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on Efficiency and Productivity |
| By: | Timothy Besley; Peter John Lambert; Isabelle Michalski-Roland; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of credit frictions arising from firm-level default risk on aggregate economic performance. We build a micro-to-macro model with heterogeneous firms and sector-specific production functions, showing that perceived default risk is a sufficient statistic for credit frictions. Using UK administrative data (2004-2019) matched to S&P risk measures, counterfactual estimates reveal that relaxing frictions raises output by 25% and wages by 23%. Ignoring equilibrium wage adjustments overstates output gains, while fixed-capital misallocation approaches understate them. Most gains reflect aggregate capital accumulation. Credit frictions remain above pre-crisis levels, reshape firm size dynamics, increase misallocation across firms, and dampen productivity growth over time. |
| Keywords: | productivity, default risk, credit frictions, misallocation |
| Date: | 2026–07–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2201 |
| By: | Salazar, Lina; Tadeo, Diana; Alvarez, Luis |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404778 |
| By: | Maczulskij, Terhi |
| Abstract: | Abstract This study examines the effects of the 2004 European Union enlargement on firm productivity and innovation in Finland. Using linked employer–employee and firm-level data, the analysis exploits increased access to workers from the ten new EU member states (EU10). To address the endogenous geographic distribution of immigrants, I construct an instrumental variable based on historically predetermined migration patterns. The results show that increased EU10 employment raises firm labor productivity, the probability of having a granted patent, and STEM employment, while effects on other innovation outcomes are more limited. The responses also differ across sectors. In manufacturing, EU10 employment increases process innovation but reduces STEM employment, whereas in services it increases labor productivity and the probability of having granted patents. Overall, the findings suggest that immigration-induced labor-supply changes can improve firm performance and affect selected dimensions of innovation, with the effects varying across sectors and innovation margins. |
| Keywords: | EU enlargement, Firms, Immigration, Innovation, Instrumental variables, Productivity |
| JEL: | D22 F22 O30 |
| Date: | 2026–08–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:wpaper:145 |
| By: | Yusuf Emre Akgunduz (Central Bank of Turkiye); Ayse Karasoy (Central Bank of Turkiye); Gokce Karasoy Can (Corresponding author. Bank of England); Elif Ozcan Tok (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how pre-pandemic investments in digital technologies influenced firm performance during the Covid-19 crisis and subsequent recovery, using comprehensive administrative data from Türkiye. We construct a novel firm-level digitalisation index based on firm-to-firm trade transactions, capturing a broad spectrum of digital investments including software, hardware, consultancy, and data services. Employing coarsened exact matching and a difference-in-differences framework, we find that more digitalised firms outperformed their less digitalised pairs during the pandemic and post-pandemic years. Specifically, digitalised firms exhibited 3% higher total assets, 4% higher net sales, and 2% higher employment, with even greater gains in profitability (0.44 percentage points), return on assets (0.42 percentage points), and export share (0.16 percentage points). To investigate plausible mechanisms consistent with these effects, we examine whether more digitalised firms expanded their trade networks, experienced lower worker turnover, and achieved higher productivity during the pandemic. We find that these firms added 3% more partners and traded over 2% greater distances with reduced labour churn, and higher productivity. These findings underscore the role of digitalisation in enhancing firm resilience and adaptability in the face of economic shocks. |
| Keywords: | Digitalisation;Covid-19;coarsened exact matching;differences-indifferences;firm performance |
| JEL: | C55 D22 O33 |
| Date: | 2026–05–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:023306 |
| By: | Guillermo Cruces (University of Nottingham); Diego Fernandez Meijide (Universidad de San Andres); Sebastian Galiani (Tulane University); Ramiro Galvez (UTDT); Maria Lombardi (UTDT) |
| Abstract: | Does generative artificial intelligence (AI) widen or narrow productivity gaps across workers? We study this in a randomized online experiment with 1, 174 adults aged 25-45 who completed a workplace-style problem-solving task with or without a generative AI assistant, followed by an unassisted module. AI improves performance for all participants, but gains are larger among those with less education. Without AI, higher-education participants outperform lower-education participants by 0.548 standard deviations; with AI, the gap falls to 0.139, closing about three-quarters of the initial difference. Chat logs show that lower-education participants obtain substantial assistance, while higher-education participants use AI more effectively. Gains are not purely due to delegation: treated participants do not perform worse once AI is removed, and lower-education participants retain part of their improvement, although a sizable gap re-emerges. Intensive AI use raises assisted performance regardless of participants' own effort, but follow-up performance improves only when intensive use is combined with sustained effort. Generative AI narrows effective productivity differences in task execution, while human-capital differences continue to shape unassisted performance and tool use. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.04198 |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Veneto has long been one of Italy’s most productive and internationally competitive regions. However, productivity growth has slowed markedly in recent years, causing the region to lose ground relative to many of its European peers. Without a renewed productivity agenda, future gains in competitiveness, wages and living standards may become increasingly difficult to sustain. Understanding the sources of the slowdown and identifying effective policy responses is essential to ensuring the region’s long term prosperity. |
