Real Output and Labour Productivity in Indonesian Manufacturing, 1975–90

This article presents estimates of purchasing power parities, real output and labour productivity in medium and large scale manufacturing in a binary comparison between Indonesia and the USA in the benchmark year 1987, It applies an industry of origin approach, comparing product unit values from the censuses of both countries. The 1987 PPP for manufacturing was Rp 1,200/$. Gross value added per person employed in 1987 was 10% of that in the USA. With the use of national time series, the 1987 benchmark was extrapolated backwards and forwards to derive productivity comparisons for the years 1975–90 in 15 branches of manufacturing. 1975–80 was a period of catch-up, with labour productivity increasing from 7.7 to 10.6% of the US level. Between 1980 and 1990 catch-up stagnated: relative productivity remained unchanged despite considerable productivity growth in Indonesia, Comparisons with other Asian economies show that labour productivity in Indonesia was somewhat higher than in India, but was still lower in 1990 than that of South Korea in 1970.     

Comparative output and labor productivity in manufacturing between China, Japan, Korea and the United States for ca. 1935 - A production-side PPP approach

Following the standard industry-of-origin methodology to measure production-side purchasing power parities (PPPs), this study for the first time provides a set of unit value ratios (UVRs) of manufacturing products between China, Japan, Korea and the US, based on which it derives PPP estimates for individual manufacturing industries for these East Asian countries with the US as the benchmark for ca. 1935. The estimated PPP for total manufacturing suggests that the relative level of the producer price in China, Japan and Korea was about half to two thirds of the prevailing market exchange rates, respectively. The estimated PPPs are used to calculate comparative output and labor productivity for individual industries of these countries for ca. 1935. It shows that the size of factory manufacturing in Japan was 12 percent of the US level and in China only about one percent of the US level. In terms of comparative labor productivity, measured as PPP$ per hour worked, Japanese and Korean manufacturing was 24 and 23 percent of the US level, whereas Chinese manufacturing was only 7 percent of the US level.     

Catching up with the Technology Frontier: Finnish Manufacturing Productivity, 1975–2003

Abstract

Labour productivity in Finnish manufacturing industry grew at the rapid average annual rate of 5 per cent from 1975 to 2003. The labour productivity growth was broad-based, or yeast-like, in the 1970s and 1980s, with contributions from multi-factor productivity gains in the paper and metal industries dominating. In the 1990s productivity growth was much more mushroom-like, that is, concentrated in the electronics industry. The level of labour productivity in Finnish manufacturing matched that of the USA by the end of the second millennium. Labour costs and unit labour costs remained at only three-quarters of the US level, although real hourly compensation increased steadily. After 1995 manufacturing industry constituted a quarter of the Finnish economy but contributed a third of overall economic growth.     

Indonesian Manufacturing Sector Output and Productivity: An Australian Comparative Perspective, 1975–90

This paper provides industry-of-origin comparative estimates of real output and labour productivity in the Indonesian and Australian manufacturing sectors. It makes binary comparisons for the benchmark year 1987, and extrapolates the 1987 benchmark backward and forward using national time series, to derive comparisons for the years 1975–90. Expressed in ‘purchasing power parities’ (PPPs), the gross value of output and value added in Indonesian manufacturing in 1987 was 40% and 34% of the respective Australian levels. In 1987 the Indonesian manufacturing price level was 74% of the Australian level, and Indonesian manufacturing labour productivity was 16% of that in Australia. 1975 to 1990 was a period of catch-up. The Indonesian manufacturing price level declined from 105% to 60% of the Australian level, while labour productivity increased from 12% to 17% of the Australian level. The catch-up was greater from the early 1980s onwards.     

Agglomeration externalities and productivity growth: US cities, 1880–1930

We investigate the role of industrial structure in labour productivity growth in manufacturing in US cities during the ‘second industrial revolution’. We find that initially greater specialization was associated with faster subsequent productivity growth but that only the very high levels of diversity which obtained in some very large cities had a positive correlation. We interpret our results as demonstrating the existence of dynamic Marshallian externalities. The impact of industrial specialization in our sample of US cities after 1890 is found to have raised the level of labour productivity in manufacturing by about 4 per cent by 1920.     

Misallocation and manufacturing TFP in Thailand

Using data from Thailand's 2007 Industrial Census, this research studied resource misallocation across manufacturing plants and its impact on manufacturing total factor productivity (TFP). It is found that there is more resource misallocation across plants in Thailand than in China, India, and the US, as well as in some other countries. When resource misallocation in Thailand is hypothetically reduced to the extent observed in the USA, manufacturing TFP increases by about seventy per cent. It is also found that manufacturing plants under government ownership or located in the northern region of Thailand have lower productivity, yet face lower input and output distortions than other plants. Also, medium‐sized plants face higher distortions than smaller and larger plants.     

