Assessing the losses in euro area potential productivity due to the financial crisis

In this article, we show that the recent financial crisis has significantly affected the potential total factor productivity (TFP) of the four largest euro area economies, as well as that of the rest of the euro area. We used a reduced-form equation of TFP, based on an approach recently developed by Cahn and Saint-Guilhem (2010). Our empirical findings show that the permanent impact on potential TFP varies across countries from –3.9 points to –1.3 points in Q2 2012. When these losses are incorporated, TFP gaps develop closely in line with capacity utilization rates (CUR). Moreover, in the case of France, including CUR in our TFP model improves the quasi-real-time reliability of TFP gap estimates.     

学习就业是历史发展的必然要求——论就业结构转换

本文从分析生产力的基本职能出发,揭示出随着生产力的发展,劳动生产率的提高会越来越多地释放出生产就业者,日益发达的生产能力会生产出超过人们购买能力的产品（含服务品）。这里主张将这些剩余的人力物力用于学习就业,反过来学习就业又可以进一步推动生产力发展,形成互为促进的积极意义。然而,市场经济并不能自动将这些剩余的人力物力配置到学习就业上,以改革传统的财政收入方式,增强社会再分配能力来发展学习就业事业就成为我们可供选择的路径。     

The Malmquist Productivity Index and Plant Capacity Utilization

A new decomposition of the Malmquist productivity index is proposed to account for changes in plant capacity utilization. Using a primal, non-parametric specification of technology, the Malmquist index is decomposed into technical efficiency change, variations in plant capacity utilization and frontier shifts. It provides an alternative to the available methods of incorporating capacity utilization changes into measures of productivity change. Such measures are based on parametric (and, in many cases, dual) technology specifications; moreover, they typically do not allow for technical inefficiency.
JEL Classification C 61; D 24     

Static efficiency decompositions and capacity utilization: integrating economic and technical capacity notions

Starting from existing static decompositions of overall economic efficiency on nonparametric production and cost frontiers, this article proposes more comprehensive decompositions including several cost-based notions of capacity utilization. Furthermore, in case prices are lacking, we develop additional decompositions of overall technical efficiency integrating a technical concept of capacity utilization. These new efficiency decompositions provide a link between short and long run economic analysis and, in empirical work, avoid conflating inefficiency and differences in capacity utilization. An empirical analysis using a monthly panel of Chilean hydro-electric power plants illustrates the potential of these decomposition proposals.     

我国商业银行收益结构转型对经营效率的影响

商业银行收益结构转型是我国商业银行实现可持续经营的重要一环。文章应用随机前沿分析(SFA)方法,构建超越对数产出距离函数,对我国12家代表性商业银行的技术效率和全要素生产效率指数进行分析,以此阐明收益结构转型与商业银行效率和生产效率指数之间的关系,并提出新形势下处理好支持经济发展、推动金融创新与提高银行竞争力和自身效率之间关系的政策建议。     

Capacity and Capacity Utilization in Common-pool Resource Industries

Excess capacity poses one of the most pressingproblems that arise when industries exploitcommon-pool natural resources. It entailsover-investment in the capital stock andexcessive use of variable inputs, and placesadditional exploitation pressures on theresource stocks. Confusion persists over theappropriate definition and measurement ofcapacity and capacity utilization for theseindustries. But understanding capacity and itsmeasurement is necessary to properly design acapacity management program. This paperaddresses these issues by overviewing theconceptual and theoretical bases for capacityand capacity utilization measurement,identifying specific problems for common-poolresources, outlining alternative methodologiesfor their measurement, and illustrating the useof these definitions and measurement methods ina fisheries case study.     

Trade liberalization and capacity utilization: New evidence from the Turkish rubber industry

This study empirically tests the hypothesis that trade liberalization increases capacity utilization. It calculates capacity utilization for the Turkish rubber industry by using a production theory framework. More specifically, plant-level capacity utilization levels are calculated using a Generalized Leontief cost function system. Capacity utilization levels were low but improved when the trade regime shifted from a restrictive to a more liberalized one. The size and location of plants were two significant factors which created capacity utilization differences within the industry. However, capacity utilization levels appeared to improve primarily because of trade liberalization.Also, a scholar-in-residence, Department of Economics, Duke University. My particular thanks go to Patrick Conway, Marjorie McElroy, Edward Tower, participants of the International Economics Workshops at Duke University, and the anonymous referee for helpful suggestions. Any errors are mine.     

