The relative impacts of banking,infrastructure and labour on industrial growth: evidence from Indian states

This article analyses the impacts of outreach of banking services, infrastructure penetration, and labour market rigidity on the growth of manufacturing industries across 14 major states in India in the post-liberalization period (from 1991–92 to 2002–3). It documents that the outreach of the banking sector as well as infrastructure penetration has a significant positive impact on the growth of industries. Interestingly, the counteracting effect of labour market rigidity does not appear to be significant, if the effects of infrastructure and banking services are controlled for. This article also assesses the relative magnitudes of the impacts of these three institutional factors on industrial growth.     

Wages, exchange rates and competitiveness

Conclusion Wage growth in west Germany has, over the longer term and with few exceptions, been far more closely oriented towards macroeconomic productivity growth than in the majority of its competitor countries. Even after adjusting for exchange rate movements, it is evident that unit labour costs in west Germany have, in general, growth significantly less strongly and in most cases are lower in absolute terms than abroad. The fact that, in spite of this, Germany has repeatedly faced foreign trade problems, is due to the volatility of exchanges rates. The demand—in such cases seemingly self-evident, although usually not explicitly formulated—that collective wage bargainers ought to orient wage growth not only towards productivity growth but also towards exchange rates would mean standing the economy on its head, however. A rational alternative to this is to stabilise exchange rates or indeed their partial abolition, as is the aim of European Monetary Union. It would be irrational, on the other hand, to abolish the wage determination system which, on the whole, has proved its effectiveness in orienting average wage increases towards macroeconomic productivity growth.     

Effects of Private Ownership,Trade, and Foreign Direct Investment on Labor Productivity Growth in Transition Economies: Evidence from the Croatian Manufacturing Industry

In this study, we investigate the determinants of labor productivity dynamics in transition economies using data from Croatian manufacturing industries. Capital intensity growth and human capital accumulation have been significant contributors to stronger productivity gains. Private-sector development has positively affected productivity growth—but mostly through the increasing role of new private companies. Still, unfinished privatization represents a significant obstacle to stronger productivity gains. The effect of increasing trade openness is significant but negative, most likely owing to weak export competitiveness of Croatian companies. Neither greenfield nor (predominant) brownfield foreign direct investment inflows have contributed to higher labor productivity growth. Further privatization and structural reforms seem to be the most promising policy measures that need to be undertaken in order to achieve higher productivity gains.     

Innovation, Differentiation, and the Choice of an Underwriter: Evidence from Equity-Linked Securities

Investment banks imitate other bank’s innovative corporatesecurities and compete with the innovator to underwrite newissues. This article uses data of all the corporate offeringsof equity-linked and derivative securities in the SecuritiesData Company (SDC) to estimate the issuer’s demand ofunderwriting services provided by investment banks across differentvarieties of securities. It finds that the demand for the innovator’svariety is larger than the imitators’. This demand advantagedecreases with time and faster for securities that appear laterin a sequence of innovations. Imitation becomes less attractivelater in the sequence as information from earlier deals spills-overto all banks.     

服务贸易开放、市场化改革与中国制造业企业生产率

本文首先构建了一个微观企业生产理论框架,从理论上分析了在考虑国内产品替代效应的情况下,贸易开放如何影响下游制造业企业生产率,以及国内市场化程度对贸易开放政策效果的调节效应。其次,我们利用中国工业企业数据库和世界银行的服务贸易限制指数,实证检验了服务贸易开放对中国制造业企业生产率的影响。结果发现,服务贸易开放显著促进了我国制造业出口强度较大的企业的生产率提高,对出口强度较小的企业的促进作用不明显,并抑制了非出口企业生产率的提升;国内市场化水平提高能够增强服务贸易开放对出口企业生产率的促进作用,减弱服务贸易开放对非出口企业造成的负面冲击。此外,我们还发现:(1)市场化主要通过商业存在(FDI)渠道调节服务贸易政策效果;(2)服务贸易开放对国企以及非东部地区中的出口企业生产率的促进效应更为显著,而对非国企以及东部地区的非出口企业的不利冲击更大。在考虑内生性以及使用替换变量等检验后,结果仍然稳健。因此,当前阶段中国服务贸易政策需要同时兼顾出口企业与非出口企业,并协调国内市场化改革,稳中有序开放。     

