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on Efficiency and Productivity |
| By: | Mahnaz, Susama (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | Most countries have experienced a substantial narrowing of the gender employment and wage gaps in recent decades. However, the determinants of the convergence in gender productivity, an important factor underpinning the gender wage gap, remain largely unexplained. This paper addresses this gap by exploring how technological advancements, from physical (brawn) to intellectual (brain) skills demand, and evolving social norms about women’s roles in societies have contributed to women’s changing work choices and productivity. Using panel data from 26 European countries over the period 2008 to 2020, I estimate the impact of technological factors and social norms on the productivity of women relative to men with a fixed effects specification. I find that changing skill requirements and skill-biased technical change have a significant and robust relationship with female labour productivity across countries. Moreover, in countries with higher levels of gender inequality, women’s productivity gains are also strongly related to reduced gender inequality. |
| Keywords: | gender productivity ; occupations ; skill requirement ; social norms ; technical change. JEL classifications: I20 ; J16 ; J21 ; J24 ; J31 ; O52 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:wrkesp:82 |
| By: | Steven Ongena (University of Zurich - Department Finance; Swiss Finance Institute; KU Leuven; NTNU Business School; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)); Vasileios Pappas (University of Surrey - Surrey Business School); Athina Petropoulou (University of Sussex Business School) |
| Abstract: | In 2012 the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation defined community banks and recognized their distinct role. In 2020 this definition was reaffirmed. But what makes community banks special? To answer this question, we measure the efficiency of community banks versus comparable other banks using a stochastic frontier model. We decompose cost efficiency into long-and short-run components. We find that community banks are almost 20% more efficient on average, with structural factors-not managerial performance-driving this "efficiency premium". Especially smaller community banks outperform larger competitors. Efficiency gains also stem from micropolitan presence and agricultural lending, while income diversification weakens efficiency. A one standard deviation increase in core deposits raises long-run efficiency by almost 5%. Despite overall efficiency improvements during COVID-19, community banks' efficiency has remained stable. These findings highlight the need for regulators to support innovation while preserving locally focused financial institutions. |
| Keywords: | Community bank, relationship banking, cost frontier, bank capability, local economy, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) |
| JEL: | G14 G21 G38 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp2529 |
| By: | KuK Mo Jung (Department of Economics, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea); Sungwon Lee (Department of Economics, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea) |
| Abstract: | We estimate long-run economic impacts of climate volatility by employing a stochastic frontier model where climate volatility is additionally included into the production frontier. Our climate panel dataset covers 157 countries over the period 1950-2014. We finnd that both temperature and precipitation affect production possibilities in a hump-shaped way. Most importantly, temperature volatility turns out to reduce long- term potential output. This negative effect is found to be statistically significant, and various robustness checks, including income as well as temperature heterogeneity across nations, confirm it. We also find short-term weather anomalies, either temperature or precipitation, are found to be insignificant across all specifications. Our findings provide supporting empirical evidence for a growing body of Integrated Assessment Model literature, emphasizing the role of uncertainty about global temperature dynamics. |
| Keywords: | climate change, long-term climate volatility, stochastic frontier analysis |
| JEL: | D24 O44 O47 Q54 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgo:wpaper:2502 |
| By: | Austan Goolsbee; Chad Syverson; Rebecca Goldgof; Joe Tatarka |
| Abstract: | We document that, after remaining almost constant for almost 30 years, real labor productivity at U.S. restaurants surged over 15% during the COVID pandemic. This surge has persisted even as many conditions have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Using mobile phone data tracking visits and spending at more than 100, 000 individual limited service restaurants across the country, we explore the potential sources of the surge. It cannot be explained by economies of scale, expanding market power, or a direct result of COVID-sourced demand fluctuations. The restaurants’ productivity growth rates are strongly correlated, however, with reductions in the amount of time their customers spend in the establishments, particularly with a rising share of customers spending 10 minutes or less. The frequency of such ‘take-out’ customers rose considerably during COVID, even at fast food restaurants, and never went back down. The magnitude of the restaurant-level relationship between productivity and customer dwell time, if applied to the aggregate decrease in dwell time, can explain almost all of the aggregate productivity increase in our sample. |
| JEL: | D2 E2 L8 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33555 |
| By: | Pablo Sanguinetti; Andrés Feroce |
