiency and Productivity
Issue of 2021‒11‒15
thirteen papers chosen by



  1. Technological Diffusion and Productivity Convergence across European Regions: A Spatial Approach over the Period 2000-2015 By Fabio Manca; Giuseppe Piroli
  2. Productivity Effects of Biological Control of Maize Stemborer Pests in Kenya: Damage Control Function Approach By Midingoyi, Soul-Kifouly; Affognon, Hippolyte; Macharia, Ibrahim; Leru, Bruno
  3. Green Production Technologies and Technical Efficiency of Rice Farmers in China: A Case Study of Straw-Derived Biochar By Wang, Anbang; He, Ke; Zhang, Junbiao; Zeng, Yangmei
  4. Investigating Technical Efficiency of Spanish Pig Farming: A Quantile Regression Approach By Guesmi, Bouali; Monje, Juan Cabas; Sidhoum, Amer Ait; Gil, Jose M.
  5. Technology and Technical Efficiency Gaps Correcting for Selectivity Bias: A Preliminary Analysis from a VALUE Chain Project in Nepal By Neubauer, Florian; Songsermsawas, Tisorn; Zegarra, Joanna Kámiche; Bravo-Ureta, Boris E.
  6. What Are the Labor and Product Market Effects of Automation? By Philippe Aghion; Céline Antonin; Simon Bunel; Xavier Jaravel
  7. Globally Consistent Creditor Protection, Reallocation, and Productivity By Bian, Bo
  8. Structural change and productivity growth in the European Union: Past, present and future By DUERNECKER Georg; SANCHEZ MARTINEZ Miguel
  9. Trade liberalization and manufacturing productivity changes in Korea during the past three decades By Song, Yeongkwan
  10. COVID-19 financial aid and productivity- has support been well spent? By Carlo Altomonte; Maria Demertzis; Lionel Fontagné; Steffen Müller
  11. Does the geographic clustering of universities promote their scientific research performance? Evidence from China By Chu, Shuai; Wu, Mengfei
  12. Induced Bias of Technological Change in Agriculture and Structural Transformation: A Translog Cost Function Analysis of Chinese Cereal Production By Dong, Qi; Murakami, Tomoaki; Nakashima, Yasuhiro
  13. Developing states and the green challenge. A dynamic approach By Alexandra-Anca Purcel

