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on Efficiency and Productivity |
| By: | Okunola, Akinbode |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between regional trade integration and agricultural productivity growth in West Africa. Using panel data spanning 1995 to 2019, total factor productivity (TFP) growth and its components are estimated through a non-parametric, bootstrap-based Malmquist–DEA index, which accounts for statistical inference and robust to sample biases. The analysis then investigates the association between TFP growth and trade openness, with emphasis on intra-regional trade integration, while controlling for other productivity drivers. The findings reveal an average output-weighted annual TFP growth of 1.7% for the region, primarily driven by technological change (2.2%), despite a decline in technical efficiency change (–0.05%). Regression results indicate that regional trade integration is positively and significantly associated with agricultural productivity growth. Agricultural R&D expenditures also emerge as a key driver of productivity growth, while increasing temperatures exert a negative effect, underscoring the sector’s vulnerability to climate change. The study highlights the importance of strengthening intra-regional trade under the ECOWAS framework to support sustainable agricultural development in West Africa. |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:361171 |
| By: | Kyoji FUKAO; Tetsushi HORIE; Tomohiko INUI; Takafumi KAWAKUBO; Young Gak KIM; Hyeog Ug KWON; Hongyong ZHANG |
| Abstract: | This study examines the extent to which imported intermediate inputs lead to biased estimates of firm-level total factor productivity (TFP) growth, a phenomenon referred to as “offshoring bias.†To this end, we construct a novel firm-level dataset by linking the Japanese customs data with the financial information. We newly develop firm-specific import deflators at the granular Harmonized System 9-digit product level and use them to deflate import values. Comparing TFP estimates based on this approach with those based on commonly used industry-level deflators reveals that the conventional method tends to overestimate TFP growth. Moreover, our regression results indicate that the offshoring bias is more pronounced among firms with higher import shares. This suggests that conventional TFP estimation methods may systematically overestimate productivity growth for firms that rely to a greater extent on imported intermediate inputs. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:25129 |
| By: | Chakraborty, Subarta; Mishra, Ashok K.; Yan, Hongqiang |
| Abstract: | The paper examines whether participation in India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) affects agricultural production's farm-level technical efficiency (TE). We employ a multi-stage empirical strategy using nationally representative farm household data, combining propensity score matching, stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), metafrontier estimation, and selectivity-corrected SFA models. Our results consistently show that participation in MGNREGA does not significantly impair technical efficiency. The average technical efficiency is comparable between participants and non-participants (~59%), and the differences in technology gap ratios and meta-technical efficiency are modest. While participants face a slightly wider technology gap, they exhibit marginally higher group-specific efficiency, suggesting effective input utilization within their technological constraints. Selectivity-corrected models further confirm that controlling for unobservable factors does not alter the core findings. The results challenge prevailing concerns about MGNREGA’s negative productivity spillovers and reinstate the importance of the public workforce program. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360648 |
| By: | Zaira García-Tórtola (Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); David Conesa (Department of Statistics and Operational Research, Universidad de Valencia, Spain); Joan Crespo (Department of Economic Structure, Universidad de Valencia, Spain); Emili Tortosa-Ausina (IVIE, Valencia and IIDL and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) |
| Abstract: | University rankings predominantly focus on outputs while neglecting the efficiency with which institutions convert resources into outcomes. We contribute to addressing this limitation by analyzing the determinants of university efficiency using a Bayesian stochastic ray frontier model applied to 47 Spanish public universities over the 2016–2021 period. Unlike traditional approaches, our methodology jointly estimates efficiency and its determinants in a single stage. We adopt a multi-output framework encompassing the three university missions: teaching, research, and knowledge transfer. Using backward stepwise selection with the deviance information criterion, we identify key efficiency determinants including the average department size, number of campuses, academic staff characteristics, and multi-province location. Results reveal substantial efficiency variations across universities, with approximately half showing positive efficiency changes over the period. The Bayesian approach provides full efficiency distributions rather than point estimates, enabling robust statistical comparisons. Our findings offer valuable insights for university managers and policymakers seeking to enhance institutional performance beyond traditional output-based rankings. |
| Keywords: | determinants, efficiency, Bayesian, education, stochastic frontier, universities |
| JEL: | C61 J24 R11 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2026/02 |
| By: | Felix ROTH (European Commission); Alessio MITRA |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the drivers of EU labour productivity before and after the 2007 financial crisis, across goods and services sectors, tangible and intangible assets, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and non-ICT tangibles. |
| Keywords: | Economics, competitiveness, growth, ICT, labour productivity |
| JEL: | O32 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eug:wpaper:ki-01-25-006-en-n |
| By: | Jian, Wenze; Lu, Hang; Yang, Zimo; Zhong, Ziqi |
