|
on Efficiency and Productivity |
|
Issue of 2005‒06‒14
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Brown, J David; Earle, John S |
| Abstract: | We analyse the impact of privatization on multifactor productivity (MFP) using long panel data for nearly the universe of initially state-owned manufacturing firms in four economies. Controlling for firm and industry-year fixed effects and employing a wide variety of measurement approaches, we estimate that majority privatization raises MFP about 28% in Romania, 22% in Hungary, and 3% in Ukraine, with some variation across specifications, while in Russia it lowers it about 4%. Privatization to foreign rather than domestic investors has a larger impact (about 44%) and is much more consistent across countries. The positive effects emerge within a year in Hungary, Romania, and Ukraine and continue to grow thereafter, but are still ambiguous even after 5 years in Russia. Pre-privatization MFP exceeds that of firms remaining state-owned in all countries, implying that cross-sectional estimates overstate privatization effects. The patterns of the estimated effects cast doubt on a number of explanations for ‘when privatization works’. |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:4791&r=eff |
| By: | Cincera, Michele |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at assessing the impact of R&D spillovers on firms’ economic performance as measured by productivity growth. The construction of R&D spillovers is based on Jaffe’s methodology (1986, 1988), which associates econometrics and data analysis. The main objective of the paper is to extend Jaffe’s methodology by examining alternative methods for measuring R&D spillovers and to test their impacts in terms of the robustness of results. In particular, the method used to classify firms into technological clusters as well as the metrics implemented to appreciate firms’ technological proximities which enter the construction of spillovers are further investigated. In addition to R&D spillovers, firms’ own R&D capital, labour and physical capital are estimated by means of a Cobb-Douglas production function. The data set consists of a representative sample of 625 worldwide R&D-intensive firms over the period 1987-1994. |
| Keywords: | clustering; panel data; productivity growth; R&D Spillovers |
| JEL: | O12 O33 O47 |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:4894&r=eff |
| By: | Corsetti, Giancarlo; Martin, Philippe; Pesenti, Paolo |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the welfare implications of international spillovers related to productivity gains, changes in market size, or government spending. We introduce trade costs and endogenous varieties in a two-country general-equilibrium model with monopolistic competition, drawing a distinction between productivity gains that enhance manufacturing efficiency, and gains that lower the cost of firms’ entry and product differentiation. Our model suggests that countries with lower manufacturing costs have higher GDP but supply a smaller number of goods at a lower international price. Countries with lower entry and differentiation costs also have higher GDP, but supply a larger array of goods at improved terms of trade. The sign of the international welfare spillovers depends on terms of trade, but also on consumers’ taste for variety. Higher domestic demand has macroeconomic implications that are similar to those of a reduction in firms’ entry costs. |
| Keywords: | productivity; taste for variety; terms of trade; trade |
| JEL: | F32 F41 |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:4964&r=eff |