  1. By: Fabio Manca; Giuseppe Piroli
    Abstract: What are the drivers of growth and convergence in productivity at regional level? Differences in the stock of human capital across regions are hypothesized to be the major cause of differences in the speed by which following regions converge and catch-up with the most advanced ones. In addition, we test the role played by R&D expenditures and institutions exploiting a database covering European regions from 1995 to 2015, which includes regional total factor productivity (TFP) computed by the conventional residual approach. We find robust empirical evidence for these hypotheses in terms of both model specifications and sectoral disaggregation.
    Keywords: Regional Studies, European Regions, Catching-up, Total Factor Productivity
    JEL: P48 D24 J24 E02 C31 C33
    Date: 2021–10–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2021_07&r=
  2. By: Midingoyi, Soul-Kifouly; Affognon, Hippolyte; Macharia, Ibrahim; Leru, Bruno
    Keywords: Crop Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis
    Date: 2021–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae21:315385&r=
  3. By: Wang, Anbang; He, Ke; Zhang, Junbiao; Zeng, Yangmei
    Keywords: Farm Management, Crop Production/Industries
    Date: 2021–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae21:315026&r=
  4. By: Guesmi, Bouali; Monje, Juan Cabas; Sidhoum, Amer Ait; Gil, Jose M.
    Keywords: Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Livestock Production/Industries
    Date: 2021–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae21:315196&r=
  5. By: Neubauer, Florian; Songsermsawas, Tisorn; Zegarra, Joanna Kámiche; Bravo-Ureta, Boris E.
    Keywords: Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies
    Date: 2021–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae21:314979&r=
  6. By: Philippe Aghion (Harvard University [Cambridge]); Céline Antonin (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques - Sciences Po - Sciences Po); Simon Bunel; Xavier Jaravel (LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science)
    Abstract: What are the effects of automation in the labor and product markets? A host of factors may be at play. Automating the production process may displace certain workers, raising the possibility of technological unemployment, but these displacement effects could be offset by a productivity effect. Automation may induce productivity gains, increase market demand and the scale of production, and in turn increase labor demand. Depending on the extent to which productivity gains are passed through to consumers by producers, consumers could benefit from lower prices or producers could retain higher profits. Finally, because of business-stealing effects from firms that automate and displace their competitors, the industry-level employment and the price and profit effects of automation may differ from their firm-level or plant-level impacts. [First paragraph]
    Keywords: Automation,Employment,Plant-level,Firm-level,Labor market,Product market,Manufacturing
    Date: 2020–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03384668&r=
  7. By: Bian, Bo
    Abstract: This paper documents that resource reallocation across firms is an important mechanism through which creditor rights affect real outcomes. I exploit the staggered adoption of an international convention that provides globally consistent strong creditor protection for aircraft finance. After this reform, country-level productivity in the aviation sector increases by 12%, driven mostly by across-firm reallocation. Productive airlines borrow more, expand, and adopt new technology at the expense of unproductive ones. Such reallocation is facilitated by (i) easier and quicker asset redeployment; and (ii) the influx of foreign financiers offering innovative financial products to improve credit allocative efficiency. I further document an increase in competition and an improvement in the breadth and the quality of products available to consumers.
    Keywords: Creditor Rights,Allocative Effciency,Reallocation,Productivity and Growth,Law and Finance
    JEL: D22 D24 G32 G33 K12 K33 L11
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:lawfin:6&r=
  8. By: DUERNECKER Georg; SANCHEZ MARTINEZ Miguel (European Commission - JRC)
    Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate the interplay between structural change, interpreted as the secular process of sectoral transformation, and labour productivity growth in the EU in several new dimensions. First, based on the latest data, we document the size of the negative effect that structural change has exerted onto productivity growth over long time horizons. We provide a comparative analysis of these and present-day trends with respect to the US. Second, we develop a general equilibrium model calibrated to match these empirical observations to analyse the potential impact that projected structural change may have on future productivity growth. This model generates structural change through both price and income effects. Our main results indicate that, other things equal, this phenomenon is bound to have a greater dent on productivity growth in the future than it has had in the past. This is the case for both newer and older EU Member States, albeit with important nuances. Our findings suggest that policies should focus on the promotion of productivity-enhancing technological innovation, as well as on the furtherance of greater levels of competition, especially in the most sluggish service sectors.
    Keywords: Structural change, Productivity growth, Economic growth, Baumol's cost disease, Service sector, European Union
    Date: 2021–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:termod:202109&r=
  9. By: Song, Yeongkwan
    Abstract: One of the key goals of trade policy, which includes FTAs, should be the enhancement of productivity in the overall economy through the improved productivity of the tradable sector. This can be achieved by enhancing the productivity of existing firms, and eliminating lowproductivity firms to improve overall industrial productivity. This study examines the effects of Korea's trade policies in terms of bolstering the productivity of existing firms in the tradable sector. It shows that Korea's FTAs with major trade partners, such as the EU, US and China, have failed to provide meaningful impetus. As for raising productivity through firm exits, this study confirms that it has a positive impact on raising total factor productivity (TFP) across industry. However, further studies are needed to substantiate that this is owed to trade liberalization. To raise overall economic productivity, future trade policies should be designed to enhance the productivity of existing firms, and expel those with low productivity. A trade policy-driven expansion of imports and exports could brighten the prospects for the tradable sector, encouraging firms to boost productivity. It is imperative that efforts are made to increase the positive effects of trade liberalization and minimize the negative effects on society by shifting the focus of the current Trade Adjustment Assistance system towards supporting workers instead of firms, and improving retraining and vocational programs for the unemployed, among others.
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:kdifor:278&r=
  10. By: Carlo Altomonte; Maria Demertzis; Lionel Fontagné; Steffen Müller
    Abstract: This Policy Contribution is an output from the MICROPROD project, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 822390. The authors thank colleagues at Bruegel for valuable comments and suggestions. Lionel Jeanrenaud and Maddalena Conte provided valuable research assistance. Opinions are those of the authors. Most European Union countries have made good progress with vaccinating their populations against COVID-19 and are...
    Date: 2021–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bre:polcon:45599&r=
  11. By: Chu, Shuai; Wu, Mengfei
    Abstract: The fundamental purpose of university geographic clustering is to gather resources through "agglomeration" to improve the performance of higher education and scientific research. However, it has been debated whether university clusters can achieve the latter goal. With the help of the “quasi-experiment” of Chinese "University Towns" project in the 1990s, this study determines the impact of university clusters on scientific research performance. Panel data of 2000 colleges and universities from 1993 to 2017 in the compilation of scientific and technical statistics of Chinese higher education and time-varying difference in differences method are used. The results show that the cluster of colleges and universities have a significant negative impact on the scientific research performance due to technological dis-proximity and rising commuting costs. And the clustering effect is related to the number of participating schools and the level of the university. Therefore, university clustering cannot effectively promote the performance of scientific research and unable to bring agglomeration economies.
    Keywords: University cluster,Economies of agglomeration,Scientific research performance,Time-varying difference in differences method
    JEL: I23 O38 O53
    Date: 2021
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:963&r=
  12. By: Dong, Qi; Murakami, Tomoaki; Nakashima, Yasuhiro
    Keywords: Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Crop Production/Industries
    Date: 2021–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae21:315373&r=
  13. By: Alexandra-Anca Purcel (CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne)
    Abstract: This paper studies the effects of output, urbanization, energy intensity, and renewable energy on aggregated and sector-specific CO2 emissions for a rich sample of developing states. We employ the recently developed GMM panel VAR technique, which allows us to tackle the potential endogeneity issue and capture both the current and future impact of indicators on CO2 via the impulse-response analysis. On the one hand, robust to several alternative specifications, the findings indicate that output, urbanization, and energy intensity increase the aggregated CO2 emissions, while renewable energy exhibits an opposite effect. Moreover, regarding the CO2 responsiveness to output and urbanization shocks, the pattern may suggest that these countries are likely to attain the threshold that would trigger a decline in CO2 emissions. We also reveal heterogeneities related to both countries' economic development and Kyoto Protocol ratification/ascension status. On the other hand, the sectoral analysis unveils that the transportation, buildings, and non-combustion sector tend to contribute more to increasing the future CO2 levels. Overall, our study may provide useful insights concerning environmental sustainability prospects in developing states.
    Keywords: CO2 emissions,urbanization,energy efficiency,renewable energy,developing countries,environmental Kuzents curve,GMM panel VAR
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03182341&r=

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