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on Efficiency and Productivity |
| By: | Mr. Takuji Komatsuzaki; Théodore Renault |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the drivers of labor productivity growth in the Nordic countries, using both sectoral and firm-level data over the period 2000–2024. The sectoral analysis documents a broad-based slowdown in labor productivity growth, driven primarily by within-industry developments rather than shifts in the sectoral composition of employment. Firm-level evidence shows that productivity growth is increasingly concentrated among frontier firms—the most productive firms within each industry—while the rest of the firm distribution (“laggards”) has experienced weak or stagnant productivity growth. A decomposition of frontier productivity growth reveals that gains among incumbent frontier firms account for most productivity growth at the frontier across countries. The contribution of net firm entry is highly heterogeneous, and is positive mainly in countries where young entering firms exhibit strong productivity momentum upon joining the frontier. The paper finds evidence of productivity diffusion from frontier to laggard firms but shows that the speed of diffusion has declined since the 2010s. The slower diffusion is closely associated with rising persistence at the productivity frontier: when the same firms remain at the frontier for longer periods, opportunities for laggards to catch up are reduced. Overall, the findings highlight that sustaining aggregate productivity growth hinges not only on innovation at the frontier but also on firm dynamism—particularly entry, exit, and turnover at the frontier—to ensure that productivity gains diffuse broadly across the economy. |
| Keywords: | Labor productivity; frontier firms; technology diffusion; Nordic countries; firm dynamics; productivity gap; structural change |
| Date: | 2026–08–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2026/178 |
| By: | Heather Hennerich |
| Abstract: | Why would growing productivity from generative AI potentially help push down inflation? An economist explains that and other potential effects of productivity growth. |
| Keywords: | generative artificial intelligence (AI); productivity; inflation; disinflation |
| Date: | 2026–08–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:l00100:103695 |
| By: | Tania Babina; Alex X. He; Renhao Jiang |
| Abstract: | Using a new firm-level measure of AI investment based on AI-skilled employment—spanning machine learning through generative and agentic AI—we show that AI investments are associated with productivity growth in recent years, but not over the previous decade. We trace the productivity gains to the accumulation of organization capital that AI helps create: durable firm-specific knowledge acquired through learning-by-doing that enables more efficient production. We build a novel measure of organization capital based on workers’ job descriptions and document that productivity gains are driven by AI-skilled jobs that build organization capital. Overall, our findings suggest that AI investment generates productivity growth by creating organization capital. |
| JEL: | D22 D24 D25 E22 G3 G30 G32 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35684 |
| By: | Kuusi, Tero; Lähdemäki, Sakari |
| Abstract: | Abstract We study Europe’s post-2008 productivity slowdown using novel total factor productivity (TFP) measures that follow production beyond individual industries in global value chains (GVCs). We collect a newset of stylized facts: (1) the slowdown is broad-based, with productivity growth weakening both in final-producer industries and in upstream industries; (2) the staggered entry into force of bilateral investment treaties with China is followed by higher value-chain TFP and greater business-intangible investment; while (3) the gains associated with technology intangibles are weak. We use these facts to discipline a stylized two-region general-equilibrium model with business capabilities, technology-related knowledge, and cross-border knowledge spillovers. The calibration supports a two-stage interpretation of Europe’s experience: (1) sizeable initial integration gains because accumulated business capabilities convert market access into productivity, and (2) later losses when technology improvements are converted into productivity more effectively elsewhere. |
| Keywords: | Global value chains, Intangibles, Productivity, Globalization |
| JEL: | F60 O47 L16 O14 E22 |
| Date: | 2026–09–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:wpaper:146 |
| By: | Kónya, István; Krekó, Judit |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how foreign direct investment affects the labor share through productivity differences between foreign- and domestically owned firms. We develop a search-and-matching model in which more productive foreign firms acquire domestic firms. Foreign ownership raises productivity and wages, but incomplete pass-through of the productivity advantage to workers reduces the labor share. Using European industry-level data, we find that greater foreign employment penetration is associated with lower labor shares and that the foreign productivity premium substantially exceeds the foreign wage premium. Hungarian administrative firm data show the same pattern: foreign-owned firms have higher productivity and labor costs but lower labor shares. Event-study estimates around foreign acquisitions are less precise but are consistent with this mechanism at longer horizons. Our results show how economies with a large foreign-owned sector can combine relatively high wages with relatively low labor shares and highlight persistent foreign–domestic productivity differences as a potential explanation for labor-share differences across Europe. |
| Keywords: | foreign direct investment; foreign ownership; labor share; labor productivity |
| JEL: | E25 F21 F23 J31 J42 |
| Date: | 2026–08–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cvh:coecwp:2026/04 |
| By: | Francisco Arizala; Diana Ricciulli-Marín; Johanna Schauer |
| Abstract: | This paper studies market power in Mexican industries over the period 2008-23 using establishment-level data from the Mexican Economic Census. We document a substantial increase in the average price markup over marginal costs, from 12 percent in 2008 to 27 percent in 2023. The sources of this increase vary across sectors and time: services, particularly wholesale and retail trade, account for most of the increase in markups until 2018, while manufacturing, led by transportation equipment and export-oriented industries, plays a larger role in more recent years. Rising markups in services are associated with greater local labor market concentration, suggestive of increasing monopsony power. In manufacturing, markup growth is linked to higher capital expenditure, consistent with firms sustaining larger markups to recover higher fixed costs. Moreover, rising markups in manufacturing are positively associated with total factor productivity, whereas in services they are uncorrelated with productivity. Overall, these findings suggest that while market power has increased over time, its underlying drivers have shifted from monopsonistic power in labor markets to higher fixed costs, with more favorable efficiency implications in recent years. |
