|
on Efficiency and Productivity |
|
Issue of 2021‒03‒15
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Zheng, Guanyu; Duy, Hoang Minh; Pacheco, Gail |
| Abstract: | New Zealand has experienced poor productivity performance over the last two decades. Factors often cited as reasons behind this are the small size of the domestic market and distance to international partners and markets. While the distance reason is one that is fairly insurmountable, there are a number of other small advanced economies that also face similar domestic market constraints. This study compares the relative performance of New Zealand's firms to those economies using novel cross-country microdata from CompNet. We present stylised facts for New Zealand relative to the economies of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands and Sweden based on average productivity levels, as well as benchmarking laggard, median and frontier firms. This research also employs an analytical framework of technology diffusion to evaluate the extent of productivity convergence, and the impact of the productivity frontier on non-frontier firm performance. Additionally, both labour and capital resource allocation are compared between New Zealand and the other small advanced economies. Results show that New Zealand's firms have comparatively low productivity levels and that its frontier firms are not benefiting from the diffusion of best technologies outside the nation. Furthermore, there is evidence of labour misallocation in New Zealand based on less labour-productive firms having disproportionally larger employment shares than their more productive counterparts. Counter-factual analysis illustrates that improving both technology diffusion from abroad toward New Zealand's frontier firms, and labour allocation across firms within New Zealand will see sizable productivity gains in New Zealand. |
| Keywords: | labour productivity,productivity convergence,resource allocation |
| JEL: | L25 O33 O47 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhcom:12021&r=all |
| By: | Corsini, Alberto (Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France); Pezzoni, Michele (Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, Observatoire des Sciences et Techniques, HCERES, OFCE, SciencePo, France, and ICRIOS, Bocconi University, Italy); Visentin, Fabiana (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of the social environment to which a Ph.D. student is exposed on her scientific productivity during the training period. Vertical and horizontal relationships depict the social environment. Vertical relationships are those supervisor-student, while horizontal relationships are those student-peers. We characterize these relationships by assessing how the supervisor's and peers' biographic and academic characteristics relate to the student's productivity as measured by the publication quantity, quality, and scientific network size. Unique to our study, we cover the entire student population of a European country for all the STEM fields. Specifically, we analyse the productivity of 77,143 students who graduated in France between 2000 and 2014. We find that having a female supervisor is associated with a higher student's productivity as well as being supervised by a mid-career scientist and having a supervisor with a high academic reputation. The supervisor's fundraising ability benefits only one specific dimension of the student's productivity, i.e., the student's work quality. Interestingly, the supervisor's mentorship experience negatively associates with student's productivity. Having many peers negatively associates with the student's productivity, especially if peers are senior students. Having female peers positively correlates with the student's productivity, while peers' academic status shows mixed effects according to the productivity dimension considered. We find results heterogeneity when breaking down our sample by field of research. |
| Keywords: | French Ph.D. students, Productivity determinants, Social environment, Supervisor, Peers |
| JEL: | J24 O30 |
| Date: | 2021–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2021011&r=all |
| By: | Claudiu ALBULESCU; Camélia TURCU |
| Keywords: | , productivity, R&D firms, corporate finance and governance, panel quantile regression, Romania |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:leo:wpaper:2846&r=all |
| By: | Klaus S. Friesenbichler; Agnes Kügler; Andreas Reinstaller |
| Abstract: | We revisit the impact of rising imports from China on within firm labour productivity growth in the EU. The period analysed is 2003 through 2016 and thus covers the recent increase of technology-intensive imports from China. We find that higher fractions of Chinese imports in aggregate imports slow down labour productivity growth of domestic firms in Europe. The adverse effect becomes more pronounced at higher growth rates. Multinationals are able to partly compensate the negative effects of import competition and benefit from Chinese imports at higher productivity growth intensities. The effects are strongest for local firms and firms in low tech industries. No effects were found for firms in high-tech industries. |
| Keywords: | Import Competition, Multinational Firms, Productivity, Manufacturing, EU, China |
