USING THE HIERARCHICAL LINEAR MODEL TO UNDERSTAND SCHOOL PRODUCTION IN SOUTH AFRICA

The emphasis placed in the existing South African school production function literature on better skilled teachers and better school management is discussed. Ordinary least squares and hierarchical linear production function models, using 2000 SACMEQ data, for the country and for a sub‐set of historically disadvantaged schools, are constructed. Ways of making the results more readable for policymakers are explored. The importance of physical infrastructure, textbook and nutrition budgets is highlighted by the models. Correct allocation of teaching and management time in schools, less learner repetition, and better teaching methodologies stand out as important school and classroom management imperatives.     

An analysis on technical efficiency in post-reform China

This paper employs a fully nonparametric stochastic frontier model with time and individual effects to study technical efficiency in China's post-reform economy. The panel data cover China's thirty provinces for the period of 1985–2008. The empirical results show that the average output elasticity of labor is larger than the other two inputs of capital and human capital. Based on the specified inefficiency Tobit model, the factor analysis on technical efficiency shows that the time effects of technical efficiency in China's post-reform economy are significantly contingent on the factors. There exists significant regional differences in technical efficiency in China's economic development, and a number of policy implications can be drawn.     

An Empirical Analysis of Provincial Productivity in China (1979–2001)

This study estimates and analyzes provincial productivity growth in China for the period 1979–2001. The Malmquist Index approach allows us to decompose productivity growth into two components, technological progress and efficiency change. Considerable productivity growth was found for most of the data period, but it was accomplished mainly through technological progress rather than efficiency improvement. Although China's capital stock has accumulated at record speed in recent years, our findings show that TFP growth slowed down significantly during 1995–2001. The study thus raises serious questions about whether China's recent growth pattern is consistent with its comparative advantages, and whether its reliance on capital accumulation can be sustained in the long run.     

Real wages,investment and employment: New evidence from West German sectoral data

Real Wages, Investment and Employment: New Evidence from West German Sectoral Data. — Non-separable capital adjustment costs imply that investment directly affects the demand for labour and therefore justify not only the lagged dependent variable but also the presence of investment expenditures or Tobin’s valuation ratio Q in labour demand estimation. On this basis, the authors estimate a very parsimonious specification of demand for blue-collar workers in a panel of 32 West German industries. They find much larger short-run real wage employment elasticities than previous research, and robustly significant positive effects of investment or Tobin’s Q on labour demand.     

EXPORT‐LED GROWTH IN CHILE: ASSESSING THE ROLE OF EXPORT COMPOSITION IN PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH

This study examines the export‐led growth hypothesis using annual time‐series data from Chile in a production function framework. It addresses the limitations of the existing literature and focuses on the impact of manufactured and primary exports on productivity growth. In order to investigate if and how manufactured and primary exports affect economic growth via increases in productivity, several single‐equation and system cointegration techniques are applied. The estimation results can be interpreted as evidence of productivity‐enhancing effects of manufactured exports and of productivity‐limiting effects of primary exports.     

SECTORAL ELASTICITY OF SUBSTITUTION AND RETURNS TO SCALE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Elasticity of substitution and returns to scale are estimated on a sectoral basis for South Africa using panel-based generalised least square procedure. Apart from sectoral differences in terms of elasticity of substitution, the study found that elasticity of substitution is below unity in all of the sectors. Most of the sectors studied are found to have increasing returns to scale in production. The study further explores the implications of elasticity of factor substitution and returns to scale on growth and employment creation. It is argued that a greater number of jobs can be created from growth of sectors with constant or decreasing returns to scale than from the same level of output growth generated by sectors with increasing returns to scale. This is the case when the employment-creating potential of the same amount of additional output is compared in all the sectors examined. By virtue of scale economies, a sector like finance, insurance, real estate and business services generates more output with less proportional increase in inputs, which means growth in this sector may not have the desired impact on job creation. However, given the sector's large share (20%) of the country's total output and employment, it may generate more jobs, even if sectors like utilities and construction experience the same level of output growth. Given its importance for growth and employment, the study recommends further investigation into the reasons why elasticity of substitution is lower in sectors like utilities, mining and trade, catering and accommodation services.     

Productivity Growth in Different Plant‐size Groups in the Malaysian Manufacturing Sector*

In the present study, we develop a stochastic frontier production model that allows for different groups of firms to have different patterns of technical efficiency over time. We apply our model to the Malaysian manufacturing sector to decompose total factor productivity growth into technical efficiency change and technical progress for different plant size groups (e.g. large and small) in seven industries during 2000–2004. Our empirical results indicate that technical efficiency has worsened across all industries and plant‐size groups. In contrast, we find evidence of substantial technical progress in all industries. In fact, technical progress has been larger than technical efficiency deterioration in most industries and plant‐size groups, leading to total factor productivity growth. Our analysis identifies the industries and plant‐size groups that lag the most in terms of productivity, and thus have the greatest scope for policies that facilitate productivity growth.     