Information technology and the Japanese economy

In this paper we compare sources of economic growth in Japan and the United States from 1975 through 2003, focusing on the role of information technology (IT). We have adjusted Japanese data to conform to US definitions in order to provide a rigorous comparison between the two economies. The adjusted data show that the share of the Japanese gross domestic product devoted to investment in computers, telecommunications equipment, and software rose sharply after 1995. The contribution of total factor productivity growth from the IT sector in Japan also increased, while the contributions of labor input and productivity growth from the non-IT sector lagged far behind the United States. Our projection of potential economic growth in Japan from for the next decade is substantially below that in the United States, mainly due to slower growth of labor input. Our projections of labor productivity growth in the two economies are much more similar. J. Japanese Int. Economies 19 (4) (2005) 460–481.     

Dominion or Republic? Migrants to North America from the United Kingdom, 1870–1910

Late nineteenth–century Canada attracted a large number of immigrants from the UK, despite far lower average income per head there than in the US. While urban labour markets in the northern US were much larger than those in Canada, differences in outcomes between UK immigrants in Canadian and in northern US cities were small. Average annual real earnings by occupation group were only 10 to 15 per cent lower in Canadian cities. Individual–level census data indicate that the occupational distribution of UK immigrants in Canada was quite similar to that of their peers in the US.     

Exchange Rate Cycles and Canada/US Manufacturing Prices

The paper examines the industry characteristics that are related to the shifts in competitiveness, measured as the relative common-currency price ratios between Canadian and US manufacturing prices. We find that relative input costs and relative productivity growth are the two most important factors influencing changes in relative Canada/US prices. Competitive pressures emanating from trade are important determinants of the extent to which relative productivity differences are passed through to cross-country relative prices. We also find that the magnitude of domestic market competition and export intensity affects the short-run relative price shifts over the cycle of exchange rate. JEL no. E30, F31, L60     

Shift from Input‐based Growth to Productivity‐based Growth in Korean Manufacturing Industry

The Korean economy has entered a period of relatively sluggish growth after experiencing very dynamic and high economic growth since the 1970s. The recent growth rate has been around 3 percent, which is similar to that in many advanced countries. According to growth accounting, economic growth is possible because of input increases and productivity increases. Productivity growth is much more important than input increases for long‐term economic growth. We investigated whether there was a structural break in the Korean manufacturing industry and whether the main factor contributing to economic growth shifted from input to productivity. Using various econometric methods, we tested this question and found some interesting results. First, there was an important change in the 1990s, and the productivity trend seemed to show a big structural break at that time. Second, an input increase was the main factor contributing to economic growth before the break and productivity became more important after the break. Third, there was also a major change in the relationship between international trade and productivity.     

The Role of the Efficiency Gap for Spillovers from FDI: Evidence from the UK Electronics and Engineering Sectors

This paper focuses on the role of the efficiency gap in determining whether or not domestic firms benefit from productivity spillovers from FDI. We use establishment level data for the period 1980–1992 for the UK. Given that there is substantial heterogeneity of productivity across sectors we focus on two manufacturing sectors in detail, namely, electronics and engineering. We allow for different effects of FDI on establishments located at different quantiles of the productivity distribution by using conditional quantile regression. Overall, while there is some heterogeneity in results across sectors and quantiles, our findings clearly suggest that the efficiency gap matters for productivity spillover benefits. We find evidence for a u-shaped relationship between productivity growth and FDI interacted with the efficiency gap. We also analyse in some detail the impact of changes in relative efficiency on establishments’ ability to benefit from spillovers.     

生产性服务发展与制造业在全球价值链中的升级——以长三角地区为例

本文分析了长三角地区作为高级要素投入的生产性服务发展与制造业在全球价值链中升级的内在机理。基于2000—2007年长三角地区细分行业面板数据的实证研究表明,长三角生产性服务发展与制造业在全球价值链中的升级具有显著的正相关关系,然而,江苏、上海和浙江三地区影响程度不同。作为长三角的中心,上海的服务业,尤其是金融服务业,不仅仅为了本地区服务,其服务范围更多地扩散到周边地区,从而加速了长三角地区外向型经济中制造业在全球价值链中的升级。     

From boom to gloom: Brazilian labour productivity in manufacturing relative to the United States, 1912–2019

Whereas manufacturing seems to hold the key to modern economic growth, the role of manufacturing in economy-wide convergence across countries is debatable. One strand of scholarship argues that productivity levels in manufacturing tend to remain stable across countries, and that economy-wide convergence takes place through structural transformations. Another strand maintains that productivity levels of less-developed countries tend to approach those of developed countries unconditionally, and that deindustrialization thwarts economy-wide convergence. We examine productivity in Brazilian manufacturing relative to the United States, 1912–2019. The result shows dramatic swings in the Brazilian/US productivity ratio, increasing in the decades following the Second World War, peaking in the late 1970s at impressively high levels, and declining precipitously thereafter. This sluggish performance of Brazilian manufacturing since the peak in the late 1970s has probably hindered income convergence with richer countries.     