基础设施投资、教育支出与经济增长——基础设施投资“挤出效应”的实证分析

把基础设施投资和教育支出放入到理论模型中进行分析,得出基础设施投资和教育支出影响经济增长的理论假定,来判断我国基础设施投资是否存在对人力资本积累的"挤出效应",以及这个"挤出效应"是否阻碍经济持续有效增长;利用1980～2010年的数据通过误差修正模型进行验证,实证结果显示:基础设施投资已经对人力资本积累产生了"挤出效应";人力资本投资显示出比基础设施投资更强的对经济增长的推动力;基础设施投资对经济的影响存在明显的地区差异性。     

Globalization, Poverty, and Inequality since 1980

One of the most contentious issues of globalization is the effectof global economic integration on inequality and poverty. Thisarticle documents five trends in the modern era of globalization,starting around 1980. The first trend is that growth rates inpoor economies have accelerated and are higher than growth ratesin rich countries for the first time in modern history. Developingcountries’ per capita incomes grew more than 3.5 percenta year in the 1990s. Second, the number of extremely poor peoplein the world has declined significantly—by 375 millionpeople since 1981—for the time in history. The share ofpeople in developing economies living on less than $1 a dayhas been cut in half since 1981, though the decline in the shareliving on less than $2 per day was much less dramatic. Third,global inequality has declined modestly, reversing a 200-yeartrend toward higher inequality. Fourth, within-country inequalityin general is not growing, though it has risen in several populouscountries (China, India, the United States). Fifth, wage inequalityis rising worldwide. This may seem to contradict the fourthtrend, but it does not because there is no simple link betweenwage inequality and household income inequality. Furthermore,the trends toward faster growth and poverty reduction are strongestin developing economies that have integrated with the globaleconomy most rapidly, which supports the view that integrationhas been a positive force for improving the lives of peoplein developing areas.      

PRODUCER TURNOVER AND PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The reallocation of resources, either across sectors or acrossproducers within a sector, can serve as a potential source ofproductivity growth. New research findings exploit comprehensivemicroeconomic data on the manufacturing sectors of Chile, Colombia,and Morocco to document resource shifts as producers enter,expand, contract, and exit operation. The micro-level adjustmentis substantial; between 25 and 30 percent of the total numberof manufacturing jobs turn over each year. In the short run,the productivity effects of this turnover are modest becausethe new plants that come on line are only slightly more productivethan the ones they replace—and both are typically small.In the longer term, however, the turnover generates more substantialincreases in productivity because the new firms that surviverecord substantial productivity gains in their early years.Moreover, firms that exit are typically on a downward productivityspiral and would probably have dragged down sectoral efficiencyfarther if they had continued in operation.      

Session V: Macro Perspectives: Bigger Problems than Corporate Governance

Columbia Business School's well‐known authority on value‐based investing begins by attributing today's economic problems to a “global economic dislocation,” one that is rooted in the ongoing—and in Greenwald's view, inevitable—decline of manufacturing and displacement by services. Like the other example of dislocation in modern times, the Great Depression of the 1930s, the 2008 global financial crisis and protracted recession— still very much with us—are viewed as originating in the sharp decline of a major “sector” of the global economy. In the Depression of the ‘30s it was agriculture; in the recent financial crisis it was manufacturing. In both cases, technological advances and economy‐wide productivity increases led to huge increases in stock and financial asset prices—but also to sharp drops in the prices of farm and manufactured goods, and massive overcapacity and ruinous competition in both sectors. According to the author, the working off of overcapacity in the agricultural sector was accomplished largely by the effect of World War II in moving huge numbers off the farm and into the mainly urban industrial sector at government expense. This labor force relocation, which occurred in all developed economies, was essential to a global economic transformation that for the next 50 years provided high productivity growth and greater equality of income and wealth. More recently, however, the global economy has been confronted with the challenge of accomplishing a transition from manufacturing to services that will feature lower productivity growth and more inequality. Foreseeing a long, difficult process, Greenwald's biggest concern is that government intervention will distract businesses from making this transition effectively—which means continuing to operate as efficiently as possible, downsizing when necessary—and so make the problems worse. And while business focuses on preserving its own efficiency and value, Greenwald urges governments to look for more cost‐effective ways—for example, expanded use in the U.S. of the Earned Income Tax Credit—to cushion workers from the consequences. Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps, while agreeing with much of Greenwald's analysis, has a different explanation of the U.S. productivity dilemma. Innovation is viewed as the primary driver of the prosperity of the advanced economies. Higher income and wealth matter less than job satisfaction, participation, and an array of non‐material “modern values” that have somehow been lost and that, for Phelps, are the key to restoring economic growth and “mass flourishing.”     

