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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2014‒03‒08
fourteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Rulof P. Burger; Francis J. Teal |
| Abstract: | Schooling is typically found to be highly correlated with individual earnings in African countries. However, African firm or sector level studies have failed to identify a similarly strong effect for average worker schooling levels on productivity. This has been interpreted as evidence that schooling does not increase productivity levels, but may also indicate that the schooling effect cannot be identified when using a schooling measure with limited variation. Using a novel South African industry-level dataset that spans a longer period than typical firm-level panels, this paper identifies a large and significant schooling effect. This result is highly robust across different estimators that allow for correlated industry effects, measurement error, heterogeneous production technologies and cross-sectional dependence. |
| Keywords: | Returns to schooling, human capital, labour demand, panel data econometrics, South Africa |
| JEL: | J24 D24 C23 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2014-10&r=eff |
| By: | O.A. Carboni; P. Russu |
| Abstract: | Economic and environmental efficiency has being receiving growing attention among researchers. In general terms, this concept is related to the capability of the economic systems to employ natural resources efficiently, so as to increase economic and human wealth. This clearly implies that both the economic and ecological aspects of decisions ought to be considered. Bearing this in mind, this paper considers economic and ecological performance together, by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) to investigating the efficiency of the 20 Italian regions from 2004 to 2011. The results reveal that the northern regions have been more efficient than the southern ones, highlighting the strong geographical differences between the two. Furthemore this paper uses the Grey System Theory to forecast regional economic and environmental efficiency. The results of the forecasting analysis show that the North-south duality remains strong and will possibly increase since the regions in the south get worse in term of environmental and economic efficiency. |
| Keywords: | panel data, forecasting, Data envelopment analysis (DEA), Malmquist productivity index (MPI), Grey system theory |
| JEL: | E17 C61 C23 C14 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201401&r=eff |
| By: | Roberto Antonietti (Department of Economics and Management “Marco Fanno”, Italy) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to provide firm-level evidence on the short-run link between outsourcing and labor productivity using an original dataset of Italian manufacturing firms, and applying a two-stage probit least squares estimator. We find a positive effect on productivity from outsourcing only if firms provide training for the workforce. This indirect impact on productivity is independent of the type of activity outsourced and is bigger in the case of service outsourcing. This can be explained by the different feedback effect of labor productivity on training and by the different type of training provided. While production outsourcing induces an organizational change which stimulates off-the-job training for plant operators, service outsourcing induces firms to train a broader range of occupational profiles - both off and on the job. Similar results emerge for the case of joint outsourcing of both production and service activities. Therefore, we find that outsourcing generates positive productivity effects only if it is part of a broader knowledge management strategy that involves upgrading of workers’ skills. |
| Keywords: | Outsourcing, Productivity, Training, Two-Stage Probit Least Squares |
| JEL: | J24 L24 L25 L60 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2014.12&r=eff |
| By: | Gehringer, Agnieszka; Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada; Nowak-Lehmann Danzinger, Felicitas |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the development and drivers of total factor productivity (TFP) in the manufacturing sector for a panel of 17 EU countries over the period of 1995-2007. Recent panel data estimation techniques are used in a twofold approach. First, we estimate aggregated and sectoral TFP for 17 EU countries by means of the augmented mean group estimator to control for endogeneity, cross-section dependence and heterogeneous production technology. Second, we investigate the relative importance of the drivers of predicted TFP, namely Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), investment in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), human capital, R&D, trade openness and rationalization efforts. The results confirm that rationalization, human capital and ICT are the main drivers of TFP. -- |
| Keywords: | sectoral TFP,heterogeneous production functions,common dynamic process,European Union |
| JEL: | C26 F43 O47 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:189&r=eff |
| By: | Palacios-López, Amparo; López, Ramon E. |
| Abstract: | This paper shows the implications of credit and labor market imperfections on gender differences in agricultural labor productivity, especially highlighting how both imperfections negatively affect female productivity by discouraging off-farm income generating activities and restricting access to inputs. The paper theoretically models the relationship between gender differences in agricultural labor productivity and market imperfections and it provides empirical evidence consistent with our theoretical model by decomposing the contribution of different factors to such gender differences. We find that agricultural labor productivity is on average 44 percent lower on plots belonging to female-headed households than on those belonging to male-headed households. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Agriculture, Productivity, Decomposition Methods, Sub-Saharan Africa, Malawi, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, Productivity Analysis, C21, J16, Q12, |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:umdrwp:164061&r=eff |
