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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2023‒07‒24
23 papers chosen by |
| By: | Clancy, Matthew S.; Wang, Sun Ling |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis, Production Economics, Agricultural and Food Policy |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:335454&r=eff |
| By: | Abdoulaye KANE (CSTB - Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, UPN SEGMI - Université Paris Nanterre - UFR Sciences économiques, gestion, mathématiques, informatique - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre, EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jimmy Lopez (LEDi - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dijon [Dijon] - UB - Université de Bourgogne - UBFC - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté [COMUE]) |
| Abstract: | Labor productivity growth in the construction sector has been very weak in recent decades in most OECD countries. This paper addresses this issue based on a panel of 23 countries over the period 1995-2015. First, we use the Ackerberg, Caves, and Frazer (2015) method to propose a multifactor explanation for this lack of productivity growth: (i) average TFP growth is close to zero and even negative for most countries; (ii) average contributions to growth of capital and intermediate inputs are positive but weak, respectively of 0.05% and 0.90% per year, and much smaller than in the manufacturing sector over the same period (respectively of 0.40% and 3.10% per year). Then, we investigate whether reforms of regulations specific to the construction sector might boost productivity there. Using regulation indicators from the "Doing Business Report", we find a negative impact of these regulations on TFP, but not on the intensities of capital and intermediate inputs. Our results suggest that reducing the construction sector regulations might bolster productivity: a switch to the lightest regulations would lead to a long-term TFP increase of 6% on average. |
| Keywords: | Construction sector, Production function, Labor productivity, Total factor productivity, Regulation and business law |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04117046&r=eff |
| By: | Wang, Huaiyu; Bin, Bing; Pede, Valerien O. |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis, Community/Rural/Urban Development, International Development |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:335541&r=eff |
| By: | Jin, Yanhong; Li, Daiyue; Cheng, Mingwang |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis, Production Economics, International Relations/Trade |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:335879&r=eff |
| By: | Jaretzky, Huong; Liebenehm, Sabine; Waibel, Hermann |
| Keywords: | Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:335628&r=eff |
| By: | Chakravorty, Rwit; Hennessy, David A.; Feng, Hongli |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Production Economics |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:335975&r=eff |
| By: | Jakub Growiec; Peter McAdam; Jakub dup Muck |
| Abstract: | We supplement the “Idea Production Function” (IPF), whereby research and development (R&D) activity leads to growth, with measures of R&D capital. We construct the R&D capital stock in the United States and estimate the IPF with patent applications as R&D output, allowing for a flexible treatment of R&D productivity (over 1968–2019). The estimated substitution elasticity between R&D inputs is 0.7−0.8, which suggests that R&D capital is an essential factor in producing ideas and complementary to R&D labor. We identify a positive trend in R&D labor productivity (roughly 1 percent) and a cyclical variation of R&D capital productivity. Rather than “ideas getting harder to find, ” the R&D capital needed to find them has become scarce. |
| Keywords: | macroeconomics; Idea Production Function (IPF); R&D capital |
| JEL: | O30 O40 O47 |
| Date: | 2023–05–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedkrw:96357&r=eff |
| By: | Davide Luparello |
| Abstract: | This paper reevaluates the conventional approach to quantifying within-industry resource misallocation, typically measured by the dispersion of an input marginal product. My findings suggest that this statistic incorporates inherent productivity heterogeneity and idiosyncratic productivity shocks, irrespective of the input under scrutiny. Using balance sheet data from American and European manufacturing firms, I show that total factor productivity (TFP) volatility accounts for 7% of the variance in the marginal product of capital, 9% for labor, and 10% for material inputs. Consequently, this index, taken at face value, fails to identify policy-induced misallocation for any production input. To overcome this limitation, I propose a comparative analysis strategy driven by an identified policy variation. This approach allows the researcher to assess induced misallocation in relative terms whilst controlling for differences in TFP volatility. I show that the financial crisis had an uneven impact on the within-industry dispersion of the marginal product of capital across European nations, reflecting their differing financial sector maturity and suggesting the existence of financial misallocative frictions. The crisis did not affect the dispersion of the marginal product for other inputs. |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2306.08760&r=eff |