| Date: | 2026–09–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:cfeaaa:2026/13-en |
| By: | Cyn-Young Park (The South East Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) Research and Training Centre); Kwanho Shin (Korea University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether the early diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) is visible in productivity and price outcomes relevant to monetary policy. We combine firm-level information on AI adoption from Korea’s Survey of Business Activities with annual industry- and region-level data for 2017–2023. We construct value-added- and employment-weighted measures of AI intensity and use their 2019 values as predetermined measures of initial AI intensity. Both measures strongly predict the cross-sectional distribution of AI intensity in 2023. We then estimate reduced-form panel regressions that compare 2023 outcomes across industries and regions with different initial levels of AI intensity, controlling for unit and year fixed effects. We find no systematic evidence that more AI-intensive industries or regions experienced stronger output or labour-productivity growth in 2023. Industry-level price effects are also statistically insignificant and vary across price measures. At the regional level, however, employment-weighted AI intensity is positively associated with overall consumer price inflation, while restaurant price inflation is higher under both measures of AI intensity. These findings suggest that the supply-side benefits of AI had not yet become visible in aggregate productivity by 2023, whereas inflationary pressures may have emerged in some locally determined consumer services. This pattern is consistent with demand responding before productivity gains are fully realised, although our empirical design does not identify the underlying mechanism. The findings have important implications for monetary policy: during the early stages of AI diffusion, central banks should not assume that anticipated productivity gains will immediately expand effective supply or alleviate inflationary pressures. We discuss the implications of this transitional asymmetry for central banks in Asian economies, where rapid AI adoption may coincide with persistent supply constraints and sector-specific price pressures. |
| Keywords: | Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI Adoption, Productivity Growth, Inflation, Monetary Policy and Central Banking |
| JEL: | E31 E52 O33 O47 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sea:wpaper:wp63 |
| By: | Lauro Carnicelli; Tuomo Suhonen |
| Abstract: | This report examines the evolution of the economic status and role of PhD holders in Finland’s labor market and firms using Statistics Finland’s register and survey data. Special attention is paid to PhD graduates in the business, ICT, and engineering fields. The findings indicate a very tight labor market for PhD holders until the late 2000s, followed by rising unemployment and overeducation among them, as well as a stagnating wage premium for completing a PhD, in the 2010s. While PhDs have earned more than master’s and bachelor’s graduates on average, the PhD wage premium is found to be much higher for women than for men and to vary across fields of study. The firm-level analyses show no significant changes in productivity or profitability around the event of hiring the first PhD in a firm, whereas a higher share of PhD workers is found to be associated with increased wages and productivity. The results also provide suggestive evidence of PhDs, particularly those in the business, ICT, and engineering fields, playing a role in business-university collaboration. |
| Keywords: | Higher education, Doctorate, Human capital, Labor markets, Wages, Firms, Research and development, Productivity, Business-university collaboration |
| JEL: | I23 I26 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2025–09–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pst:studie:117 |
| By: | Chengyuan Hua (West Virginia University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how managers matter for worker productivity by exploiting manager moves in Major League Baseball. I first show that manager effects are primarily match-specific using an AKM-type model. Then, staggered difference-in-differences results show positive effects of shared characteristics, including same position, both lefties, and same hometown. Effects of same position and both lefties are larger than same hometown. Effects are more pronounced for younger and less productive workers, indicating that mentoring is the primary mechanism while in-group bias is secondary. Finally, there is suggestive evidence that a manager’s productivity as a worker is not a positive characteristic. |
| Keywords: | Manager, productivity, matching, mentoring |
| JEL: | M54 J24 Z22 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wvu:wpaper:26-08 |
