|
on Efficiency and Productivity |
|
Issue of 2024‒05‒27
fifteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Daan Freeman; Leon Bettendorf; Gerrit Hugo van Heuvelen; Gerdien Meijerink |
| Abstract: | This study examines the decline in firm dynamism within the Netherlands, potentially linked to the deceleration of productivity growth. We utilise a rich microdata set covering the period 2006-2016, encompassing nearly all Dutch corporations. This dataset facilitates an evaluation of start-ups’ and exiting firms’ contributions to Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth across various industries, employing the Melitz and Polanec (2015) decomposition approach. Our findings reveal that in service sectors, the creative destruction hypothesis is substantiated, as start-ups and exiting firms positively impact overall TFP growth. In contrast, TFP growth in manufacturing is primarily driven by incumbent firms. Entry and exit dynamics in this context exert minimal or even negative influence on TFP growth. Although entrants in manufacturing initially display lower productivity than incumbents, their productivity growth outpaces that of incumbents. In services, entrants commence operations with higher initial productivity, a trait that gradually diminishes over time. Generally, entrants with relatively low productivity are predisposed to exit within five years, aligning with the ’up-or-out’ pattern. |
| Keywords: | productivity slowdown, firm dynamics, TFP, Netherlands |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11071&r=eff |
| By: | Prasetyo, Octavia Rizky; Kadir, Kadir |
| Abstract: | This study aims to assess whether Jajar Legowo planting system has a significant impact on increasing the productivity of wetland paddy and the income of the paddy growers in Indonesia. We applied a linear regression model to the results of the 2017 National Cost Structure of Paddy Cultivation Household Survey conducted by BPS-Statistics Indonesia in all 34 provinces. The main contribution of this study is to provide an evaluation of the performance of Jajar Legowo planting system in increasing paddy productivity and income of the farmers. Therefore, our research can be used by the government as a reference for future improvement of the implementation of Jajar Legowo cultivation system. Our findings show that the new cultivation system has a significant impact on increasing the productivity of wetland paddy. Without controlling for other variables affecting productivity, the estimation result pointed out that on average, the new cultivation system can increase productivity by about 10 per cent. However, after controlling for other variables (the farmers and other cultivations characteristics), the magnitude decreases to around 5 per cent. Moreover, our estimation results also show that the income of the farmers rises by around 12 per cent by implementing Jajar Legowo. Our study indicates that the implementation of Jajar Legowo planting system results in better efficiency than that of the conventional one. |
| Keywords: | Jajar Legowo, productivity, the income of farmers |
| JEL: | Q1 Q12 Q16 Q18 |
| Date: | 2023–08–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:120695&r=eff |
| By: | Amor Aniss Benmoussa; Raheeb Dastagir; Eshini Ekanayake; Justin-Damien Guénette; Helen Lao; Jenna Rolland-Mills; Aidan Spencer; Lin Xiang |
| Abstract: | This note presents the annual update of Bank of Canada staff estimates for growth in global potential output. These estimates serve as key inputs to the analysis supporting the April 2024 Monetary Policy Report. |
| Keywords: | Potential output; Productivity |
| JEL: | E1 E2 F0 O4 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bca:bocsan:24-10&r=eff |
| By: | Tessa Devakos; Christopher Hajzler; Stephanie Houle; Craig Johnston; Antoine Poulin-Moore; Ron Rautu; Temel Taskin |
| Abstract: | We expect that potential output in Canada will grow by 2.3% and 2.5% in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and average slightly below 1.7% by 2027 as population growth moderates. Relative to the April 2023 assessment, growth is revised up in 2024, with a larger contribution from trend labour input due to higher-than-anticipated population growth. We revise down our estimates of growth over 2025–26. |
| Keywords: | Economic models; Labour markets; Monetary policy; Potential output; Productivity |
| JEL: | E2 E3 E4 E5 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bca:bocsan:24-11&r=eff |
| By: | Chávez, Carlos (Faculty of Economics and Business, Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile); Dresdner, Jorge (Department of Economics, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile); González, Nuria (Research Nucleus on Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Environment for Development (EfD), Concepción, Chile); Leiva, Mauricio (Research Nucleus on Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, EfD) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the Aquaculture Performance Indicators (APIs) methodology by applying it to three aquaculture production systems in Chile. Our analysis considers the production of mussels, algae, and northern scallops. Our basic analysis model is a production function framework where the performance outcomes result from the available inputs. We measured all API categories (outcomes and input metrics) and then grouped the metrics into different dimensions suitable for analysis. We obtained the value of each metric from various sources using expert evaluation and secondary information to calculate aggregated measures for each production system. We compared the results for each production system and tested the equality of matched pairs of observations. Then, we evaluate the performance of the three production systems using the frame of a separable multiproduct production function. We found statistically significant differences in the aggregated performance and inputs between mussels and algae and mussels and northern scallops. However, we did not find statistical differences in the outputs. The results suggest that mussel production has a higher (average) level of sustainable inputs than the other production systems. This difference in inputs, however, is not fully reflected in output differences. We discuss possible explanations for our findings. |
| Keywords: | Aquaculture Performance Indicators; production systems; triple bottom line; sustainable aquaculture. |
| JEL: | Q22 |
| Date: | 2023–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunefd:2023_014&r=eff |