Export behavior and productivity growth: Evidence from Italian manufacturing firms

Export Behavior and Productivity Growth: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Firms. — This paper provides econometric evidence supporting the hypothesis that exporting implies learning effects. Learning-by-exporting is modeled as a change, induced by export behavior, in the stochastic process governing firms’ productivity. Empirically, this is implemented by specifying cross-section regressions of labor productivity growth on measures of export behavior, controlling for past productivity growth and other firms’ characteristics. Using a sample of Italian manufacturing firms, it is found that exporters do not exhibit faster productivity growth. Nevertheless, growth in value added per worker has a positive and significant relation with firms’ export intensity. In other words, only firms substantially involved in exporting have a significantly higher rate of productivity growth. This result suggests that learning-by-exporting is by no means simply the outcome of the presence in the export market.     

Is the uncertainty-investment link non-linear? Empirical evidence for developed economies

Is the Uncertainty-Investment Link Non-linear? Empirical Evidence for Developed Economies. — This paper examines whether the impact of uncertainty on aggregate investment differs for low and high values of uncertainty. I present two types of estimates on the impact of uncertainty, measured by the volatility of stock market returns, for a group of developed economies. First, I estimate investment models in which I include a linear and a quadratic term for uncertainty. Second, I estimate investment models in which uncertainty is a threshold variable. Both types of estimates provide evidence on the empirical relevance of a non-linear effect of uncertainty on investment.     

INTEGRATED PRODUCTION AND THE INVESTMENT–UNCERTAINTY RELATIONSHIP

This paper studies the role of production mode in determining the effects of an increase in uncertainty on the choice of investment outlay. In a continuous-time model of optimal capital investment with innovative R&D under demand uncertainty, we show that investments in both capital and innovative research decrease with an increase in uncertainty, and that such investments rise with the level of primary demand. Our result sheds light on the mode of production as a source of the negative investment–uncertainty relationship.     

Eastern Germany and the conflict between wage adjustment,investment, and employment: A numerical analysis

Eastern Germany and the Conflict between Wage Adjustment, Investment, and Employment: A Numerical Analysis. — In this paper, some light is shed on the dynamics of the adjustment process in eastern Germany by studying the linkages between the dynamics of wage adjustment, investment, and employment. An extended dynamic investment model, which includes adjustment costs for capital and revision costs for investment, is presented. This model is specified according to the east German economy and analyzed numerically by an optimization method based on direct collocation. Results are obtained for the time horizon of adjustment and for the implications of different wage strategies on the path of investment and employment.     

THE ROLE OF HUMAN CAPITAL IN CHINA'S TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH: A CROSS‐PROVINCE ANALYSIS

This paper studies the role of human capital in China's provincial total factor productivity (TFP) growth over 1985–2004. The stochastic frontier approach is employed to measure the productivity growth of Chinese provinces. Human capital is measured both qualitatively and quantitatively. In particular, enrolment rates at various levels of schooling are used to represent human capital composition. After controlling for endogeneity, we find that human capital has significant and positive effects on the TFP growth of Chinese provinces. However, when education quality is incorporated, productivity growth appears to be significantly enhanced by quality improvements in primary education only. Regional impacts of human capital are found to differ at various levels of schooling. In the eastern region of China, productivity growth is significantly associated with secondary education. TFP growth in the central region is mainly promoted by primary and university education. Yet in the western region, primary education plays the most prominent role.     

Measuring Green Productivity Growth for China's Manufacturing Sectors: 1991–2000*

Over the past two decades, China has sustained rapid economic growth of 8–10 percent, part of which is attributed to the positive total factor productivity (TFP) growth. However, this extraordinary economic performance has been accompanied by severe environmental pollution and associated health damage. The conventional TFP method is biased in interpreting the progress of technology change because it does not consider non‐marketable residues, such as environmental pollution, and, hence, efficiency improvements in terms of pollution abatement technology and environmentally friendly management are ignored. This bias might direct our attention to less efficient use of environmental friendly abatement technologies or send wrong signals to policy‐makers. To address this issue, the present paper applies a modified welfare‐based green TFP approach, treating environmental damage as non‐desirable (negative) residual output. Therefore, environmental efficiency is taken into account to accurately interpret technological progress from a social welfare point of view. Based on a national time‐series input–output table, historical capital and labor input data for China and sectoral level air pollution emission data from 1991 to 2000, the empirical results suggest that with increasingly stringent environmental regulations, many pollution intensive sectors, such as electricity, primary metal and chemical industries, improved their environmental efficiency in the late 1990s. However, because of the weak environmental regulations in construction and transportation, and in sectors primarily composed of small private or township and village industrial enterprises, firms within these industries contributed to increasing environmental degradation.