|
on Efficiency and Productivity |
| By: | Sanja Samirana Pattnayak |
| Abstract: | This study contributes to the literature on digitalisation in developing countries by examining its role in export intensity and firm productivity in Indian manufacturing from 2000 to 2021. Using fixed effects and the system generalised method of moments (GMM) model, the analysis draws on firm-level data from the Prowess database, encompassing approximately 11, 000 manufacturing firms. The findings reveal that digitalisation amongst India’s manufacturing firms is positively associated with both export intensity and productivity, after accounting for firm characteristics and heterogeneity. Specifically, a 1% increase in digital intensity corresponds to a 0.16% increase in exports. This effect is further enhanced when expenditure on internet services and software development is included, raising the export impact to 0.21% per 1% increase in digital intensity. Additionally, the results indicate that a 1% increase in digitalisation intensity leads to a 0.8% growth in total factor productivity. These findings have significant policy implications, particularly as digitalisation increasingly shapes the global and Indian economies. They underscore the need for strategies to promote digital adoption in manufacturing to enhance competitiveness and productivity. |
| Keywords: | digitalisation; productivity; exports; servicification; manufacturing; India |
| JEL: | C33 D24 F14 J24 L60 O33 |
| Date: | 2025–03–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:era:wpaper:dp-2024-39 |
| By: | Abdoulaye Kané; Nadine Levratto |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how local factors at the local and firm levels affect French construction firms' productivity (labour productivity and total factor productivity). We use a multilevel model to disentangle firm-specific and location-specific effects. The results cover the period 2009-2019 and confirm the importance of firm-specific determinants of productivity, mainly age and size. Our results also emphasise the influence of location and local characteristics. We find that the local unemployment rate hurts productivity, and our results bring some evidence of the existence of positive external agglomeration effects. These results remain robust to analysis by company size. |
| Keywords: | French construction firms; Heterogeneity of productivity; Localisation Factors; Multilevel Models |
| JEL: | C31 D24 L74 R15 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2025-19 |
| By: | Giuseppe Canzonieri; Luigi Giamboni |
| Abstract: | This paper measures the efficiency of public spending in the education and health sectors using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). It covers all EU Member States from 2000 to 2022. The model uses panel data and accounts for country-specific factors such as school systems, economic structure, socio-economic background, and health risks, treated as fixed effects. A common frontier approach, assuming equal access to production technologies across countries, is estimated with both methods. DEA also evaluates variable returns to scale and considers multi-output and multi-input analysis. The analysis shows that most countries operate near their efficiency frontiers for quantitative outcomes (tertiary education attainment rates and life expectancy at 65) while significant gaps seem to exist for qualitative targets (PISA scores and years of healthy life expectancy at 65). DEA analysis suggests the presence of decreasing returns to scale between public spending and outcomes in both domains. Malmquist index calculation points to technological shifts of the frontier to have a role in explaining inefficiency over time. |
| JEL: | H40 H51 H52 I11 I21 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:euf:dispap:217 |
| By: | Raphaela Beatrice Karlen; Solene Marie Paule Rougeaux; Sara Johansson De Silva; Simon Serge Barussaud |
| Keywords: | Social Protections and Labor Social Protections and Labor-Work & Working Conditions |
| Date: | 2023–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:40435 |
| By: | Alloysius Joko PURWANTO (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)); Ridwan Dewayanto RUSLI (Cologne University of Applied Sciences and University of Luxembourg); Hafis Pratama Rendra GRAHA (Bandung Institute of Technology); Sirichai KOONAPHAPDEELERT (Chiang Mai University); Reza Miftahul ULUM (University of Indonesia); Citra Endah Nur SETYAWATI (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)); Nadiya PRANINDITA (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)); Ryan Wiratama BHASKARA (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a firm's total factor productivity (TFP) using Korean firm-level data from 2016 to 2021. The study reveals that the pandemic had a heterogeneous impact on firm TFP depending on the firm's operational characteristics, specifically whether the firm is a multinational enterprise (MNE) or a pure exporter (non-MNE). Whilst the pandemic had a more significant negative impact on the TFP of pure exporters than other firms, MNEs were less affected by the pandemic shock than pure exporters. This implies that whilst both firms were exposed to negative demand shocks on a global scale, MNEs were better equipped to handle supply-side uncertainties through international diversification. The study identifies certain characteristics of MNEs that helped buffer the pandemic shock, such as shedding labour, high R&D intensity, and more diversification via foreign subsidiaries. These characteristics enabled MNEs to mitigate the pandemic shock and even increase their TFP during the pandemic. |
| Keywords: | Global Pandemic; COVID-19; firm productivity; resource allocation; labour shedding; R&D; MNEs; international diversification; pure exporting firms |
| JEL: | D24 F23 F40 H12 I18 |
| Date: | 2025–03–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:era:wpaper:dp-2024-38 |
| By: | Fontanelli, Luca; Guerini, Mattia; Miniaci, Raffaele; Secchi, Angelo |
| Abstract: | While artificial intelligence (AI) adoption holds the potential to enhance business operations through improved forecasting and automation, its relation with average productivity growth remain highly heterogeneous across firms. This paper shifts the focus and investigates the impact of predictive artificial intelligence (AI) on the volatility of firms’ productivity growth rates. Using firm-level data from the 2019 French ICT survey, we provide robust evidence that AI use is associated with increased volatility. This relationship persists across multiple robustness checks, including analyses addressing causality concerns. To propose a possible mechanisms underlying this effect, we compare firms that purchase AI from external providers (“AI buyers”) and those that develop AI in-house (“AI developers”). Our results show that heightened volatility is concentrated among AI buyers, whereas firms that develop AI internally experience no such effect. Finally, we find that AI-induced volatility among “AI buyers” is mitigated in firms with a higher share of ICT engineers and technicians, suggesting that AI’s successful integration requires complementary human capital. |
| Keywords: | Dairy Farming, Production Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource/Energy Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2025–04–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemwp:355806 |