| By: | Dan Andrews; Elif Bahar; Jonathan Hambur |
| Abstract: | The consequences of the pandemic for potential output will partly hinge on its impact on productivity-enhancing reallocation. While recessions can accelerate this process, the more ‘random’ nature of the COVID-19 shock coupled with policy responses that prioritised preservation could disrupt productivity-enhancing reallocation. Our analysis based on novel high-frequency employment data for Australia shows that labour reallocation (and firm exit) remained connected to firm productivity over 2020 and 2021. However, outside of the initial acute phase of the shock the relationship weakened significantly compared to history. Australia’s job retention scheme (JobKeeper) initially reinforced the connection between growth and productivity, supporting more productive firms. But it became more distortive over time and as the economy recovered. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, productivity, reallocation, recessions |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J63 O4 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2023-29&r=eff |
| By: | Cameron-Harp, Micah; Biram, Hunter D. |
| Keywords: | Risk and Uncertainty, Productivity Analysis, Research Methods/Statistical Methods |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:335943&r=eff |
| By: | Hutchins, Jared P.; Nolan, Derek; Skidmore, Marin |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:335579&r=eff |
| By: | Mandasari, Putriesti; Luckstead, Jeff |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Productivity Analysis, Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:336003&r=eff |
| By: | Czyżewski, Bazyli; Kryszak, Łukasz |
| Abstract: | Small farms constitute the vast majority of agricultural holdings in the world. Therefore, there are the questions of how the small farm sector should evolve and whether economic and environmental goals can be pursued simultaneously. The main objective of this article is to identify potential improvements (a non-radial inefficiency slack) in small farms in Central and Eastern Europe with different types of farming under an environmentally adjusted production function. Based on this, potential development pathways for small farms are assumed. A hybrid data envelopment analysis meta-frontier super-efficiency model with environmental proxies reflecting biodiversity (i.e. crops diversity, grassland, orchards, vineyards) and undesirable outputs (such as soil organic matter loss and GHG sources) and an uncontrollable policy input is used on a country-representative sample of 2320 small farms in four countries: Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Moldova. We found that the more technically efficient small farms are also usually more sustainable when socially desirable criteria were considered. Crops small farms can evolve in two directions: “landscape guardians” and “artisanal (traditional) framers.” Livestock farms could either maintain the status quo or choose an exit pathway. Mixed farms are likely to become landscape guardians, while a sustainable intensification path is open for 20% of farms that specialize in permanent crops. |
| Keywords: | Development of agriculture; Public goods; Eco-efficiency; Small farms; Sustainable agriculture; Agricultural policy |
| JEL: | C67 Q15 |
| Date: | 2023–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:117642&r=eff |
| By: | Jean Galbert, ONGONO OLINGA |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the relationship between agricultural productivity and climate change in sub-Saharan Africa. The main objective is to justify the observed upward trend in agricultural productivity as the temperature is increasing and rainfalls are decreasing. We argue that the relationship between agricultural productivity, temperature, and precipitation is non-linear. Specifically, there are thresholds from which the effect of temperature on agricultural productivity is exceeded by the effect of precipitation. We hypothesize that even if precipitation is decreasing, its level over a year is still sufficient for its positive effect on agricultural productivity to outweigh the negative effect of rising temperatures. Using data from the FAO database on seven different groups of crops, we estimate a Panel Smooth Transition regression model and results show that there is a non-linear relationship between agricultural productivity, temperature, and precipitation. On average, the effect of temperature on agricultural productivity is exceeded by the effect of precipitation observed over a year. We recommend that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa invest in agricultural research to find irrigation techniques that will mitigate the future effects of scarcity of rainwater owed to extremely hot temperatures. |
| Keywords: | Climate change, agriculture, PSTR |
| JEL: | C50 N57 O13 |
| Date: | 2023–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:117669&r=eff |