| By: | Marko Dru?i? (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb); Tomislav Gelo (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb) |
| Abstract: | The aim of the paper was to investigate the effects of the share of value added of the ICT sector on productivity within the EU, and also to investigate any systematic differences in the effects between east (transition countries) and west (developed) EU members. To analyze the effect we used a fixed effects panel framework on a total of 23 EU countries (12 countries in ?west? and 11 in ?east? Europe) in a 25 year time period (1995-2020). Our main finding is that overall the share of ICT value added is a relevant and statistically significant predictor of labor productivity in the entire EU region. Furthermore, we find that the effect is twice as strong in west as opposed to east EU countries, implying a greater efficiency in translating new technology into more output per worker in developed countries. Additionally, we find that government share of GDP is a negative predictor of labor productivity in both sets of countries, giving credence to the often heard criticisms of the inefficient EU labor market due to excessive regulation which is further exacerbated by high corruption levels in east EU countries. Finally, we find that GDP per capita has a statistically significant negative relationship with productivity also in both sets of countries, implying that there is a significant catch-up effect at work both within west and east EU, with higher GDP per capita levels corresponding with lower productivity growth. |
| Keywords: | ICT, Productivity, Transition countries |
| JEL: | N10 O47 O57 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iefpro:14115901&r=eff |
| By: | Mengus, Eric (HEC Paris); Michalski, Tomasz (HEC Paris) |
| Abstract: | Specialized knowledge-generating jobs comprise close to one fifth of employment and one fourth of the wage bill in French manufacturing firms. They are positioned high in the firm hierarchy, horizontally aside upper-tier managers but are not managerial in nature. This escapes the patterns implied by the hierarchy view of the firm. Conditioning on firm size and shares of management workers, their higher shares in employment at the firm level are correlated with more innovation and intangible capital, greater product complexity, higher revenue and quantity total factor productivity and profitability. This suggests that firms use specialized knowledge workers to generate within-firm knowledge and create firm capabilities. Consistently, we model firms as organizations where efficient production of higher-value added, complex goods requires information acquisition by within-firm knowledge workers to develop capabilities beyond those created by management and hierarchies. |
| Keywords: | firm organization; complexity; productivity; knowledge generation; capabilities |
| JEL: | D23 D24 D83 J24 L20 M10 M50 |
| Date: | 2023–01–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:heccah:1493&r=eff |
| By: | Haleh Delnava (Institute of Manufacturing Information & System, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan); Kristiaan Kerstens (Univ.Lille, CNRS, IESEG School of Management, UMR 9221 - LEM - Lille Économie Management, Lille F-59000, France); Timo Kuosmanen (Department of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland); Zhiyang Shen (IESEG School of Management, CNRS, UMR 9221 - LEM - Lille Économie Management, Lille F-59000, France) |
| Abstract: | The emergence of the by-production technology as an alternative foundation for a pollution-generating technology represents a turning point in the environmental literature given its compatibility with the law of thermodynamics and the material balance principle. This approach considers two independent technologies: a primary production technology, and a residual-generating technology. The classical by-production technology can be estimated using parametric and nonparametric techniques. Alternatively, this study aims to identify the impact of the convexity assumption in a semi-parametric framework. We examine four specifications: (i) two relate to the error term, which may be either composite or deterministic, and (ii) other specifications incorporate either convexity or nonconvexity assumptions. Furthermore, we evaluate the out of-sample predictive performance of these alternative approaches. To validate our estimation approach, we conduct an empirical case study encompassing 47 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2019. Our findings reveal that both StoNED by-production models exhibit a higher consistency than deterministic ones. Moreover, we witness a parallel behavior in that relaxing convexity/concavity assumption generates a lower bound for both sub-technologies. Exploring the predictive power of nonconvex estimators on unseen data yields more precise out-of-sample predictions in both stochastic and deterministic settings. |
| Keywords: | By-production technology; StoNED, Convex technology; Nonconvex technology |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ies:wpaper:e202411&r=eff |
| By: | Singh, Sachin; Singh, Bhanu Pratap |
| Abstract: | The present study investigates the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) on firms' profitability in the Indian setting on a sample of 23 firms from 2015 to 2020. The bootstrap corrected fixed effects estimation and inference in the dynamic panel method is employed to investigate the relationship. The dynamic panel results show that the relationship between ESG score and firms' profitability is inconclusive in the short run. However, governance conditions affect firms' investment decisions and the nexus between ESG and firm financial performance in the long run. Therefore, institutional reforms are warranted to stabilize property rights and check parent-client politics for the long-run effects of sustainable environmental governance on firms' profitability. |
| Keywords: | ESG scores, Indian firms, firms' profitability, dynamic panel |
| JEL: | O10 O30 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:120704&r=eff |