| Abstract: | Using data on Chinese A-share listed firms and regions from 2011–2023, this paper employs a difference-in-differences (DID) framework to evaluate the productivity returns to artificial intelligence (AI) application from both firm-level and societal perspectives. The findings are as follows: First, AI intensity significantly increases firms' total factor productivity (TFP). Second, AI intensity significantly increases social TFP. Third, green financial innovation exerts a significant positive mediating effect on the pathway from AI intensity to firm TFP. Fourth, green financial innovation also partially mediates the pathway from AI intensity to social TFP. Substantively, the paper links micro-level firm transformation with macro-level regional performance, providing empirical evidence and policy implications for understanding the transmission mechanism from digitalization to greening to high-quality growth. |
| Keywords: | AI intensity; TFP; green financial innovation |
| JEL: | F3 G3 J50 |
| Date: | 2026–02–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:130473 |
| By: | Banri ITO; Eiichi TOMIURA |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of initiating cross-border data flows on firm productivity, using original survey data from Japanese manufacturing and service firms collected in 2019 and 2021, merged with annual productivity measures over 2019–2022. The survey identifies new entrants into cross-border data transfers, enabling a difference-in-differences design that compares “switchers†to firms that either do not collect data or collect data only domestically. We estimate the average treatment effect on the treated using regression-adjustment, inverse probability weighting, and doubly robust AIPW DID estimators, controlling for exporter status, multinational affiliation, R&D intensity, and ICT cost intensity. The results show that firms with higher initial productivity are more likely to start transferring data internationally, which is consistent with self-selection patterns documented in the export- and FDI-related literature. Entry into cross-border data flows is associated with significant productivity gains, which become particularly pronounced in the year after entry. These findings provide rare firm-level evidence from Japan, while also offering broader insights for data-governance debates by highlighting the potential productivity costs of overly restrictive cross-border data regulations. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:25125 |
| By: | Jan De Loecker; Catherine Fuss; Nathan Quiller-Doust; Leonard Treuren |
| Abstract: | We separately observe variable input expenditure and expenditure on fixed inputs in novel firm-level data covering the Belgian manufacturing sector over the last decades. This permits a deeper investigation of two potential drivers of the globally observed widening gap between firms’ revenue and variable input expenditure: technology and market power. Across the board, cost structures have become less reliant on variable input expenditure over time, while expenditure on fixed inputs or overhead costs has increased in prominence. We relate these changes in firms’ cost structures to performance measures and document that markups and gross profit rates increase substantially as the role of variable costs in production diminishes. Profit rates net of fixed input expenditure also increase, but by substantially less than gross profit rates. Our results suggest that technological change can explain a considerable portion of the widening gap between revenue and variable input expenditure, but that markups increase by more than necessary to break even, and that this phenomenon operates remarkably similarly across different firms and industries. |
| Keywords: | STG/23/026#57790427 |
| Date: | 2024–10–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:msiper:779663 |
| By: | Ting Lan; Manasa Patnam; Mr. Frederik G Toscani; Claire Li |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how productivity dynamics and, as a consequence, potential output, are affected by energy price shocks. We do this through the lens of a model of endogenous technical change where firms adjust their investment in non-energy productivity and energy productivity in reaction to the economic environment. Higher energy prices prompt a shift in investment from enhancing non-energy (capital and labor) productivity to improving energy efficiency. The resulting gains in energy efficiency act as an important macroeconomic buffer, but cannot fully offset the adverse input price effect and the transitional cost of shifting investment away from non-energy productivity. We thus find that the change in European energy prices following the 2022 shock reduces the level of euro area potential GDP by 0.8 percent by 2027. The impact on potential growth is temporary, and will have dissipated by that time. Energy efficiency itself is projected to rise by about three percent, offering a silver lining to the crisis. We estimate that the output effect would have been around two-thirds larger had energy efficiency not cushioned the impact of the price shock. |
| Keywords: | Productivity; Energy Price; Energy Efficiency; Directed Technical Change; Innovation |
| Date: | 2026–01–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2026/003 |
| By: | Atsushi KAWAKAMI; Yasuhiro KIUCHI; Tsutomu MIYAGAWA |
| Abstract: | Product diversification is an important issue in management science and industrial organization. Many studies have argued that product diversification is related to the scale of headquarters, and productivity studies find that multi-product firms have higher productivity than single-product firms. Our study examines the role of headquarters in product diversification using the Business Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activities (BSJBSA). We focus not only on the scale of headquarters but also on their efficiency, which varies across industries. In manufacturing sectors such as electric appliance equipment, electric measuring instruments, and computer industries, many firms have highly efficient headquarters. Our empirical results show that headquarters efficiency contributes to product diversification in firms with higher TFP. Although increasing headquarters scale induces product diversification, its effect becomes negative once it exceeds a certain level. Our findings imply that government support for product innovation or diversification should consider not only the growth of new products but also the capacity and efficiency of headquarters. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:25031 |