| By: | Rivadeneira Alex |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I document the existence of unconditional convergence in labor productivity across Mexican states in three-digit manufacturing industries. The rate of convergence for the period 1988-2018 is 1.18% per year. However, this result does not hold at the aggregate level: I find no unconditional convergence in manufacturing-wide labor productivity across states. Shift-sharing analysis reveals that the primary reason for this is the lack of labor reallocation towards more productive industries, and the underperformance of some of the largest ones. Unconditional convergence at all levels only occurred during 1988-1998. Afterward, the convergence process broke down and was only observed at disaggregated levels. I provide evidence that one possible cause of this breakdown is the so-called "China shock". Additionally, I show that the convergence process, when it happened, has tended to exhibit a catching-down feature, where past-leaders have seen their labor productivity decline. |
| Keywords: | Growth;Convergence;Manufacturing;Mexico |
| JEL: | O40 O14 O54 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2023-06&r=eff |
| By: | Kurkalova, Lyubov A.; Ghezehei, Solomon |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis, Resource/Energy Economics and Policy, Production Economics |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:335595&r=eff |
| By: | Giulia Rossello; Robin Cowan; Jacques Mairesse |
| Abstract: | We study whether student-advisor gender and race composition matters for publication productivity of Ph.D. students in South Africa. We consider all Ph.D. students in STEM graduating between 2000 and 2014, after the recent systematic introduction of doctoral programs in this country. We investigate the joint effects of gender and race for the whole sample and looking separately at the sub-samples of (1) white-white; (2) black-black; and (3) black-white student-advisor couples. We find significant productivity differences between male and female students. These disparities are more pronounced for female students working with male advisors when looking at the joint effects of gender and race for the white-white and black-black student-advisor pairs. We also explore whether publication productivity differences change significantly for students with a high, medium, or low “productivity-profile”. We find that female productivity gaps are U-shaped over the range of productivity. Female students working with male advisors have more persistent productivity gaps over the productivity distribution, while female students with a high (or low) “productivity-profile” studying with female advisors are as productive as male students with similar “productivity-profile” studying with male advisors. |
| JEL: | A14 I23 I24 J15 J16 O32 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31346&r=eff |
| By: | Sharma, Somnath (Asian Development Bank Institute); Kant, Shashi (Asian Development Bank Institute); Mishra, Ranjeeta (Asian Development Bank Institute); Azhgaliyeva, Dina (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether better access to markets through an improved road network plays a role in improving firm profitability in India. We construct a district-level market access index using shapefiles of India's road network, district boundaries, and nightlight raster images and estimate the shortest driving distances for districts using the road network. Using the annual survey of industries data for India during 2001–2015, we show that market access through improved road connectivity resulted in a lower dispersion of ROA between 2001 and 2015 in India. |
| Keywords: | India; road infrastructure; firm productivity; market access index; electricity deficit; road length |
| JEL: | D22 D24 H54 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:1351&r=eff |
| By: | Jirjahn, Uwe (University of Trier); Mohrenweiser, Jens (Bournemouth University) |
| Abstract: | While studies on individual-based and collective payment schemes are largely unconnected, there appears to be a widely held belief that individual-based schemes have a stronger influence on firm performance than collective ones. This also applies to an index of best management practices developed by Bloom and Van Reenen (2007). The index assigns the highest weight to individual-based performance pay, a medium weight to group-based performance pay and a low weight to profit sharing. This weighting is obviously driven by the implicit assumption that collective payment schemes suffer from a free-rider problem so they have a less strong influence on productivity than individual-based schemes. We show that this assumption is questionable from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. Using the German Management and Organizational Practices Survey, one of the datasets initiated by Bloom and Van Reenen, we show that individual-based performance pay does not outperform group-based performance pay or profit sharing. The finding also holds when accounting for possible interactions among the payment schemes and considering the moderating roles of firm size, employee representation, and innovativeness. Our results suggest that researchers should be careful with respect to the assumptions and subjective priors guiding their empirical analyses. |
| Keywords: | management practices, free-rider problem, individual performance pay, group performance pay, profit sharing |
| JEL: | J33 M52 M50 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16267&r=eff |
| By: | Jay Bhattacharya; Paul Bollyky; Jeremy D. Goldhaber-Fiebert; Geir H. Holom; Mikko Packalen; David M. Studdert |