| By: | Nam, Pham Khanh (School of Economics, University of Economics HCMC); Man, Pham Nhu (The Joint Doctorate Programme, University of Economics HCMC and Erasmus University Rotterdam); Thuy, Truong Dang (School of Economics, University of Economics HCMC) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the marginal abatement costs (MACs) of three water pollutants (BOD, COD, and TSS) in the seafood processing industry in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam. Using data on production activities and pollutant concentration, we estimate the MACs and analyze their relationship with firm characteristics. The results reveal significant heterogeneity in MACs, with younger firms, less labor-intensive firms, LLCs and joint-stock companies, firms located in seashore or riverside areas, and those with ISO or other certifications exhibiting lower MACs. These findings suggest that a uniform standard or environmental fee may not efficiently address pollutant reduction. Instead, a tradable permit system could be a more effective approach. |
| Keywords: | seafood; water pollutants; marginal abatement cost; directional distance function |
| JEL: | Q22 |
| Date: | 2023–09–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunefd:2023_015&r=eff |
| By: | Ane Elixabete Ripoll-Zarraga (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Adequate management, supervision, and control are essential for using efficient public resources, such as prisons. The success of policies relies on the degree of prisoners' reintegration. The cost of public services is transferred to taxpayers. Hence, governments and regional authorities aim to minimize costs by pleading for larger prisons (Titan prisons) rather than smaller ones without losing security and safety controls (National Audit Office, 2013). Evidence shows a higher engagement in small-size establishments. The prison population is rising worldwide to question the need for an upper limit of inmates assuring the effectiveness of internal policies such as humane incarceration for reintegration. Opportunities for reintegration start with education, for example, prisoners' engagement in educational or other activities during the imprisonment. I apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) for panel data (2018–2022) in the UK, accounting for fixed effects of the prisoners' background and regional characteristics. The study assesses the effectiveness of the internal reintegration policies according to the efficiency in using prison's public resources influenced by the convicted's background. The expected results are that a more structured family and economic and social background increase the likelihood of engagement during prison time, hence their reintegration.Keywords: DEA; prisons; quality service; engagement; reintegration |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:spai23:07&r=eff |
| By: | Anita Schiller; Aurelie Slechten |
| Abstract: | This study examines the effects of oil and gas extraction activities on the educational outcomes of high school students in Texas, focusing on potential variations in these impacts among different demographic groups. We use school-level data from the Texas Academic Performance Reports between 2012-2020, with school performance measured by average scores on the American College Test (ACT). The primary variable of interest is the exposure to oil and gas activities, measured by changes in oil and gas revenues within each school district. The empirical approach controls for school characteristics, and student demographics. To address endogeneity concerns, we adopt an instrumental variable approach. Although the overall impact of oil and gas operations on average school ACT scores is not statistically significant, these activities do influence the relationship between student socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Specifically, for schools situated within districts that receive substantial oil and gas revenues, a small increase in the proportion of economically disadvantaged students is associated with a substantial decline in ACT scores. |
| Keywords: | natural resources, oil and gas activities, human capital, education |
| JEL: | H75 I21 I24 R23 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:411897926&r=eff |
| By: | Douglas Kiarelly Godoy de Araujo |
| Abstract: | Synthetic control methods are a data-driven way to calculate counterfactuals from control individuals for the estimation of treatment effects in many settings of empirical importance. In canonical implementations, this weighting is linear and the key methodological steps of donor pool selection and covariate comparison between the treated entity and its synthetic control depend on some degree of subjective judgment. Thus current methods may not perform best in settings with large datasets or when the best synthetic control is obtained by a nonlinear combination of donor pool individuals. This paper proposes "machine controls", synthetic controls based on automated donor pool selection through clustering algorithms, supervised learning for flexible non-linear weighting of control entities and manifold learning to confirm numerically whether the synthetic control indeed resembles the target unit. The machine controls method is demonstrated with the effect of the 2017 labour deregulation on worker productivity in Brazil. Contrary to policymaker expectations at the time of enactment of the reform, there is no discernible effect on worker productivity. This result points to the deep challenges in increasing the level of productivity, and with it, economic welfare. |
| Keywords: | causal inference, synthetic controls, machine learning, labour reforms, productivity |
| JEL: | B41 C32 C54 E24 J50 J83 O47 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:1181&r=eff |
| By: | Aluchna, Maria; Roszkowska-Menkes, Maria (Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management); Kamiński, Bogumił |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutis:da683a11-bb44-4ea8-969c-f7aa7e86fb85&r=eff |
| By: | Sampson, Thomas |
| Abstract: | Global value chains create opportunities for North-South technology diffusion. This paper studies technology transfer in value chains when contracts are incomplete and input production technologies are imperfectly excludable. It introduces a new taxonomy of value chains based on whether the headquarters firm benefits from imitation of its supplier's technology. In inclusive value chains, where imitation is beneficial, the headquarters firm promotes technology diffusion. But in exclusive value chains headquarters seeks to limit supplier imitation. The paper analyzes how this distinction affects the returns to offshoring, the welfare effects of technical change and the social efficiency of knowledge sharing. |
| JEL: | G30 O10 |
| Date: | 2024–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:119640&r=eff |