Productivity Growth and Organizational Learning

A new specification of the sources of productivity growth is offered. Motivated by the lack of innovation and technology adoption in backward economies, a third channel of growth related to organizational structure, work ethics, and discipline in the production process (for simplicity called organizational learning) is suggested. The suggested specification generates new insights about the dominating source of growth during the development process: organizational learning in backward economies, technology adoption in middle‐income economies, and innovation in developed economies. This adds to the current understanding of development as a transition from technology adoption to innovation. Numerical simulations of the Thai catch‐up process since 1965 illustrate the importance of organizational learning. A counterfactual experiment shows how investments in secondary education contribute to the move from organizational learning to adoption of more advanced foreign technology.     

Trade Liberalization and Productivity Growth

This paper presents a trade model with firm‐level productivity differences and R&D‐driven growth. Trade liberalization causes the least productive firms to exit but also slows the development of new products. The overall effect on productivity growth depends on the size of intertemporal knowledge spillovers in R&D. When these spillovers are relatively weak, then trade liberalization promotes productivity growth in the short run and makes consumers better off in the long run. However, when these spillovers are relatively strong, then trade liberalization retards productivity growth in the short run and makes consumers worse off in the long run.     

Productivity Growth, Participation and Communication

The issue of communication between workers and firms has become important in recent political and economic policy debates. The most obvious example of this is the debate over whether the UK should adopt the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty, which would make it mandatory for many firms to consult and communicate with their workforce. Another example is the debate over whether workers should be regarded as 'stakeholders'. In this paper we use establishment level data from the 1990 WERS survey to show that communication is associated with higher productivity growth. However, the strongest effects come from informal contact rather than through more formal bodies such as works councils. We argue that our results are consistent with a causal relationship where communication leads to higher productivity growth and further argue that the evidence is against the alternative interpretation of reverse causation. Our results have interesting policy implications: initiatives that increase communication can increase productivity growth, but will only be effective if they increase the amount of informal communication.     

Externalities,Productivity and Sustained Growth

This paper shows that the existence of endogenous growth, in the closed‐form solution, in a single sector economy with a convex technology in an overlapping generations (OLG) framework, which attempts to fill the current gap in endogenous growth theory. It finds there is an unbounded growth when trade, in the form of knowledge spillover, affects labor productivity through the formation of human capital with self‐education that is not an independent sector but builds the human capital here. This conclusion holds even though there is the “limited income” expressed as the “non‐increasing wage/investment ratio” for each generation. Moreover, it shows the convergence of growth rates for each country, which is unique and constant, while the growth rate per capita negatively relates with each country's population growth rate. Also, there is no “poverty trap” with the introduction of externalities that is different from existing literature.     

Productivity Growth And Market Structure In Telecommunications

This study examines sources of telecommunications sector productivity growth. Total factor productivity (TFP) growth is calculated using the Malmquist productivity index for a sample of 74 countries for the period 1991 through 1995. An econometric model is estimated which relates TFP growth to output growth, network digitisation, telecommunications development, output-mix, the business cycle and market structure. Model estimates suggest that higher digitisation rates dampen TFP growth in the short run, and cross-subsidisation of services creates inefficiency. However, developing countries can increase TFP growth through catch up, and increased privatisation and competition are conducive to productivity growth.     

Has Productivity Contributed to China's Growth?

This paper applies an extended Solow approach to examine the role of productivity in China's economic growth. The extended Solow approach allows the decomposition of output growth into factor contributions, technological progress and efficiency change. It is found that total factor productivity (TFP) has on average contributed to 13.5 percent of China's economic growth in the past two decades. This contribution is mainly due to technological progress which tends to accelerate over time. However, during 1982–97 efficiency change due to catch–up has been very volatile, reflecting the uncertainties associated with economic reforms and transition in China.     

企业更替和生产率增长的效应——基于我国部分竞争性行业的实证研究

21世纪以来,我国部分竞争性行业的企业更替和生产率增长促进了国民经济的健康发展,而行业内部的竞争实际是不同生产率的企业竞争,竞争过程中生产率较低的企业退出,生产率增长较快企业取代生产率增长较慢企业的市场份额,企业更替的过程不断重复,使得行业生产率保持不断增长的趋势.我们用近年来相关行业的数据研究表明,企业更替不仅通过选择效应,而且通过激励效应促进了行业生产率的增长.然而,随着进入潮的逐渐消退,选择效应的作用有所降低;但企业更替主要通过选择效应中的动态转移效应和激励效应推动行业生产率不断增长.     

