Impact of Intangible Capital on Productivity and Growth: Lessons from the Indian Information Technology Software Industry*

This paper examines the impact of intangible capital, including human capital and organisational capabilities on productivity, using India as an illustrative example. The research breaks new ground in creating measures of intangible capital at a micro level. Measures of tangible and intangible capital are used to estimate a ‘new economy’ production function with panel data. Generalised method of moments techniques are used to account for unobserved firm heterogeneity and endogenous explanatory variables. The results indicate that intangible assets have a major impact on software sector output. This has important implications for public policy and corporate strategy towards the information technology industry, including for Australia.     

Export Growth,Capacity Utilization,and Productivity Growth: Evidence from the Canadian Manufacturing Plants

Aggregate labor and multifactor productivity growth slowed substantially post‐2000 in the Canadian manufacturing sector. To examine the source of the decline, this paper proposes a decomposition method that delves deeper into the two micro‐components of aggregate productivity growth: a within‐plant component and a between‐plant component. The decomposition builds on earlier work by Jorgenson and his collaborators that decomposes aggregate productivity growth into its industry components, but applies it to the plant level and introduces non‐neoclassical features of the plant‐level economic environment. It finds that the preponderance of the aggregate labor and multifactor productivity growth slowdown is due to the pro‐cyclical nature of productivity growth arising from capacity utilization. Almost all of the aggregate productivity growth slowdown is driven by exporters, as exporters experienced large declines in labor productivity growth in the post‐2000 period as a result of large declines in their capacity utilization.     

Cross‐Country Income Differences Revisited: Accounting for the Role of Intangible Capital

This paper develops a new intangible investment database that is consistent and internationally comparable for a set of 60 economies over the period 1995–2011. I find that over time a growing share of total investment consists of intangible assets, rather than investment in tangible assets, like machinery and buildings. Across countries, the level of economic development of a country is positively associated with its investment intensity in intangibles. By including intangible capital as an additional production factor, this paper finds that we can account for substantially more of the variation in cross‐country income levels. Depending on the assumptions regarding the output elasticities of factor inputs, the observed differences in intangible capital can account for up to 16 percentage points of the cross‐country income variation.     

集聚经济、公共基础设施与劳动生产率——来自中国城市动态面板数据的证据

文章采用2001-2007年中国城市面板数据实证检验了集聚经济、公共基础设施与城市非农劳动生产率的关系。结果表明:在控制住其他影响因素后,一个地区的就业密度和公共基础设施对其非农劳动生产率都有着显著为正的影响,但在忽略城市公共基础设施的情况下,集聚经济的估计值明显偏高了。     

Productivity,innovation and convergence in Poland1

This paper provides evidence on factors driving productivity growth in the new EU member states, focusing on Polish manufacturing industries. The results obtained indicate that companies in Poland benefit significantly from transfer of technologies accumulated in more developed economies. No strong evidence is found on immediate technology transfer. The significant effect of domestic innovation activity is mainly due to its impact on the speed of convergence and is particularly strong in high‐tech industries, relatively privatized industries and industries initially further from the technological frontier.     

Technology clubs, R&D and growth patterns: Evidence from EU manufacturing

This paper investigates the forces driving output change in a panel of EU manufacturing industries. A flexible modeling strategy is adopted that accounts for: (i) inefficient use of resources and (ii) differences in the production technology across industries. With our model we are able to identify technical, efficiency, and input growth for endogenously determined technology clubs. Technology club membership is modeled as a function of R&D intensity. This framework allows us to explore the components of output growth in each club, technology spillovers and catch-up issues across industries and countries.     

Saving–investment Association and Regional Capital Mobility in China: A Nonparametric Panel Approach

Using a nonparametric panel data model, this paper estimates the degree of time‐varying and province‐specific capital mobility in China during 1970–2006. We estimate the savings–investment association, that is, the savings retention rate à la Feldstein and Horioka, as a measure of capital mobility. We also split the total savings (investment) into private and government savings (investment) to explore the role of government in improving capital mobility. Over time, we find an improvement in capital mobility after the mid‐1990s. Across provinces, we observe higher capital mobility in eastern/coastal regions. From the 1990s, the government is found to play a less important role in promoting capital mobility. Across provinces, the government is found to be more important in either the municipalities (Shanghai and Beijing) or the less developed inland provinces.     

ICT and Growth: The Role of Rates of Return and Capital Prices

We revisit the widely discussed contribution of investment in ICT to economic growth, focusing on differences in productivity and quality of ICT across countries and time. In a growth accounting approach, we look at the way rates of return and rates of asset price decline measure these aspects. Conducting a sensitivity analysis with data from the EU KLEMS database for the years 1990–2007, we introduce a constant rate of return and a constant rate of ICT price decline. Both alternative measurements somewhat downplay the role investment played relative to growth in multifactor productivity in the U.K. and the U.S. during 1995–2000. Moreover, we show that more than half of the ICT contribution to labor productivity growth results from changes in capital quality and composition rather than from quantity.     