| By: | Liza Archanskaia; Plamen Nikolov; Wouter Simons; Lukas Vogel |
| Abstract: | The EU corporate sector has been subject to severe shocks in recent years, i.e., the administrative restrictions on activity in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply bottlenecks in its aftermath, and more recently the spike in energy prices in the context of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. This paper uses the latest available industry- and firm-level data to quantify the impact of the spike in energy prices on cost-price dynamics and corporate profitability of non-financial corporations (NFCs). Firstly, we document price-cost margin developments at the country-industry level by computing production cost indices at quarterly frequency. In this step, input-output tables are used to construct implicit input deflators. Secondly, we plug these price-cost margin developments into the latest available financial statements of the firm to simulate the evolution of profitability over 2022-2023. Thirdly, we characterise the evolution of profitability for publicly listed EU firms, based on their published financial accounts up to 2023. In the first step, we uncover a positive relationship between production cost increases and the energy intensity of the industry, only partly compensated by producer price growth. In the second step, we find that 20% of NFCs had negative cumulative operating profits over 2022-2023. About half of these firms posted positive profits in 2021, underpinning the contribution of partial pass-through to a deterioration of corporate profitability. In the third step, we provide an indirect robustness check of our simulations, by showing that the spike in energy prices had a negative effect on NFC profitability overall. Further, we assess the role of exposure to the shock. We find that profitability growth of energy intensive firms was pushed into negative territory over 2016-2023. This result holds for gross, operating, and net profit margins. Overall, the results suggest that while there has been substantial pass-through of production cost increases to producer prices, dampening the impact on profitability, the spike in energy prices was associated with a deterioration in cost competitiveness. Longer-term challenges remain, particularly for energy-intensive industries, that require more structural solutions. |
| JEL: | C23 C67 D22 D24 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:euf:dispap:216 |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Gender-Gender and Development |
| Date: | 2023–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:40392 |
| By: | Sari, Ajeng Rossantika; Sulistiyana, Fitri; Pandin, Maria Yovita R |
| Abstract: | This research has the purpose of analyzing the application of green accounting which has the ability as environmental costs and environmental performance with the level of profit. The research object studied at this time is PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk which uses a descriptive qualitative method where the data collection source is the company's annual report distributed by the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). The environmental cost variable has no influence on the level of profit, the environmental performance variable has no influence on the level of profit. This study aims to improve Green Accounting in the application of company profitability. |
| Date: | 2023–06–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:dbhj5_v1 |
| By: | João Tovar Jalles; André Teixeira |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the impact of fiscal consolidations on banking behavior, focusing on efficiency and stability. Using a panel dataset covering 194 countries from 1989 to 2020 and employing local projection methods, we find that fiscal consolidations improve bank stability at the expense of efficiency. The decline in efficiency is attributed to reduced operational income, while stability gains stem from improved asset quality and bolstered capital adequacy. The effects are heterogeneous: consolidations have a more substantial negative impact on efficiency in advanced economies, while stability improvements are more pronounced in emerging markets. The size and composition of fiscal adjustments also matter: tax-based consolidations favor stability more than expenditure-based ones. Robustness checks with alternative definitions of fiscal consolidations and non-linear models confirm these findings. The findings emphasize the importance of tailoring fiscal consolidations to country-specific factors to balance stability and efficiency in the banking sector. |
| Keywords: | fiscal consolidations, bank efficiency, financial stability, tax-based adjustments, panel data, local projections. |
| JEL: | C23 G21 H3 E62 F34 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:remwps:wp03702025 |
| By: | Sam Jones; Marcelo Mucocana |
| Abstract: | Measurement errors in macroeconomic aggregates such as GDP have been widely lamented, particularly in low-income contexts. This study investigates the reliability of one component of national accounts, agricultural sector output. Focusing first on the case of Mozambique, we use a series of 12 harmonized national agricultural micro-surveys to construct estimates of gross annual output in the sector. Compared to corresponding national accounts values for the period 2002-20, the micro-survey estimates are about 50% lower. |
| Keywords: | Measurement error, GDP, National accounts, Agriculture, Survey data, Mozambique, Survey |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-7 |
| By: | Jana Kim Gutt (Paderborn University); Kirsten Thommes (Paderborn University); Miro Mehic (Paderborn University) |
| Abstract: | Performance appraisals are subject to recent debates with one common denominator: most discussions point to their lack of accuracy. In theory, performance appraisals aim to reflect an employee’s performance over a certain period of time. However, recent research shows that appraisals fall short in reaching this goal. Although many studies acknowledge the benefits of performance comments over ratings on a scale, research has paid little attention to the potential of performance comments to achieve higher accuracy in performance evaluations. To approach this issue, we conducted a laboratory experiment and collected objective performance data as well as numerical and verbal performance appraisals. In particular, we compile numerical ratings, written comments, and spoken comments on performance from independent evaluators. To make the numbers (assigned ratings) and the comments comparable, we applied a Random Forest algorithm to transfer the comments into numerical ratings (algorithmic ratings). By analyzing each rating (assigned and algorithmic) in relation to the performance, we find evidence that spoken comments reflect performance differences most accurately within a team. Our results offer important insights into how performance appraisals may be approached to reflect objective performance more accurately. |
| Keywords: | performance appraisal, rating accuracy, rating format, performance appraisal comment, rating scale |
| JEL: | J24 M51 D91 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdn:dispap:132 |