Growth Model with Financial Deepening and Productivity Heterogeneity

This paper studies the effects of financial deepening on growth dynamics and productivity in an economy where heterogeneous entrepreneurs face endogenous borrowing constraints. Quantitative results from a calibrated model suggest that 38% of Japan's total factor productivity from 1961 to 1991 can be explained by the financial deepening effects and the convergence speed is 29% slower than that implied by neoclassical models. The present paper also theoretically shows that an economy with a higher degree of productivity heterogeneity is more likely to avoid the poverty trap and converge with a slower speed to its steady state.     

Testing the Linkages between Trade and Productivity Growth

The authors examine the effect of trade on productivity growth using data from nine manufacturing industries across 12 OECD countries over the period 1978–97. Because causality between productivity growth and trade share runs both ways, geographical characteristics of countries are used to instrument for average bilateral trade volumes over the 20‐year period. In addition, to exploit the time‐series nature of the data, the authors construct a panel dataset and employ dynamic panel data techniques. After controlling for industry‐specific heterogeneity, the results indicate that increased exposure to trade, in particular higher import volumes, exerts a positive influence on industries' productivity growth. However, the effect is rather small.     

World Productivity Growth: A Model Averaging Approach

Policy makers and the economic researchers who provide them estimates of economic activity need to have an informative and scientifically‐based method to develop a consensus estimate for the most basic of the productivity measures, total factor productivity (TFP) growth. We discuss methods to combine the various estimates based on different empirical specifications that model and estimate productivity growth. We also discuss the various econometric approaches used in the profession to estimate productivity growth. Our focus is on world TFP growth.     

Productivity Growth of the Nontradable Sectors in China

Little is known about the total factor productivity of the nontradable sectors in China. In this paper we estimate productivity growth of the nontradable sectors by studying the relative price movements of the nontradable sectors vis‐à‐vis the tradable sectors, i.e. changes in the internal real exchange rate. We find that prices of the nontradable sectors have risen significantly faster than those of the tradable sectors since China's accession to the WTO, and as a result China's internal real exchange rate has appreciated faster than the renminbi real effective exchange rate. We also find that the nontradable sectors have seen much lower productivity growth than the tradable sectors. We argue that it is important to raise China's productivity growth in the nontradable sectors through policy actions to achieve growth rebalancing and containing inflationary pressures in the medium run.     

环境约束下的制造业生产率增长分析

本文引入Malmquist-Luenberger生产率指数,对比分析环境约束和无约束情形下的2001-2008年中国制造业28个细分行业生产率增长状况。进一步的,本文分别将行业全要素生产率指数、技术进步指数及技术效率指数作为生产率增长指标,选取资本深化、行业规模、科技投入、环境污染和行业属性作为解释变量,利用面板数据回归模型分析环境约束下生产率增长影响因素。研究发现,忽略环境约束会低估制造业技术效率水平及其指数,但会高估技术进步指数和全要素生产率指数;分析结果表明影响因素对生产率增长均有显著影响。     

从全要素生产率增长看经济增长方式的变化

中国全要素生产率增长的变化主要经历了三个阶段.20世纪80年代的波动增长期,90年代的稳定发展期和2000年以后的下降恢复期.就各要素对经济增长的贡献来说,资本投入的贡献是推动中国经济增长的主要动力,平均占到46.90%;劳动投入的贡献较为稳定,但水平相对较低,只有17.36%;全要素生产率的贡献平均维持在35.75%的水平.因此,从整体来看,中国经济增长的方式仍然没有摆脱效率较低的粗放型增长,但其趋势是向着集约型增长发展.     

Computer Price Indices and International Growth and Productivity Comparisons

Methodologies to derive price indices for information and communication technology (ICT) products vary between national statistical offices. This may lead to significant differences in measured price changes for these products and there has been concern about the international comparability of volume growth rates of GDP between several OECD countries. This article discusses the possible consequences for measures of economic growth of replacing one set of price indices by another one in the framework of national accounts. It is argued that the issue of ICT deflators cannot be dealt with in isolation and several other factors have to be taken into account, in particular whether ICT products are final or intermediate products, whether they are imported or domestically produced and whether national accounts are set up with fixed or chain weighted index numbers. Overall, results point to modest effects at the aggregate GDP level but may be more significant when it comes to component measures such as volume growth of investment, or of output in a particular industry.     

Equity Prices, Productivity Growth and 'The New Economy'

The sharp increase in equity prices over the 1990s was widely attributed to permanently higher productivity growth derived from the New Economy. This article establishes a rational expectations model of technology innovations and equity prices, which shows that under plausible assumptions, productivity advances can only have temporary effects on the fundamentals of equity prices. Using historical data on productivity of R&D capital, patent capital and fixed capital for 11 OECD countries, empirical evidence gives strong support for the model by suggesting that technological innovations indeed have only temporary effects on equity returns.