NEW ESTIMATES OF TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN INDONESIAN MANUFACTURING

This paper estimates new elasticities of value added with respect to labour and capital in Indonesian manufacturing, controlling for the simultaneity problem that potentially exists between the choice of input levels and a productivity shock (such as an increase in productivity due to new production processes), for plant exit, and for quasi-constant unobservable plant characteristics. It does so by applying the Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) production function estimator to plant-level value added, fixed assets, labour, and electricity consumption data over the period 1988–95. This methodology allows us to revisit the previously used growth accounting based elasticities, and thereby improves total factor productivity (TFP) estimates. The results show that, in the period under study, aggregate TFP growth in Indonesian manufacturing was higher than had previously been estimated.     

Capital inputs in the Chinese economy: Estimates for the total economy,industry and manufacturing

This paper presents new estimates of capital inputs in the Chinese economy. Estimates are made for the total economy (1953–2007), for the industrial sector (1953–2007) and for manufacturing (1985–2007). The capital input estimates for industry and manufacturing are also broken down by thirty regions. The paper makes a systematic attempt to apply SNA (System of National Accounts) concepts to the estimation of capital inputs, according to the Perpetual Inventory Method. It makes a clear distinction between capital services from a productivity perspective and wealth capital stocks. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the relevant Chinese statistical concepts and data. It provides an explanation of the procedures followed in constructing the new national and regional capital input series.     

A Tale of Two Tails: Establishment Size and Labour Productivity in United States and German Manufacturing at the Start of the Twentieth Century

This paper studies the importance of establishment size for the German/US labour‐productivity gap in manufacturing at the start of the twentieth century. First, we show that the left tail of the employment distribution by establishment size was larger in Germany than in the USA. Second, using US state data for 1909, we find a positive correlation between establishment size and labour productivity. Third, imposing the coefficients of these estimates on establishment‐size differences between Germany and the USA, we calculate that a redistribution of German employment to larger establishments, as in the USA, reduces the labour‐productivity gap by about 25 per cent.     

Machine tools and mass production in the armaments boom: Germany and the United States, 1929–44

This article anatomizes the ‘productivity race’ between Nazi Germany and the US over the period from the Great Depression to the Second World War in the metalworking industry. We present novel data that allow us to account for both the quantity of installed machine tools and their technological type. Hitherto, comparison of productive technologies has been limited to case studies and well‐worn narratives about US mass production and European‐style flexible specialization. Our data show that the two countries in fact employed similar types of machines combined in different ratios. Furthermore, neither country was locked in a rigid technological paradigm. By 1945 Germany had converged on the US both in terms of capital‐intensity and the specific technologies employed. Capital investment made a greater contribution to output growth in Germany, whereas US growth was capital‐saving. Total factor productivity growth made a substantial contribution to the armaments boom in both countries. But it was US industry, spared the war's most disruptive effects, that was in a position to take fullest advantage of the opportunities for wartime productivity growth. This adds a new element to familiar explanations for Germany's rapid catch‐up after 1945.     

Total factor productivity of Korean manufacturing industries: Comparison of competing models with firm-level data

This paper presents the parametric estimation of the rates of technical change and total factor productivity (TFP) growth of 7462 Korean manufacturing firms over the period 1987–2007. Two alternative formulations of technical change measured by the time trend and the general index approaches are estimated with panel data models assuming flexible functional forms. Several extensions of each approach are also considered and their benefits and limitations are discussed. In addition to making estimates of the TFP growth and its decomposition, the paper compares the parametric TFP growth measure with the non-parametric Solow residual serving as a benchmark. Several hypotheses related to technology level, firm sizes, industrial sectors, skill biased technological change and macroeconomic and industrial policies are tested to explain the growth patterns and heterogeneity in technical change, input biases and TFP growth rates. Using second regression analysis, the paper explores the determinants of TFP growth and their policy implications.     

Exporting and Productivity in the USA

Exporting is often touted as a way to increase economic growth.This paper examines the interaction between exporting and productivitygrowth in US manufacturing. While exporting plants have substantiallyhigher productivity levels, there is no evidence that exportingincreases plant productivity growth rates. The higher productivityof exporters largely predates their entry into exporting. However,within the same industry, exporters do grow faster than non-exportersin terms of both shipments and employment. Exporting is associatedwith the reallocation of resources from less efficient to moreefficient plants. In the aggregate, these reallocation effectsare quite large, making up over 40 per cent of total factorproductivity growth in the manufacturing sector. Half of thisreallocation to more productive plants occurs within industriesand the direction of the reallocation is towards exporting plants.     

集聚外部性如何影响企业生产率?

文章基于中国制造业企业微观数据,在省份、地级以上城市和区县三个地理层面,检验和比较了集聚外部性的三个源泉影响企业生产率增长的内在机制。研究发现,在同一地理层面,投入共享对生产率的促进作用最大,劳动力池次之,知识溢出最小。分地理层面来看,投入共享效应在省份层面最明显,地级以上城市层面次之,区县层面最小;省份和地级以上城市层面的劳动力池效应大于区县层面;知识溢出效应仅在城市和区县层面成立。同时,集聚外部性的相对重要性还依赖于地区市场化进程和行业技术水平。文章结论有利于更深入理解集聚外部性与企业生产率的关系,从而进一步打开集聚经济的地理黑箱,也能够为公共政策在不同行政区划层次的精准发力提供理论支持。