| By: | Asma Mghaieth; Imen Khanchel El Mehdi |
| Abstract: | During the last two decades, a particular interest was granted to the Islamic banking system, on both the private and public level. A deep and broad desire to understand this system occurred in almost all regions of the world. More subject to the requirements of the process of globalization and operating in an uncertain environment, Islamic banks are lead to improve their efficiency and to develop their performance to maintain sustainability. Thus, the search for efficiency became both complex and compulsory demanding more flexible alternative shapes, more flexible formal analysis of efficiency and more sophisticated quantitative research techniques. |
| Date: | 2014–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-107&r=eff |
| By: | Gabriel Natividad (NYU Stern) |
| Abstract: | I exploit a 2009 reform that introduced individual fishing quotas (catch shares) for Peruvian anchovy – the largest fishery in the world – to assess the causal impact of production quotas on within-firm productivity and market prices. Unique features of the data allow me to create two alternative counterfactuals: (i) anchovy fishing operations in a region of the country that was mandated to implement quotas with a delay, and (ii) variation in quota allocations across ships. I find that quotas do not increase within-asset or within-firm productivity in quantities. Instead, a 200% increase in anchovy prices benefits extraction firms through higher revenues, consistent with two mechanisms enacted by individual fishing quotas: more orderly industry operations reducing excess supply and an increase in bargaining power of extraction firms with respect to fish-processing. Several market characteristics across geographies differentially affect market prices after the quota regime. Supplementary evidence on fewer operational infractions, higher product quality, and a lower banking delinquency observed during the quota regime suggests the existence of efficiency gains rather than purely rent transfers. |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apc:wpaper:2014-006&r=eff |
| By: | Vassilis Monastiriotis |
| Abstract: | The process of approximation between the EU and its ‘eastern neighbourhood’ has created conditions for deepening economic interactions and market integration, giving to the EU – and to EU businesses– an elevated role in the process of economic modernisation and transition in the neighbourhood countries. This raises the question as to whether European business activity in these countries produces indeed measureable economic advantages both in absolute and in relative terms (e.g., compared to business activity from other parts of the world). Similarly, a question arises as to whether European business activity reduces or amplifies spatial imbalances within the partner countries. This paper examines these issues for the case of capital flows (foreign ownership) and the related productivity spillovers, using firm-level data from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS)covering 28 transition countries over the period 2002-2009. We estimate the direct and intraindustry productivity effects of foreign ownership and examine how these differ across regional blocks (CEE, SEE and ENP), according to the origin of the foreign investor (EU versus non-EU), across geographical scales (pure industry versus regional spillovers) and for different types of locations (capital-city regions versus the rest). Our results suggest that FDI of EU origin plays a distinctive role in the countries concerned helping raise domestic productivity significantly more than investments from outside the EU. However, this process appears to operate in a spatially selective manner, thus enhancing regional disparities and spatial imbalances. This, then, assigns a particular responsibility for EU policy, as it continues to promote economic integration (and FDI flows) to its eastern neighbourhood, to devise interventions that will help redress these problems. |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:55267&r=eff |
| By: | Sotiris Georganas; Mirco Tonin; Michael Vlassopoulos |
| Abstract: | Peer effects arise in situations where workers observe each others’ work activity. In this paper we disentangle the effect of observing a peer from that of being observed by a peer, by setting up a real effort experiment in which we manipulate the observability of performance. In particular, we randomize subjects into three groups: in the first one subjects are observed by another subject, but do not observe anybody; in the second one subjects observe somebody else’s performance, but are not observed by anybody; in the last group subjects work in isolation, neither observing, nor being observed. We consider both a piece rate compensation scheme, where pay depends solely on own performance, and a team compensation scheme, where pay also depends on the performance of other team members. Overall, we find some evidence that subjects who are observed increase productivity at least initially when compensation is team based, while we find that subjects observing react to what they see when compensation is based only on own performance. |
| Keywords: | peer effects, piece rate, team incentives, real-effort experiment |
| JEL: | D03 J24 M52 M59 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_4572&r=eff |
| By: | Fabrizio Antonioli (Dipartimento di Economia Istituzioni Territorio, Facoltà di Economia, Università degli Studi di Ferrara.); Simone Borghesi (Università degli Studi di Siena, Facoltà di Scienze Politiche.); Massimiliano Mazzanti (Departiment of Economics, Università di Ferrara (italy).) |
