Technological progress and factor substitution in the U.S. Textile industry, 1949–1974

Using the translog dual cost function approach, we estimate the elasticity of substitution and the nature of technical change in the U.S. textile industry. A significant extension on the existing studies on this topic is the incorporation of learning by doing as a source of technical change. Our results confirm earlier findings of limited substitution possibilities between capital and labour and that factor argumenting technical change is labour saving and capital using in the Hicksian sense. But this augmentation takes placeboth due to time and learning and further that bias due to the two factors is in the opposite direction.     

PETROLEUM REFINING INDUSTRY: AN ASSESSMENT OF ITS PRODUCTION STRUCTURE*

Cost structure of petroleum refining industry in Kuwait has been examined, with specific focus on factor substitution, and economies of scale and utilisation. This has been done by estimating translog cost functions, both long‐run and short‐run, using annual time‐series data covering the period from 1976 to 1998. The results indicate that the implied production structure is non‐homothetic, and the pattern of scale effect is labour and capital saving but material using. The evidence also supports presence of induced exogenous technical change, which is non‐neutral (labour and capital using, and material saving). The elasticity of substitution between capital and labour is negative, implying that the two inputs are complements. The results also indicate absence of economies and diseconomies of scale in the petroleum refining industry.     

Technical Efficiency in Australian Textile and Clothing Firms: Evidence From the Business Longitudinal Survey

This paper estimates technical efficiency of Australian textile and clothing firms based on the data obtained from the Business Longitudinal Survey (BLS) conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Using a Cobb Douglas stochastic production frontier the paper examines firm level technical efficiency in the time varying inefficiency effect model with technical inefficiency effects assumed as an independently distributed truncated normal variable. Estimates of the production frontier revealed significant but small elasticities of labour and capital for textile and clothing firms, respectively, and a negative (but insignificant) Hicks neutral technical change for both. Estimated coefficients of the explanatory variables for inefficiency effects indicated that technical efficiency varied significantly according to firms' age, size, capital intensity, proportion of non-production to total workers and type of legal status. Predicted firm specific efficiency varied from 16 per cent to 95 per cent and mean efficiency ranged between 30 to 70 per cent. In view of these results policies have been suggested to improve technical efficiency of the firms as well as productivity growth of the sub sectors.     

Deregulation and Subequilibrium in the Australian Dairy Processing Industry

The Australian dairy processing industry is currently undergoing a program of substantial regulatory reform. In this paper we assess the impact of this deregulation on the production and cost systems of the industry. This is undertaken using a translog restricted cost function, for the period 1969 to 1996, with labour, milk and energy as the variable inputs and capital as the one fixed input. We find that this industry has undergone significant changes in terms of factor demand and cost structures associated with the introduction of new technology.     

Technological Change in Australian Manufacturing

In the modern era, the extent and character of technical change features prominently in discussions of productivity growth and movements in the competitiveness of manufacturing. While technical change is pervasive in modern manufacturing, it occurs unevenly. In this study, technical change is estimated by fitting dual cost functions for each of 38 sectors of Australian manufacturing over the 32 year period, 1968–69 to 1999–2000. The estimates show that technical change is heavily labour-saving in all industries, but that the overall rate of change, as measured by a rate of cost diminution, and the degree of bias towards saving labour, rather than capital or material, varies substantially across industries.     

Sources of Australian Labour Productivity Change 1950–1994

This study examines sources of Australian labour productivity change from 1950 to 1994. Time-series data are used to estimate a model capturing the interaction between labour productivity, fixed capital, human capital, telecommunications, trade openness and international competitiveness. Attention is given to the time-series properties of these data. ADF tests for unit roots are employed, and the sensitivity of the tests to non-linear transformations and structural breaks are considered. Estimates suggest that policies that promote investment, economic integration and international competitiveness will improve short-run labour productivity. In the long run, fixed capital accumulation is the dominant source of productivity improvement.     

The Impact of Productivity Growth on the Costs of Production in Australian Manufacturing Industries*

The primary objective of this study is to examine the impact of technological progress on costs of production in 34 Australian manufacturing industries. An analytical model incorporating the notion of factor-augmenting technological change was developed and applied to each industry. The results indicated that in most of the industries technological progress during the period 1954–55 to 1981–82 had been biased towards augmenting labour and thereby reducing the cost of labour per unit of production. The implication of the analysis is that there is a nexus between incomes policy and the rate and bias of factor-augmenting technological change.     