| Date: | 2021–02–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2021:i:623&r=all |
| By: | Claudio Battiati; Cecilia Jona-Lasinio; Enrico Marvasi; Silvia Sopranzetti |
| Abstract: | Recent empirical investigations have documented an upward trend in profit rates, markups, and concentration over the last decades, bringing a renewed interest in market power and its causes and consequences. While most studies have focused on the US, recent works identify similar patterns in other advanced economies as well. In light of such results, a growing concern is emerging about the negative effects of declining competition. Do we observe a similar pattern in the EU countries? This paper relies on national accounting data to investigate these issues for four major EU countries: France, Germany, Italy and Spain. We find that, despite some common trends, EU countries are differentiated and followed different trends relative to the US. The upward markup trend is less pronounced than in the US and markups are positively correlated with productivity and investments, including on innovation; while imported inputs and Global Value Chains have pro-competitive effects. In the EU, despite country and sector specificities, increased concentration and market power are generally of less concern than in the US, while a larger role for the most efficient firms might increase efficiency. |
| Keywords: | productivity growth, markups, market power, global value chains. |
| JEL: | F40 F10 F60 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2021_04.rdf&r=all |
| By: | MORIKAWA Masayuki |
| Abstract: | This study examines the prevalence, frequency, and productivity of the working from home (WFH) arrangement in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic using data from an original firm survey. The results reveal that about half of the firms that responded to the survey adopted the WFH arrangement. The mean WFH intensity, or the contribution of WFH to the total labor input, was approximately 23% among firms that adopted the WFH arrangement. The mean WFH productivity relative to working at the typical workplace was approximately 68%. However, large dispersions are observed in both WFH intensity and WFH productivity. The results obtained from the firm survey are generally consistent with the observations from the employee survey. |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:21002&r=all |
| By: | David Martinez Turegano (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | Inspired by the ideas developed in Timmer (2017), this paper proposes a measure of Global Value Chain – Total Factor Productivity (GVC-TFP) and a decomposition of its changes into three informative factors: changes in factor requirements associated with efficiency gains/losses in the use of capital and labour, shifts in the distribution of value added due to changes in factor shares, and shifts in the composition of the value chain, which are mainly due to geographical relocation of production stages. Based on the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), we use this methodology to analyse the evolution of GVC-TFP in different sectors across EU27 Member States between 2000 and 2014. Comparing the periods before and after the Great Recession, we find a sharp contrast between the intensity, the sectoral composition, geographical contributions and the nature of the driving forces of GVC-TFP developments. In the context of the economic crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic, in which import dependency and supply security mark the debate on the future of the EU Single Market, we find that our methodology could contribute to a comprehensive assessment of strategic restructuring of value chains. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, value chain, sectoral heterogeneity, convergence, European Union |
| JEL: | E24 F14 F23 L16 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc122076&r=all |
| By: | Chen, Shiyi; Härdle, Wolfgang Karl; Wang, Li |
| Abstract: | The paper estimates banks’ total factor efficiency (TFE) as well as TFE of each production factor by incorporating banks’ overall risk endogenously into bank’s production process as undesirable by-product in a Global-SMB Model. Our results show that, compared with a model incorporated with banks’ overall risk, a model considering only on-balance-sheet risk may over-estimate the integrated TFE (TFIE) and under-estimate TFE volatility. Significant heterogeneities of bank TFIE and TFE of each production factor exist among banks of different types and regions, as a result of still prominent unbalanced development of Chinese commercial banks. Based on the estimated TFIE, the paper further investigates the determinants of bank efficiency, and finds that shadow banking, bank size, NPL ratio, loan to deposit ratio, fiscal surplus to GDP ratio and banking sector concentration are significant determinants of bank efficiency. Besides, a model with risk-weighted assets as undesirable outputs can better capture the impact of shadow banking involvement. |
| Keywords: | Nonparametric Methods,Commercial Banks,Shadow Bank,Financial Risk |
| JEL: | C00 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:irtgdp:2020001&r=all |