| Abstract: | The adoption and diffusion of environmental innovations (EIs) is crucial to greening the economy and achieving win-win environmental – economic gains. A large and increasing literature has focused on the levers underlying EIs that are external to the firm, such as stakeholder’s pressure and policy pressure. Little attention, however, has been devoted so far to the possible role of local spatial spillovers. The latter can be very relevant since growth depends on strong idiosyncratic regional factors – such asagglomeration economies - that must be integrated with the challenges posed by global markets. To overcome this drawback of the existing literature, we analyse here a rich dataset that covers the innovative activities and economic performances of firms in the Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy, a manufacturing district-rich area. We analyse firms’ performances through a two-step procedure. First, we look at the relevance of spatial levers, namely whether the agglomeration of EIs induces EIs in a given firm. Second, we test whether EIs have significantly increased firms’ economic performances. As to the importance of spatial levers, the role of agglomeration turns out to be fairly local in nature:we find that spillovers are significantly inducing innovation within municipal boundaries, which is coherent with the district-based Marshallian economies of north- eastern Italy. Regarding economic performances, firms' productivity is positively related to EI adoption; in particular,firms that adopt EIs and organizational change show a better economic performance.Our findings suggest that EIscanbe a key source of growth for regional systems, particularly when spurred by local spillovers, and an important way outof the ongoing crisis. |
| Keywords: | environmental innovations, firm economic performances, local spillovers, manufacturing, agglomeration |
| JEL: | O38 Q55 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:0414&r=eff |
| By: | Françoise Lemoine; Grégoire Mayo; Sandra Poncet; Deniz Ünal |
| Abstract: | Since the mid-2000s, the center of gravity of China's economic growth has shifted from the coastline to the inland and the gap in GDP per capita between the two areas has narrowed. This macroeconomic catch-up reflects, with a time lag, the convergence process which has been at work in manufacturing industry since the end of the 1990s and suggests that China is becoming increasingly integrated in terms of technological level. This pattern is in line with a process whereby the inland catches up the labor productivity level of the coast thanks to the transfer of technology and capital from these most advanced regions. |
| Keywords: | China;Regional inequality;Manufacturing industry;Convergence;Growth |
| JEL: | O14 O25 O53 R12 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2014-04&r=eff |
| By: | Marcela Eslava (Universidad de Los Andes); John Haltiwanger (University of Maryland and NBER); Adriana Kugler (Georgetown University, NBER, and Department of Labor.); Maurice Kugler (UNDP) |
| Abstract: | We assess the impact, on workforce contract composition, employment adjustment dynamics and productivity, of a combination of changes in the Colombian labor legislation which increased firm’s ability of using contracts of a temporary nature, and posterior changes that increased the costs associated with longer term contracts. Until 1990, labor regulations in Colombia practically banned the possibility of using fixed-term contracts for horizons of less than one year (see, e.g. Kugler, 2004). The labor market component of a broad package of market reforms adopted at the beginning of the nineties opened the possibility of hiring under fixed term contracts of different types. Some of these contracts not only free employers of potential dismissal costs, but are also subject to reduced, or even zero, non-wage costs. Regulatory changes occurred in the decade that followed further increased incentives to use fixed term contracts. |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0154&r=eff |
| By: | ,; Diewert, Erwin |
| Abstract: | The paper considers some of the problems associated with the indirectly measured components of financial service outputs in the System of National Accounts (SNA), termed FISIM (Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured). The paper considers how to integrate financial transactions into the balance sheet and production accounts of a firm; i.e., the paper looks at FISIM more broadly. In order to minimize the role of imputations, the paper considers a firm that raises capital at the beginning of the accounting period, engages in some form of productive activity during the period and then distributes the initial capital and any profits back to the capitalists who financed the firm. |
| Keywords: | User costs, banking services, deposit services, loan services, production accounts, System of National Accounts, FISIM, Financial Intermediation Servi |
| JEL: | C82 D24 D92 E22 E01 E22 E31 E41 E43 E44 |
| Date: | 2014–02–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:bricol:erwin_diewert-2014-8&r=eff |
| By: | Luis-Gonzalo Llosa (AFP Profuturo) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how terms of trade affect aggregate productivity using a two-country monopolistic competitive business cycle model driven by aggregate technology shocks. The inefficiency of the equilibrium implies that each country’s productivity is affected by the terms of trade. This introduces a novel mechanism for business cycle synchronization. Moreover, for each country, foreign technology shocks have almost the same effects as domestic technology shocks. The paper also shows how terms of trade movements can lead to excess volatility of consumption and highly persistent productivity. On the quantitative side, the model delivers a degree of business cycle synchronization that is close to the actual comovement of the U.S. economy with the rest of the world. The model also implies that for some small open economies, specially emerging economies, foreign shocks can outperform domestic shocks in explaining their business cycles. Finally, the paper provides a quantification of the influence of the terms of trade on emerging countries’ productivity and finds that it can be large. |
| Keywords: | Imperfect Competition, Input-Output Linkages, Terms of Trade, Business Cycles, Total Factor Productivity |
| JEL: | C67 E23 F12 F41 F43 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apc:wpaper:2014-007&r=eff |