A NEW METHOD FOR THE ESTIMATION OF CAPACITY UTILIZATION: THEORY AND EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM 14 EU COUNTRIES

In this paper, we develop a new and at the same time simple method of obtaining a measure of the rate of capacity utilization (CU) which makes use of the structural vector autoregression (SVAR) system of equation estimating technique with long‐run restrictions. The measure of CU that we derive for each of 14 EU countries replicates to a great extent the European Commission's Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN) measure. On closer examination we find that the in‐sample explanatory content with respect to the inflation rate of the SVAR measure exceeds more often than not that of the ECFIN's measure; however, the out‐of‐sample forecasting performance of the two models is approximately equivalent.     

技术并购对制造业企业创新持续性影响：基于吸收能力和利用能力的中介作用

中国经济已经进入高质量发展的转型升级周期,经济转型期是推动并购重组的内在动力,也是并购高发期.基于2013—2017年中国上市制造业企业面板数据,通过构建系统广义矩估计和双向固定效应计量模型,从产出和投入两个视角,实证分析技术并购对企业创新持续性影响.研究表明:①国内上市制造业企业创新存在持续性,企业更注重创新投入的持续性,企业创新产出持续性呈波动性变化且部分企业未能实现增长;②技术并购对企业创新持续性存在显著正向影响,吸收能力在技术并购与创新产出持续性和投入持续性间起到积极中介作用,利用能力仅在技术并购与创新投入持续性间起到积极中介作用;③大企业的吸收能力和利用能力的中介效应更为显著.因此,企业在通过技术并购提高企业创新持续性的同时,也要注重企业的知识吸收能力和利用能力的提升,从而保障技术并购成效,提高企业创新持续性.     

地方政府税收竞争对产能过剩的影响

使用2001—2011年我国省际面板数据,测算了我国30个省(自治区、直辖市)的产能过剩程度,进一步实证检验了地方政府的税收竞争对产能过剩的影响。结果表明:产能过剩主要出现在重工业领域;地方政府的税收竞争加剧了重工业的产能过剩程度,其中增值税竞争的影响大于总税收竞争和企业所得税竞争的影响,地方政府税收竞争的滞后影响大于当期影响;在中、西部地区,地方政府的税收竞争对重工业产能过剩的影响更为显著。指出:减弱地方政府的税收竞争有利于缓解我国产能过剩问题。     

全流通进程中的中国股市全收益率研究

全流通作为现阶段中国股市结构调整的核心,对股市整体收益有负面冲击,然而调整越早,负面冲击越小。交易税费、公司分红和新筹资金对全收益率的贡献随着全流通的推进有所变化,但是新筹资金对于收益分布始终具有决定性影响。     

The impact of hiring top workers on productivity: what is the role of absorptive capacity?

We examine the heterogeneous productivity impacts of hiring top workers on small and medium-sized enterprises, exploiting matched employer–employee panel data and employing within-firm as well as matching and difference-in-difference estimators. The results provide robust evidence that the productivity impact is stronger for firms with higher absorptive capacity. Technological laggards within an industry benefit more strongly from hiring top workers if their workforce is more well-educated.     

Does Over-credit Stimulate Corporate Investment? Evidence from Listed Companies in China

We define and quantify for the first time over-credit at the firm level, which refers to the case in which the amount of bank credit that a firm obtains exceeds its expenditure on corporate investment for the year. Then, we explore how over-credit affects corporate investment to determine whether credit expansion in China is consistent with the principle of finance serving the real economy. The results show that over-credit promotes firm investment, and this effect was enhanced by the housing boom. However, the effect of the property market reversed after 2012, owing to China’s economic transition from a quantitative to a structural mismatch between supply and demand. Finally, we explore how over-credit affects the capacity utilization ratio and whether it has aggravated the overcapacity problem in China. The results show that over-credit reduces firms’ capacity utilization ratio. This finding indicates that excessive credit expansion has exacerbated the overcapacity problem in China.     

Margin rate and the cycle: the role of trade openness

Using three datasets of French manufacturing firms, this article studies the role of trade openness, in relation with the cycle, as a determinant of company margin rate. Margin rates increase as capacity utilization tightens (and vice versa), reflecting the procyclicality of margin rates. However, high import rates are limiting this procyclicality: when capacities are tight, domestic producers may not be able to serve demand, but foreign producers may substitute for them if they are already present on the market as reflected by the level of import rates.