Factor Substitutability in Australian Manufacturing with Emphasis on Energy Inputs*

In this paper a model of the production structure in the aggregate Australian manufacturing sector is estimated, emphasizing the use this sector makes of energy inputs. A translog cost function is estimated with time-series data for four inputs, capital services, labour services, energy and materials and likewise an energy submodel is estimated for solid fuels, oil, electricity and gas. The substitutabilily and the complementarity relationships between the various factor inputs and between the various fuels are examined: an interesting finding is that capital and energy are substitutes and labour and energy are complements. Factor price elasticities are calculated and turn out to be quite significant. The study concludes that rising energy prices will induce significant shifts in both the mix of fuel inputs and the level of aggregate energy utilization.     

MODELLING PRODUCTIVITY EFFECTS OF TRADE OPENNESS: A DUAL APPROACH*

A cost function framework is used to model the productivity effect of trade openness in terms of cost saving. The idea of ‘cost saving’ is closer to the entrepreneur's view of productivity. An entrepreneur would expect a reduction in the cost of production if trade openness brings any benefits to their firm. The output‐enhancing (primal) productivity effect of openness is obtainable from the cost‐saving (dual) productivity effect through the cost‐output link. The cost‐function framework also enables us to investigate whether trade openness induces firms to adopt a technology that is biased towards the use or saving of any factor of production. An empirical exercise based on time series data for the Australian two‐digit manufacturing industries reveals significant cost‐saving and output‐enhancing productivity effects of trade openness. Trade openness is biased towards the saving of labour and the use of capital. These results are quite insensitive to the choice of alternative measures of openness.     

技术进步方式与贸易条件变化研究

在垄断竞争的差异化产品模型假设下,在成本结构中引入技术进步的两种类型即资本节约型技术进步和劳动节约型技术进步。本国劳动节约型的技术进步使得本国同类产品的产出数量增多,贸易条件下降;但资本节约型的技术进步可使本国差异化产品种类增多,贸易条件上升。通过中国工业品行业的资本劳动比和贸易条件变化的关系,初步验证了该理论模型。     

An econometric model of production with endogenous improvement in energy efficiency, 1970-1995

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a modification of a standard four input production process where energy is used in an inefficient way due partly to unnecessary waste of energy. In this production process, R&D investment is an additional input in order to improve energy efficiency. It closes the gap between energy purchased and energy used effectively. The more is invested, the less is the waste of energy. With the cost and benefit of R&D investment incorporated in our model of the firm, we analyse the impact of an energy tax on R&D effort, on output and on the waste of energy. The model is implemented empirically by choosing a translog cost function and a set of first-order conditions, using data for the German chemical industry, 1970-1995. In a simulation study based on higher energy prices we found outsourcing as the consequent reaction of the firm- more material is used and less of energy, labour, and capital, given the unchanged output level. There is no indication of a double dividend in terms of environmental improvement as well as higher demand for labour on the industry level calling for a computable general equilibrium approach in order to answer this open question.     

The effects of public infrastructure on the cost structure of Spanish industries

This paper examines the impact of public infrastructures on the performance of Spanish private business at a disaggregated industry level. We use duality theory to recover the productivity effects of public capital by calculating the cost saving effects that are associated to public services. Using a translog cost function we present panel estimates for 14 Spanish industries during the period 1980–1991. Our results strongly suggest that public capital formation can be considered to be an instrument to improve competitiveness by reducing production costs. However, the results also indicate that there is a technologically induced labor saving effect through higher public investment. Furthermore, our estimates suggest that a distinction among industries is of importance because the effects of public infrastructures vary across industries considerably.     

Economic and productivity growth decomposition: An application to post-reform China

This paper examines and applies the theoretical foundation of the decomposition of economic and productivity growth to the thirty provinces in China's post-reform economy. The four attributes of economic growth are input growth, adjusted scale effect, technical progress, and efficiency growth. A stochastic frontier model with a translog production and incorporated with human capital is used to estimate the growth attributes in China. The empirical results show that input growth is the major contributor to economic growth and human capital is inadequate even though it has a positive and significant effect on growth. Technical progress is the main contributor to productivity growth and the scale effect has become important in recent years. The impact of technical inefficiency is statistical insignificant in the sample period. The relevant policy implication for a sustainable post-reform China economy is the need to promote human capital accumulation and improvement in technical efficiency.     