资本深化、异质性科技投入与劳动生产率增长——基于中国大中型工业企业的经验证据

本文使用1999～2007年中国各省市区大中型工业企业面板数据,运用计量方法对资本深化、异质性科技投入与劳动生产率增长之间的关系进行了经验研究.研究发现:资本深化解释了35%～43%的劳动生产率增长;自主研发不仅直接提高了劳动生产率,还通过与资本深化水平的良性互动显著地促进了劳动生产率增长;购买引进国内外技术对劳动生产率则有着不显著的负面影响.     

基于证券投资的资本流动与经济增长：理论与实证

资本流动的经济效应是金融自由化进程中争论的焦点之一。本文概述了资本流动与经济增长关系的最新研究进展。在国际收支框架内，利用证券投资项下的资本流动的1991—2007年的季度时间序列数据，发现我国证券投资项下资本流动与经济增长具有较高相关关系和双向因果关系。采用四种不同的资本流动口径对人均GDP进行协整分析，结果表明，证券投资项下的资本流量与长期经济增长呈显著正相关，并提出了相应的政策建议。     

服务投入与中国农业劳动生产率的追赶进程--对中国农业劳动生产率阶段性特征的新解释

长期以来,中国农业劳动生产率严重滞后于国际先进水平。文章对我国农业劳动生产率相对于美国的追赶进程进行了分阶段的分析,基于增长核算框架着重分析了服务投入在其中所发挥的作用。研究发现,我国农业劳动生产率在1995－2003年期间对美国的追赶效应明显,但服务投入密度提高的贡献相对偏小。我国农业劳动生产率在2003－2009年期间对美国的追赶效应更加明显,但服务投入密度相对偏低的贡献反而拖累了追赶进程。服务投入的内部结构分析显示,我国农业服务投入的发展滞后基本上是全方位的。进一步提高我国农业劳动生产率,缩小与国际先进水平的发展差距,需要充分认识到服务投入的重要性。解决我国农业服务投入发展滞后的问题需要在农业金融、农业保险、农业营销、农业物流、农业“互联网＋”和农业机械融资租赁服务等方面予以改进。     

Job Polarization and Task‐Biased Technological Change: Evidence from Sweden, 1975–2005

In this paper, we show that between 1975 and 2005, Sweden exhibited a pattern of job polarization with expansions of the highest‐ and lowest‐paid jobs compared to middle‐wage jobs. The most popular explanation for such a pattern is the hypothesis of task‐biased technological change, where technological progress reduces the demand for routine middle‐wage jobs but increases the demand for non‐routine jobs located at the tails of the job–wage distribution. However, our estimates do not support this explanation for the 1970s and 1980s. Stronger evidence for task‐biased technological change, albeit not conclusive, is found for the 1990s and 2000s. In particular, there is both a statistically and economically significant growth of non‐routine jobs and a decline of routine jobs. However, results for wages are mixed; while task‐biased technological change cannot explain changes in between‐occupation wage differentials, it does have considerable explanatory power for changes in within‐occupation wage differentials.     

Financial Disruptions and Bank Productivity Growth: Evidence from the Malaysian Experience

This paper examines, for the first time, the productivity of the Malaysian banking sector around the Asian financial crisis 1997. The non-parametric Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) is used to compute individual banks’ productivity levels. We find that the Malaysian banking sector has exhibited productivity regress due to the decline in efficiency. The results seem to suggest that the domestic banks have exhibited productivity progress attributed to technological change, while the foreign banks have exhibited productivity regress due to efficiency decline. We find that the large banks tend to experience productivity growth attributed to technological progress, while the small banks tend to experience productivity decline due to technological regress. The empirical results suggest that the small banks with its limited capabilities are at a disadvantage compared with their larger counterparts in terms of technological advancements, thus, rejecting the divisibility theory.     

A reassessment of total factor productivity convergence: Evidence from cross-country analysis

This study revisits total factor productivity (TFP) convergence by employing the latest Lagrange multiplier and residual augmented least squares Lagrange multiplier unit root tests and Phillips and Sul panel club convergence technique. The study uses annual data for 44 developing and 29 developed countries covering the time-period 1970–2014. Our findings from these unit root tests support evidence of TFP convergence. Region-based results (Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean) also confirm TFP convergence. Further, results derived from the Phillips and Sul test support evidence of TFP convergence, although the speed of convergence varies by region. The highest speed is noted in the Asia region, whereas, the lowest of speed productivity convergence is observed in the Africa region.     