| By: | Gustavo De Souza; Andrew J. Fieldhouse; Karel Mertens; Ishan B. Nath; Valerie A. Ramey |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first causal estimates of the global social returns to U.S. public R&D. We use a narrative identification strategy to quantify the effects of exogenous shocks to U.S. R&D appropriations on the dynamic TFP response of 69 foreign economies from 1980–2019. A U.S. R&D appropriations shock equal to 1 percent of the federal R&D capital stock raises foreign TFP by approximately 1 percent after 12 years. This response is driven primarily by nondefense rather than defense R&D and is concentrated in non-OECD economies. These patterns are most consistent with diffusion occurring through openly accessible scientific content, capital-embodied trade, and technological leapfrogging by economies further from the global frontier. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the global social returns to U.S. public nondefense R&D are roughly twice as large as the domestic returns, meaning the U.S. captures about half of these productivity benefits. |
| JEL: | E62 F62 O33 O38 O47 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35517 |
| By: | Sandra Batten (Bank of England and Durham University Business School); Stephen Millard (NIESR, Durham University Business School and Portsmouth University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use a dynamic general equilibrium model to examine the effect of the move to net zero in the United Kingdom on productivity. One argument is that the transition is likely to be productivity-reducing, as it will involve a move from more to less efficient means of producing. Alternatively, it could be argued that the transition will be productivity-enhancing, as the capital investment required to bring about this move leads to a rise in productivity, both within the specific ‘greening’ industries and more generally via productivity spillovers to the rest of the economy. Our model enables us to examine how this potential trade-off varies depending on whether we look at the short, medium or long run. We find that the introduction of a carbon tax, applied to encourage the move towards net zero, reduced GDP and total hours worked, but since total hours fell by more than GDP, increased productivity. As electricity becomes more substitutable for petrol and gas, the effect on productivity becomes more positive as GDP recovers while total hours remain permanently lower than initially. Finally, our results suggest that unless investment in green technology leads to significant technological gains elsewhere, it is unlikely that the move to net zero will have a large effect on productivity growth above and beyond the direct effect resulting from the capital deepening that will be associated with it. |
| Keywords: | Climate change;dynamic general equilibrium;carbon tax;climate policy;energy;renewable energy |
| JEL: | Q28 Q38 Q43 Q48 Q58 E32 |
| Date: | 2026–02–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:023293 |
| By: | Lee, Woongki (Yonsei University) |
| Abstract: | While portfolio performance and pricing performance are often treated as separate domains, both rest on the same foundation: mean-variance efficiency. This study makes that connection explicit by examining 11 performance measures drawn from these two domains. We show that these measures share a common basis in the Sharpe ratio, the standard measure of mean-variance efficiency, and can therefore be interpreted within a unified framework. Building on this result, we derive two compact benchmark-relative metrics, the ratio metric and the gap metric, and illustrate their practical relevance using data from the Korean fund industry. |
| Date: | 2026–08–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:athw7_v1 |
| By: | Huneeus, Federico; Del Valle Fuentes, Miguel Angel |
| Abstract: | To understand the geographic and sectoral impact of productivity, we build the first input-output matrix disaggregated at the geographic level within a country using unique administrative data harmonized to match national accounts. We use this data from Chile to calibrate a state-of-the-art general equilibrium quantitative trade model with production networks, labor mobility, firm selection, international and domestic trade, congestion of fixed factors, and knowledge diffusion. We consider two applications. First, we study the aggregate effects of local productivity shocks. We show that location-sector interactions are crucial: locations and sectors separately account for less than half of the dispersion in GDP elasticities from location-sector- specific productivity shocks. Geography-specific input-output linkages explain 16% of the dispersion, due to the role played by small and influential markets. Second, we analyze the exit of a large steel plant. We show that geographically disaggregated production linkages substantially increase the propagation of the plant exit. |
| Keywords: | Spatial economics;Geographic distribution;Input-output linkages;Trade |
| JEL: | F11 F17 R15 D57 E01 R12 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:14713 |
| By: | Pierri, Gastón; Fontenele, Marcelo; Nunes, Jose Luiz |
| Abstract: | This paper presents preliminary results from a pilot study conducted in the courts of Ceará, Brazil. The study evaluates the impact of introducing a tool that uses natural language processing and machine learning techniques to cluster judicial acts by textual similarity on clerk productivity, measured as the number of case files a clerk can produce in a day. Estimates indicate that treatment-group clerks produced approximately 10 more case files per day than control-group clerks, a statistically significant difference equivalent to a 37% increase relative to the control group mean. The results are robust to the exclusion of outlier observations and exceptionally productive clerks. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence;Judicial Productivity;Natural Language Processing;Court Administration;Public Sector Automation;machine learning;Field experiment;access to justice |