Effects of Asymmetric Adjustment Among Labor Productivity,Labor Demand,and Exchange Rate Using Threshold Cointegration Test

This paper investigates the asymmetric equilibrium relationship among labor productivity, labor demand, and the exchange rate in Taiwan's manufacturing industry using a threshold cointegration test that allows asymmetric adjustment. The findings show that there is a temporal delay in the reaction of labor demand to change in labor productivity, and vice versa. However, a temporal impact of exchange rate shock on labor demand and labor productivity is statistically unobvious. A trade-off between productivity growth and employment growth is not found.     

The Term Structure of Interest Rates: Bounded or Falling?

This short paper resolves an apparent contradiction betweenFeldman's (1989) and Riedel's (2000) equilibrium models of theterm structure of interest rates under incomplete information.Feldman (1989) showed that in an incomplete information versionof Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross (1985), where the stochastic productivityfactors are unobservable, equilibrium term structures are ‘interior’and bounded. Interestingly, Riedel (2000) showed that an incompleteinformation version of Lucas (1978), with an unobservable constantgrowth rate, induces a ‘corner’ unbounded equilibriumterm structure: it decreases to negative infinity. This paperdefines constant and stochastic asymptotic moments, clarifiesthe apparent conflict between Feldman's and Riedel's equilibria,and discusses implications. Because productivity and growthrates are not directly observable in the real world, the questionwe answer is of particular relevance. JEL Classification codes:E43, G12, D92, D80, D51.     

Default Risk, Asset Pricing, and Debt Control

The pricing and control of firms’ debt has become a majorissue since Merton’s (1974) seminal article. Yet Mertonas well as other recent theories presume that the asset valueof the firm is independent of the debt of the firm. However,when using debt finance, firms may have to pay a premium foran idiosyncratic default risk and may face debt constraints.We demonstrate that firm-specific debt constraints and endogenousrisk premia, based on collateralized borrowing, affect the assetvalue of the firm and, in turn, the collateral value of thefirm. In order to explore the interdependence of debt financeand asset pricing of firms, we endogenize default premia andborrowing constraints in a production-based asset pricing model.In this context then the dynamic decision problem of maximizingthe present value of the firm faces an additional constraintgiving rise to the debt-dependent firm value. We solve for theasset value of the firm with debt finance by the use of numericaldynamic programming. This allows us to solve the debt controlproblem and to compute sustainable debt as well as the firm’sdebt value.     

Participation in WTO Dispute Settlement: Complainants, Interested Parties, and Free Riders

What affects a country’s decision of whether to formallyengage in a trade dispute directly related to its exportinginterests? This article empirically examines determinants ofaffected country participation decisions in formal trade litigationarising under the World Trade Organization (wto) between 1995and 2000. It investigates determinants of nonparticipation andexamines whether the incentives generated by the system’srules and procedures discourage active engagement in disputesettlement by developing country members in particular. Thoughthe size of exports at stake is found to be an important economicdeterminant affecting the decision to participate in challengesto a wto-inconsistent policy, the evidence also shows that measuresof a country’s retaliatory and legal capacity as wellas its international political economy relationships matter.These results are consistent with the hypothesis of an implicit"institutional bias" generated by the system’s rules andincentives that particularly affects developing economy participationin dispute settlement.     