| Abstract: | The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is the most prestigious and coveted award in medical research. Anecdotal evidence and related research suggest that receiving it may adversely affect research productivity. We compared the post-Nobel research output of laureates (prize years: 1950-2010) with their pre-Nobel output and with the output of a matched control group consisting of winners of the Lasker Award, another highly prestigious medical research prize. Pre-Nobel, laureates’ publications were more voluminous, highly cited, and novel than those of (future) Lasker winners. Post-Nobel, laureates’ productivity decreased sharply, eventually falling below that of Lasker winners on all three measures. These declines may reflect diversionary effects of the Prize, changed incentives, or intrinsically different career arcs for medical researchers who win the Nobel Prize. |
| JEL: | I1 I23 O3 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31352&r=eff |
| By: | Cirulli, Vanessa; Marini, Giorgia; Marini, Marco A.; Straume, Odd Rune |
| Abstract: | We analyse – theoretically and empirically – the effect of hospital mergers on waiting times in healthcare markets where prices are fixed. Using a spatial modelling framework where patients choose provider based on travelling distance and waiting times, we show that the effect is theoretically ambiguous. In the presence of cost synergies, the scope for lower waiting times as a result of the merger is larger if the hospitals are more profit-oriented. This result is arguably confirmed by our empirical analysis, which is based on a conditional flexible difference-indifferences methodology applied to a long panel of data on hospital mergers in the English NHS, where we find that the effects of a merger on waiting times crucially rely on a legal status that can reasonably be linked to the degree of profit-orientation. Whereas hospital mergers involving Foundation Trusts tend to reduce waiting times, the corresponding effect of mergers involving hospitals without this legal status tends to go in the opposite direction |
| Keywords: | Health Economics and Policy, Productivity Analysis, Public Economics |
| Date: | 2023–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemwp:337014&r=eff |
| By: | Zied Jemai (LGI - Laboratoire Génie Industriel - EA 2606 - CentraleSupélec); Gustavo Santamaria-Acevedo (Université Paris-Saclay); Oualid Jouini (Université Paris-Saclay); Benjamin Legros (Métis Lab EM Normandie - EM Normandie - École de Management de Normandie) |
| Abstract: | This article aims to provide a review and classification of the current state of the art on the performance metrics used for the operations management in emergency operating theaters. We have classified the metrics into two categories. The first category consists of hospital-centered metrics. They are performance measures that are of interest to the hospital due to their possible impact on the institution's productivity or revenue. The second category consists of patient centered metrics. These metrics take explicitly into consideration the patients' experiences and which have a direct impact on the patients' safety and satisfaction. Having a comprehensive set of performance indicators used in Emergency Operating Theaters will allow surgery chiefs and hospital managers to implement missing indicators and to identify previously unknown quality issues, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement. |
| Keywords: | Non-elective surgeries, Operating rooms, Operations management, Key performance indicators |
| Date: | 2021–09–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03558837&r=eff |
| By: | Koloma, Yaya; Some, Juste |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of public financing devoted to agriculture on the performance of the agriculture sector and on the environmental degradation in Ghana over the period 1996-2019. The paper particularly focuses on three tree crops value chains, namely cashew, cocoa and mango sub-sectors. The agriculture performance is measured by the value added. The environmental degradation is measured by the greenhouse emissions from agriculture. The empirical methodology is based on a multivariate econometric approach, in particular a VAR model in a form of error correction that considers the long-term relationships (cointegration) between variables. The results from the impulse-response functions indicate that public financing significantly improves agricultural performance but with mixed impacts on environmental quality. It helps improve agricultural performance by increasing agricultural value added and agricultural productivity. However, this support tends to have a negative impact in terms of CO2 emissions in Ghana. The policy implications suggest that the increase in support to the agricultural sector is highly commendable and should be strengthened for the three trees crops, but policymakers should consider the potential negative impact of the financing on carbon dioxide emissions. To this end, while for mango a few non-financial measures seem necessary, for cocoa and cashew, substantial non-financial resources are required to make these crops more climate or environmentally sensitive, through incentives and awareness. This means encouraging use of innovative tools on farms, including climate smart agriculture methods to make these crops less degrading for the quality of the environment in Ghana. |
| Keywords: | Public Financing, tree crops value chains, Environmental degradation, Ghana, VAR models |
| JEL: | Q14 Q56 Q18 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:272934&r=eff |