Heroin Consumption,Prices and Addiction: Evidence from Self‐reported Panel Data*

Estimation models of drug demand should encompass the aspect of addiction. Here, we consider two static panel data regression models and two cross‐section models with lags or leads in drug consumption as additional regressors. Heroin injectors attending a needle exchange service in Oslo were interviewed twice, with a one‐year interval. Despite our relatively small sample, we obtain statistically significant price and income responses for nearly all of the models and specifications applied. The sample is split by dealing status, with dealers obtaining price elasticities in the range of [?0.15, ?1.51] and non‐dealers [?0.71, ?1.69]. Somewhat surprisingly, the estimates of the variance of the latent individual‐specific variable are rather low in the panel data models, although higher for non‐dealers than for dealers.     

Geographic Concentration in Indian Manufacturing and Service Industries: Evidence from 1998 to 2013

This paper uses a comprehensive new data source to document basic facts about geographic concentration among industries in India from 1998 to 2013. Unlike previous studies, our data allow us to accurately measure industrial concentration at the district level and cover manufacturing and services, as well as the formal and informal sectors. Our most striking finding is that average levels of industrial concentration fell dramatically between 1998 and 2013, driven by steep reductions in capital‐intensive manufacturing industries. We provide suggestive evidence that this increasing dispersion may be due to improvements in interregional transportation coupled with inefficient land management policies and limited labor mobility.     

The quality and variety of exports from the new EU member states

The goal of this article is to evaluate the variety and quality of exports from the new EU member states (NMSs) in the period 1999–2009. The practical relevance of such an analysis is threefold: recent studies underline the importance of export variety for economic growth; empirical results show that export variety was influenced by the EU membership; and looking separately at export quality permits a better understanding of price competitiveness. Our results show that all NMSs significantly increased the average number of brands exported to the EU market, the largest increases being observed in 2004 and after. This indicates that integration into the EU market occurs in the extensive as well as the intensive dimension. We also find that all NMSs increased the average quality of their exports during the decade studied although there are differences between countries. Thus, a large part of the increase in the prices of exports from NMSs resulted from improving quality and did not result in a loss of competitiveness. Finally, estimates of relative quality are much more stable than relative prices, suggesting that our measure of relative quality is better than the traditional proxy.     

TRIPs and patenting activity: Evidence from the Indian pharmaceutical industry

This paper studies the impact of the strict patent regime on the patenting activity of Indian pharmaceutical firms and finds that patenting activity of these firms has increased after the signing of TRIPs. The study is conducted for 65 pharmaceutical firms for the period 1991 to 2004 using different parametric and semiparametric count panel data models. Results across different count data models indicate a positive and significant impact of the introduction of stronger patents on patenting activity. Further, the results show a gestation lag of 2 years between R&D spending and patent applications.     

Reform, Interaction of Policies, and Economic Growth: Evidence from China’s Provincial Panel Data

Based on provincial panel data, we tested the effects of openness, denationalization, fiscal reform, and their interactions on Chinese regional economic growth. We found the following: (1) Openness, especially the growth of foreign-direct-investment/gross-domestic-product ratio, has been important in enhancing China’s growth since the mid-1980s, while this effect is not so significant in western China. (2) Fiscal reform is another significant factor for economic growth. If local governments deregulate, higher growth will be obtained. In particular, reducing extrabudget expenditure helps push economic growth, especially in western China. (3) The interaction of economic policies, such as openness, denationalization, and fiscal reform, also plays an essential role in local economic growth. Both for the whole nation and for the eastern area, denationalization does not affect growth independently but expands the effects of deregulation. (4) After controlling economic policies and their interactions, conditional convergence exists. (5) With other factors controlled, eastern China achieved higher growth, while the middle and western areas did not differ significantly in growth. (6) Western China, where policy variables have lower explanatory power for growth, has a growth pattern different from those of the eastern and middle areas. Translated from the World Economic Papers, 2005, (1) (in Chinese)     

Offshoring,Sourcing Substitution Bias,and the Measurement of Growth in U.S. Gross Domestic Product and Productivity

The decade before the financial crisis of 2008 was a time of large changes in sourcing patterns for manufactured goods, particularly after China's entry into the WTO in 2001. Sourcing substitution reduced the prices paid by wholesale level buyers of these goods, but these price reductions were mostly not captured in the U.S. import price indexes and the U.S. GDP deflator. To find plausible values for sourcing bias we first use data on changes in sourcing patterns over 1997–2007 to predict the effect of the reported price discount from the new emerging market suppliers. Next, we compare adjusted import price indexes for products used for household consumption with consumer price indexes. In the GDP deflator for apparel imports, sourcing bias is found to average 0.6 percent per year, and for durable goods it averages 1 percent per year. During the decade of rapidly changing sourcing patterns, a tenth of the reported speedup in multifactor productivity growth of the U.S. private business sector may have come from sourcing bias in the deflators for imports.