| Abstract: | Latin America and the Caribbean have underperformed in economic growth compared to other developing regions like Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe. This has implied a low rate of income convergence with developed economies. For example, the average income per capita was around 0.20 of that of the USA in 1960 and went up to only 0.26 at the end of the second decade of the XXI century. Most growth accounting exercises (see Jones, 2019; Alvarez et al., 2018) show that weakened productivity dynamics is a critical immediate cause of this lack of convergence. In other words, the LAC countries have not improved their efficiency when using their resources at the firm level, sectors, and the aggregate economy. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udt:wpecon:2025_04 |
| By: | Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Kishore, Avinash |
| Abstract: | Despite recognition of the potentially significant cumulative effects of input use on annual crop output—such as the effect of applying inorganic fertilizer in one year on crop output in the subsequent year—real-world evidence from smallholder farmers’ fields in lower-income countries remains scarce. We narrow this knowledge gap using unique district-level and farm-household-level annual panel datasets in India. We start with flexible translog production functions, which are well-suited for identifying cumulative effects in farmers’ actual production environments. We then apply shrinkage methods (LASSO and GMM-LASSO) to approximate the production function with reduced parameter dimensions, addressing various challenges such as multicollinearity among multiple inputs, including the same inputs from the current and previous years, and potential endogeneity in inputs. Our results indicate that, throughout the shrinkage process, potassium remains a key predictor of outputs, while other inputs (land, labor, capital, irrigation, and other fertilizer nutrients) drop out. More important, the cumulative quantity of potassium from both the previous and current years is a consistently more critical determinant of production than the quantity of potassium from the current year alone, demonstrating the potassium’s significant cumulative effects. These patterns hold at both the district and farm levels across diverse agroecologies and cropping systems. Furthermore, the dynamic panel data analyses suggest that farmers’ use of potassium in the current year is significantly negatively affected by its use in the previous year, potentially stabilizing outputs across years. Our results support earlier agronomic findings suggesting that the cumulative effects of potassium may be relevant across wider geographic regions than previously thought. |
| Keywords: | fertilizers; inputs; machine learning; potassium; India; Asia; Southern Asia |
| Date: | 2025–04–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:174101 |
| By: | Melanie Arntz; Michael Böhm; Georg Graetz; Terry Gregory; Florian Lehmer; Cäcilia Lipowski |
| Abstract: | We investigate the diffusion of frontier technologies across German firms before and during the Covid-19 crisis. Our analysis tracks the nature, timing, and pandemic-related motivations behind technology investments, using tailor-made longitudinal survey data linked to administrative worker–firm records. Technologies adopted after the onset of the pandemic increasingly facilitated remote work and mitigated the negative employment effects of the crisis. Overall, however, investments in frontier technologies declined sharply, equivalent to a loss of 1.4 years of pre-pandemic investment activity. This procyclical adoption pattern is particularly striking since the pandemic created clear incentives to experiment with new technologies. Our findings highlight how short-run fluctuations may influence medium-run economic growth through their impact on technology diffusion. |
| Keywords: | frontier technology investments, firm-level survey data, cyclicality of technology adoption, Covid-19 crisis. |
| JEL: | O33 E22 E32 J23 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11825 |
| By: | Mike Hernandez Romero; Germ\`a Coenders |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the financial resilience of agricultural and food production companies in Spain amid the Ukraine-Russia war using cluster analysis based on financial ratios. This research utilizes centered log-ratios to transform financial ratios for compositional data analysis. The dataset comprises financial information from 1197 firms in Spain's agricultural and food sectors over the period 2021-2023. The analysis reveals distinct clusters of firms with varying financial performance, characterized by metrics of solvency and profitability. The results highlight an increase in resilient firms by 2023, underscoring sectoral adaptation to the conflict's economic challenges. These findings together provide insights for stakeholders and policymakers to improve sectorial stability and strategic planning. |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2504.05912 |
| By: | André Diegmann; Laura Pohlan; Andrea Weber |
| Abstract: | We study how connections to German federal parliamentarians affect firm dynamics by constructing a novel dataset linking politicians and election candidates to the universe of firms. To identify the causal effect of access to political power, we exploit (i) new appointments to the company leadership team and (ii) discontinuities around the marginal seat of party election lists. Our results reveal that connections lead to reductions in firm exits, gradual increases in employment growth without improvements in productivity. Adding information on credit ratings, subsidies and procurement contracts allows us to distinguish between mechanisms driving the effects over the politician’s career. |
| Keywords: | politicians, firm performance, identification, political connections |
| JEL: | O43 L25 D72 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11691 |