East German capital stock deficits remain high

Conclusion Since the government cannot anticipate any more precisely than private investors which sectors will turn out to be particular growth areas in the future, it should not follow a course of sector-oriented structural policies — not even in east Germany. The achievement of virtually similar investment conditions as in west Germany has, given the investment in infrastructure over the past five years, come a long way. Since infrastructural consolidation takes time, however, and since, as west German regional policy experience has shown, an adequate infrastructure alone is no guarantee for average or above-average growth of a particular region, broadly based investment support measures were, for a time, sensible. In order to gradually allow for the market selection process to take over and to reduce the burden on public spending, however, consideration should now be given to tightening investment support measures. With all the problems that selecting particular sectors to support brings with it, one must acknowledge that, given the specifics of the east German transformation process, the manufacturing sector was — and continues to be — exposed to the greatest pressures. For this reason, support should be concentrated in this area, especially since various spillover effects from manufacturing can be expected to manifest themselves in other areas, such as services. Friederike Spiecker     

互联网应用对中国制造业全要素生产率的影响研究

基于中国A股上市公司数据,实证检验制造业企业互联网应用对全要素生产率的影响及作用机制。结果显示：互联网应用通过节约交易成本这一主要渠道显著地提升了制造业企业全要素生产率;互联网应用对西部地区制造业企业、资本密集制造业企业、出口型制造业企业全要素生产率的提升效果更显著;互联网应用通过节约销售成本和管理成本提升了制造业企业全要素生产率,且管理成本节约对全要素生产率提升的作用更大。因此,应提升制造业企业互联网应用的深度与广度,将节约的销售成本与管理成本投入研发活动之中,推动制造业全要素生产率提升。     

Unit labour costs still higher in east than in west Germany

Conclusion The rapid wage growth in east Germany during the early years of German unification are a millstone around the neck of medium-term economic development in the new federal states. Because labour costs have raced ahead of productivity, unit labour costs have risen to a level substantially higher than that prevailing in the old federal states: there has been no improvement in the relationship between east and west German unit labour costs in recent years. Comparatively high wages at low productivity have led to an unfavourable profitability situation for many east German firms, which, in turn, has reduced investmen and slowed productivity growth. If firms in the new federal states are to break out of this vicious circle “it is essential that the level of collectively agreed wages does not rise for a number of years. Productivity growth would then create the scope for an improvement in profitability, which, in turn, is a necessary precondition for investment and the creation of competitive jobs… Only if a fundamental correction towards a relation (between labour costs and productivity) corresponding to that in west Germany is realised in east Germany can a self-sustained growth process be expected.”⁷ Yet in 1997 there is again no chance of a change of course of this nature.     

增值税留抵退税、融资约束与企业全要素生产率

本文以2018年部分行业的增值税留抵退税政策的实施作为准自然实验,基于长江三角洲先进制造业上市公司的数据,采用倾向得分匹配——双重差分法(PSM-DID),探究了增值税留抵退税政策对企业全要素生产率的影响.研究发现,短期内增值税留抵退税政策对企业全要素生产率的提高具有显著的促进作用;机制检验结果表明,增值税留抵退税政策通过降低企业的融资约束来促进企业全要素生产率的提高;异质性分析发现,增值税留抵退税政策对非国有性质、规模较小、成长性较好、杠杆率较低以及所处营商环境不理想的企业全要素生产率的促进作用尤为明显.根据研究结论,本文提出了进一步放宽增值税留抵退税政策限制与适度缩短留抵退税期限等相关建议.     

Trade costs, firms and productivity

This paper examines the response of U.S. manufacturing industries and plants to changes in trade costs using a unique new dataset on industry-level tariff and transportation rates. Our results lend support to recent heterogeneous-firm models of international trade that predict a reallocation of economic activity towards high-productivity firms as trade costs fall. We find that industries experiencing relatively large declines in trade costs exhibit relatively strong productivity growth. We also find that low-productivity plants in industries with falling trade costs are more likely to die; that relatively high-productivity non-exporters are more likely to start exporting in response to falling trade costs; and that existing exporters increase their shipments abroad as trade costs fall. Finally, we provide evidence of productivity growth within firms in response to decreases in industry-level trade costs.     

The Model-Free Implied Volatility and Its Information Content

Britten-Jones and Neuberger (2000) derived a model-free impliedvolatility under the diffusion assumption. In this article,we extend their model-free implied volatility to asset priceprocesses with jumps and develop a simple method for implementingit using observed option prices. In addition, we perform a directtest of the informational efficiency of the option market usingthe model-free implied volatility. Our results from the Standard& Poor’s 500 index (SPX) options suggest that themodel-free implied volatility subsumes all information containedin the Black–Scholes (B–S) implied volatility andpast realized volatility and is a more efficient forecast forfuture realized volatility.