Measuring embodied technical change in the US local telephone industry

This study attempts to measure the rate of embodied technical change by using a short-run variable cost function that contains arguments for labour and capital quality. In this short-run variable cost model, the expansion of the amount of physical capital increases variable costs due to more maintenance outlays, and then it leads to improvements in capital quality. When a measure of competition is included as a proxy for organizational efficiency, improvements in labour and capital quality explain more than two-thirds of productivity growth. The degree of returns to scale and the shadow cost of capital input in the embodiment cost model are presented as well. The study is based on pooled time-series and cross-section data of eight US local exchange carriers.     

Research and development and labour productivity: do high-tech firms exhibit labour- or capital-saving technical change?

Employment and output in the advanced technology sectors have generally exhibited above-average growth for more than two decades. While this industry accounts for a relatively small share of total employment, the majority of private sector research and development (R&D) expenditures in the US is concentrated within seven sub-sectors. However, little attention has been paid as to whether high-tech productivity exhibits Hicksian capital or labour ‘savings’ bias or tendency to displace either factor input over time. Biased technical change can occur as economies transition between growth regimes. An augmented production function is employed to analyse the additional impact of R&D activity on firm-level labour productivity. A panel data set comprised of high-tech firms located across the advanced economies, China and India from 1990 to 2013 is used in the analysis. Labour-saving technical change was present across the advanced technology sectors and most countries. The expanded models of labour productivity that used fixed effects with lagged regressors confirmed the prior results as well as finding that R&D per employee, relative R&D intensity and firm market share contribute to firm-level labour productivity growth across countries and sectors. Additional support was found for diminishing returns to scale but not for R&D spillover effects.     

Cost structure,technological change,and productivity growth in the greek banking sector

This paper first empirically investigates the cost structure of the Greek banking sector. Secondly, it provides measures of economies (diseconomies) of scale and quantifies technical change and its sources. Finally, this paper measures total factor productivity growth and identifies its sources. Bank production is presented with two different approaches (the intermediation and the production approach) which are used to specify a translog cost function. The two different translog cost models are estimated through the full information maximum likelihood method of estimation on pooled time series and cross sectional data. The results obtained are not significantly affected by model specification. Both models indicate significant economies of scale and negative annual rates of growth in technical change and in total factor productivity.     

An Empirical Analysis of Australian Labour Productivity

This study presents a model capturing sources of Australian aggregate labour productivity using annual time series data from 1970 to 2001. Labour productivity, or real output per hour worked, in this model is determined by real net capital stock in information technology and telecommunications (ITT), real net capital stock in the non-ITT sector, trade openness, human capital, the wage rate, international competitiveness, and the union membership rate. Given the lack of long and consistent time series data, multivariate cointegration techniques are inappropriate as the cointegration results will be sensitive to the lag length, the inclusion or exclusion of the intercept term or a trend in the cointegration equation and/or the vector autoregression (VAR) specification. Therefore, the Engle-Granger representation theorem and the Hausman weak exogeneity test have been employed to determine the short and long-term drivers of Australian productivity. Empirical estimates indicate that, in the long-term, policies aimed at promoting various types of investment, trade openness, international competitiveness, and the use of wage as a stimulant in a decentralised wage negotiation system, will improve labour productivity. In the short term, all the above variables except for human capital and labour reforms, which both need more time to evolve, determine productivity performance.     

A cost function analysis of import demand for Nigeria

The article uses a translog cost function to examine the substitution relations among capital, labour and imports. The results show that capital has a substitute relation with domestic labour and import. However, labour and import have complementary relationship. The implication of this finding is that liberalization policies, if pursued vigorously, could impart positively on the demand for labour. In addition, it suggests that economic growth could be enhanced through trade liberalization.     

Economies of Scale in Australian Banks 1978–1990

This paper examines economies of scale in Australian banks. A bank multi-product cost function is estimated using a translog functional form with data drawn from twelve banks spanning the period 1978 to 1990. Different formulations of the model are estimated. Results prove sensitive to estimation assumptions and data definitions however they support the presence of economies of scale for Australian banking in this period     

Interfuel and interfactor substitution in Ontario manufacturing, 1962-82

The extent of substitutability between energy and the other factors (i.e. labour and capital) is an extremely important question and quite central to energy policy, planning and analysis. This paper addresses this question for the Ontario manufacturing sector. The theoretical model utilized in this analysis is the two–stage translog production frontier. The model was estimated for seven manufacturing sectors using four disaggregated energy inputs and labour and capital. The model was estimated by the FIML technique for the period 1962–82.