| By: | Sonoda, Tadashi |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between earned nonfarm income and farm performance in Bangladesh. Specifically, the study assesses the impact of components of nonfarm income (wage, self-employment, and salary incomes) on input utilization and technical efficiency. The study uses panel data from Bangladesh's Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) and Tobit procedure to account for potential censoring in our dependent variables. Findings reveal that although overall earned nonfarm income positively affects total crop production expenditures and investments in seeds and irrigation, it shows a negative impact on expenses for fertilizer, labor, and equipment. The disaggregated sources of earned nonfarm income show that nonfarm income sources have heterogeneous effects—salary and wage income generally decrease agricultural investments and technical efficiency. Still, self-employment income shows a positive impact on expenditures for farming inputs and technical efficiency. Finally, climatic shocks significantly influence input use patterns, with affected farmers increasing expenditures on fertilizer, irrigation, and labor. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between sources of earned nonfarm income and farm performance and technical efficiency in Bangladesh. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360942 |
| By: | Zhang, Jian; Mishra, Ashok K.; Koppenberg, Maximilian; Zheng, Linyi |
| Abstract: | The study uses nationally representative panel datasets on rural Chinese households to examine the interrelationship between smallholders’ participation in land rental markets and their agricultural commercialization, while also evaluating the interactive effects of these market-oriented farming practices on agricultural land and labor productivity. We adopted bivariate tobit model, fixed effects models and instrument variable methods to solve the endogeneity problems. Results reveal a mutually reinforcing relationship between farm households’ land rental area and commercialization decisions. Furthermore, renting in farmland improves agricultural labor productivity while reduces land productivity. Agricultural commercialization has significantly improved farm households’ land and labor productivity. Finally, commercialization could positively moderate the effect of land renting on agricultural productivity. Policymakers should design policies and strategies to promote land rental market development and farmers’ commercialization that could improve labor and land productivity. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Finance, Farm Management |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360674 |
| By: | Ali Merali |
| Abstract: | This paper derives `Scaling Laws for Economic Impacts' -- empirical relationships between the training compute of Large Language Models (LLMs) and professional productivity. In a preregistered experiment, over 500 consultants, data analysts, and managers completed professional tasks using one of 13 LLMs. We find that each year of AI model progress reduced task time by 8%, with 56% of gains driven by increased compute and 44% by algorithmic progress. However, productivity gains were significantly larger for non-agentic analytical tasks compared to agentic workflows requiring tool use. These findings suggest continued model scaling could boost U.S. productivity by approximately 20% over the next decade. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.21316 |
| By: | Akolgo, J.A.; Osei-Asare, Y.B.; Sarpong, D.B.; Asem, F.E.; Quaye, W. |
| Abstract: | The Ghanaian population is aware of the increasing health challenges in our health facilities and the need to consume more vegetables to improve their health status. This, coupled with population growth and changing consumer patterns has led to an increasing demand for vegetable products in Ghana. Smallholder farmers in the country have thus intensified the production of vegetables during the dry season to meet consumers’ demand and to generate income. However, their outputs have been lower than the country’s potential, so the research was conducted to identify the causes and determinants of the low yields. A total of 322 dry-season vegetable farmers in seven (7) districts in twenty-four (24) communities were selected from the Upper East Region of Ghana using a purposive random sampling technique. The Kumbhakar model was employed to compute the production risk, technical inefficiency and determinants of vegetable production in the region. The study reveals that the input variables: labour, seed, fertilizer, agrochemical and irrigation costs positively are related to the output value of vegetables with an increasing return to scale. In addition, labour, seed and agrochemical costs show a significant production risk-decreasing effect while the risk of vegetable production is reduced with fertilizer and irrigation costs. The study further depicts that extension visits, experience, water pumps and gravity-fed irrigation systems positively affect the technical efficiency of dry-season vegetable production. Again, given the current state of technology and resources available to the farmers, enhancing the vegetable outputs could be achieved by reducing the technical inefficiencies by 27% while considering the effects of production risk. The study concludes that the farmers can improve the output of the vegetable farms for higher income by adopting the best vegetable production practices such as efficient water-saving irrigation technologies and fertilizer usage while adopting the knowledge from the extension training to improve their technical efficiency |
| Keywords: | Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Risk and Uncertainty |
| Date: | 2025–02–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ugaeab:387588 |