| JEL: | O33 H83 K40 C93 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:14700 |
| By: | Asma El Foutat (UH2C - Université Hassan II de Casablanca = University of Hassan II Casablanca = جامعة الحسن الثاني (ar), BIGOFE - Laboratoire Business Intelligence, Gouvernance des Organisations, Finance et Politiques Economiques - Faculté des sciences juridiques économiques et sociales Ain Chock Université HASSAN II – Maroc); Mounir Boumhamdi (UH2C - Université Hassan II de Casablanca = University of Hassan II Casablanca = جامعة الحسن الثاني (ar), BIGOFE - Laboratoire Business Intelligence, Gouvernance des Organisations, Finance et Politiques Economiques - Faculté des sciences juridiques économiques et sociales Ain Chock Université HASSAN II – Maroc) |
| Abstract: | In a context marked by persistent gender inequalities and the growing importance of innovation as a driver of productivity, understanding the interactions between innovation, gender, and labor productivity is becoming a central issue for emerging economies. This article presents a systematic review of the literature on the relationships between innovation, gender, and labor productivity in Morocco, with the aim of assessing the mechanisms through which these dimensions interact within firms and the labor market. Despite the abundance of studies devoted separately to innovation, gender, or productivity, the Moroccan and MENA literature remains fragmented and still offers few analyses that simultaneously integrate these three dimensions. The methodology adopted is based on the PRISMA 2020 protocol, drawing on a literature review conducted between January and March 2026 in the Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar databases. Of the 186 documents initially identified, 26 studies were ultimately selected after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results show that women remain structurally underrepresented in innovation- and productivityintensive sectors due to constraints related to access to financing, sectoral segregation, and socioinstitutional barriers. Although innovation is generally associated with improved productivity, its effects remain unevenly distributed across gender structures. Furthermore, the literature remains fragmented and insufficiently integrated from an analytical perspective. The research concludes that the implementation of gender-inclusive innovation policies constitutes a strategic lever for strengthening labor productivity and promoting inclusive growth in Morocco, subject to further empirical approaches and causal analyses |
| Abstract: | Dans un contexte marqué par des inégalités persistantes de genre et par l'importance croissante de l'innovation comme moteur de la productivité, la compréhension des interactions entre innovation, genre et productivité du travail devient un enjeu central pour les économies émergentes. Cet article propose une revue systématique de la littérature sur les relations entre innovation, genre et productivité du travail au Maroc, afin d'évaluer les mécanismes par lesquels ces dimensions interagissent au sein des entreprises et du marché du travail. Malgré l'abondance des travaux consacrés séparément à l'innovation, au genre ou à la productivité, la littérature marocaine et MENA demeure fragmentée et offre encore peu d'analyses intégrant simultanément ces trois dimensions. La méthodologie adoptée repose sur le protocole PRISMA 2020, à partir d'une recherche documentaire menée entre janvier et mars 2026 dans les bases Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect et Google Scholar. Sur 186 documents initialement identifiés, 26 études ont finalement été retenues après application des critères d'inclusion et d'exclusion. Les résultats montrent que les femmes restent structurellement sous-représentées dans les secteurs à forte intensité d'innovation et de productivité, en raison de contraintes liées à l'accès au financement, à la ségrégation sectorielle et aux barrières socio-institutionnelles. Bien que l'innovation soit généralement associée à une amélioration de la productivité, ses effets demeurent inégalement distribués selon les structures de genre. La littérature reste par ailleurs fragmentée et insuffisamment intégrée sur le plan analytique. La recherche conclut que la mise en place de politiques d'innovation inclusives en matière de genre constitue un levier stratégique pour renforcer la productivité du travail et promouvoir une croissance inclusive au Maroc, sous réserve d'un approfondissement des approches empiriques et des analyses causales |
| Keywords: | performance, PME, productivité du travail, innovation, Genre |
| Date: | 2026–06–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05670163 |
| By: | René Karadakic; David C. Chan; Nancy L. Keating; Bruce E. Landon; Michael L. Barnett |
| Abstract: | We estimate the returns to specialization in medical oncology, in which subspecialists focus on specific cancer types. Using 2.2 million Medicare chemotherapy episodes from 2008–2020, we instrument for subspecialist access with differential distance to cancer-type-specific subspecialists versus general oncologists. Access to a relevant subspecialist reduces three-year mortality by 4.5 percentage points (10 percent), without increasing Medicare spending or measured provider fragmentation. Subspecialists also increase the use of newer therapies and diagnosis-specific clinical trials. These findings show that specialization raises productivity when expertise is closely matched to the task. |
| Keywords: | physician specialization, mortality, health care access |
| JEL: | I1 J24 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12937 |