| Keywords: | Market power; markups; concentration; productivity; capital |
| Date: | 2026–08–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2026/181 |
| By: | Victor Petroff (LEAD - Laboratoire d'Économie Appliquée au Développement - UTLN - Université de Toulon, UTLN - Université de Toulon); Gabriel Figueiredo de Oliveira (LEAD - Laboratoire d'Économie Appliquée au Développement - UTLN - Université de Toulon, UTLN - Université de Toulon) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of container ports' positions within the global maritime network – particularly their degree of centrality – on port efficiency. Using data from 117 maritime routes in 2010, we analyze 85 international ports located in Asia, Europe, and North America. Several indicators derived from network theory, including centrality, clustering, and the maximum distance of a direct maritime link - which captures a port's ability to serve distant markets - are incorporated into a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model following the double bootstrap methodology proposed by Simar and Wilson (2007). The results reveal significant regional disparities in port efficiency, with Asian ports – especially those in China – achieving the highest performance levels. The second-stage analysis shows that both centrality and clustering have a positive effect on port efficiency. This latter effect is particularly evident among a North American port community benefiting from shipping lines' service design choices. Overall, the findings underscore not only the importance of port positioning within the global maritime network but also the influence of port community structures on port efficiency. |
| Abstract: | Cette étude analyse l'impact de la position des ports à conteneurs dans le réseau maritime mondial, notamment leur degré de centralité, sur leur efficience portuaire. En utilisant les données de 117 routes maritimes en 2010, nous analysons 85 ports internationaux en Asie, en Europe et en Amérique du Nord. Plusieurs indicateurs de la théorie des réseaux, tels que la centralité, le coefficient de regroupement (clustering) et la distance maximale d'une liaison directe mesurant la capacité d'un port à desservir des marchés lointains, sont intégrés dans un modèle d'analyse par enveloppement des données (DEA) à deux étapes, suivant la méthode du double rééchantillonnage de Simar et Wilson (2007). Nos résultats révèlent d'importantes disparités régionales en matière d'efficience portuaire, les ports d'Asie - en particulier ceux de Chine - affichant les niveaux de performance les plus élevés. La deuxième étape du modèle montre que la centralité et le clustering exercent une influence positive sur l'efficience. Ce deuxième effet est spécifique à une communauté portuaire nord-américaine qui bénéficie des choix de conception de services des compagnies maritimes. Ces résultats mettent en évidence non seulement le rôle du positionnement des ports dans l'efficience portuaire, mais également le rôle de la communauté portuaire. |
| Keywords: | Network Theory, Centrality, Efficiency, Ports, Data Envelopment Analysis, Modèle par enveloppement des données, Centralité, Théorie des réseaux, Efficience |
| Date: | 2026–09–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05120552 |
| By: | Sandambi, Nerhum |
| Abstract: | The approach explored the relationship between the Productivity and healthcare systems, particularly applied to developing Countries. Main results show that, majority Countries in developing worlds, do not have particularly the strongest affirmation and capacity to create and generate a strong healthcare systems. The majority societies are stunk in developing. These Countries in particular, have for example, a high level of Inefficiency to allocate the public expenditure to the sector in particular. However, the study shows that countries with weak healthcare systems are, naturally, the countries that have a lower labour productivity. Furthermore, this evidence is particularly enough to help understand how for example most developing Countries do not intend the respective expenditure to guarantee high quality healthcare systems and to improve health to society in particular, on the other hand, the existence of a high level of budget in these countries increases the healthcare systems in general. Thus, many of these Countries, the lowest level of healthcare expenditure, show that these Countries are naturally incapable to drive social protection in particular. On the other hand, when this evidence is particularly characterized, the Country does not improve for example the economic performance. Furthermore, high quality institutions, mainly the political institutions for example, help naturally to increase the quality of healthcare systems in general. |
| Date: | 2026–08–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ebvhk_v1 |
| By: | Amann, Marvin (IfW Kiel, ifo Institute); Gorodnichenko, Yuriy (University of California, Berkeley); Talavera, Oleksandr (University of Birmingham) |
| Abstract: | Why is war so economically costly? Our answer is that modern war lowers output not only by destroying productive factors, but also by making the surviving economy work less efficiently. Using uniquely comprehensive firm-level data collected during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we document a dramatic collapse in allocative productivity in Ukraine. To sharpen identification and explore key mechanisms (including the role of war intensity, internal displacement, reallocation, and macroeconomic instability), we exploit spatial heterogeneity across Ukrainian districts and comparisons with Russian aggression in 2014 and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Our key policy implication is that restoring allocative efficiency--and preparing institutional arrangements that facilitate rapid reallocation in times of stress--is critical for sustaining economic capacity, defense, and national security. |
| Keywords: | geoeconomics, defense, misallocation, productivity, war, Ukraine |
| JEL: | F51 F52 D24 H56 D61 O47 O52 R12 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18895 |