Total factor productivity of Korean manufacturing industries: Comparison of competing models with firm-level data

This paper presents the parametric estimation of the rates of technical change and total factor productivity (TFP) growth of 7462 Korean manufacturing firms over the period 1987–2007. Two alternative formulations of technical change measured by the time trend and the general index approaches are estimated with panel data models assuming flexible functional forms. Several extensions of each approach are also considered and their benefits and limitations are discussed. In addition to making estimates of the TFP growth and its decomposition, the paper compares the parametric TFP growth measure with the non-parametric Solow residual serving as a benchmark. Several hypotheses related to technology level, firm sizes, industrial sectors, skill biased technological change and macroeconomic and industrial policies are tested to explain the growth patterns and heterogeneity in technical change, input biases and TFP growth rates. Using second regression analysis, the paper explores the determinants of TFP growth and their policy implications.     

Agricultural productivity growth in traditional and transitional economies in Asia

This paper reports estimates of agricultural productivity growth in Asian countries, with special attention to the transition economies. A parametric output distance function approach is formulated to decompose total factor productivity (TFP) growth into its associated components and to examine how input and output intensities shift in response to the adoption of innovations. The results show that by including the transition economies, Asia achieved healthy TFP growth at an annual average rate of 1.9 per cent. However, TFP growth and its components differ widely across the transition countries and at different stages of the transition periods within these countries.     

Imperfect Competition, Economic Miracle, and Manufacturing Productivity Growth: Empirical Evidence from Taiwan

Several recent studies on total factor productivity (TFP) concluded that the East Asian economies benefited little from TFP growth. This study claims that the failure by previous studies to consider the effect of net indirect taxes and market imperfections resulted in the underestimation of the share of the contribution of labor input to factor income, which consequently led to the overestimation of capital share and understatement of TFP growth. Therefore, this study has modified the conventional approach of calculating factor shares by taking account of net indirect taxes and market imperfections and used the modified approach to estimate TFP growth in 16 Taiwanese manufacturing industries during the period 1979–1999. The conclusion drawn by the study is that TFP growth was the driving force behind the success of Taiwan's manufacturing industries, although many of these industries experienced a sharp decline in TFP during the 1990s.     

A closer look at the world business cycle synchronization

This paper uses a transformation of the period-by-period index proposed by Cerqueira and Martins (2009), to overcome some of its shortcomings, in a non-parametric estimation to analyze how business cycle synchronization for a sample of 111 countries evolved in the period 1960–2007. The period-by-period index is able to distinguish between negative correlations due to episodes in single years, asynchronous behavior in turbulent times and synchronous behavior over stable periods and the non-parametric approach provides a more detailed analysis than the use of a parametric approach. The results show that since the nineties the synchronization at the world level, within and between country groups, experienced a dramatic increase reaching the highest values ever at the sample end.     

海南的资本投入与全要素生产率

本文从投资效率出发估计海南资本存量数据,并运用索洛余值法、隐含变量法和潜在产出法讨论了1978～2006年海南的全要素生产率变动。分析表明:海南全要素生产率增长与海南宏观经济波动趋势较一致,海南的经济增长主要依靠全要素生产率的贡献。     

Knowledge economy and industry performance in China: a provincial level analysis

ABSTRACT

We construct a framework for investigating the effects of knowledge on industry performance. Using Chinese provincial industry data from 2000 to 2012, we decompose total factor productivity (TFP) change into the four components of embodied technical change, disembodied technical change, scale efficiency change, and technical efficiency change. Our results show a considerably stronger positive effect of advanced knowledge on production technology than of basic knowledge. International knowledge spillovers, particularly trade-induced spillovers, are more effective in inducing TFP growth than domestic spillovers. Our analysis further illustrates a discrepancy in TFP growth rates between regions, and we find TFP of the Central and West Region to be catching-up with the East Region. On average, scale efficiency change is the major contributing factor to regional disparities in TFP change. We discuss several policy implications of our results.

Abbreviation: Advanced knowledge (ADV); Share of agriculture (AGR); Basic knowledge (BAS); Chinese Industrial Census (CIC); Data envelopment analysis (DEA); Disembodied technical change (DTC); Embodied technical change (ETC); Foreign direct investment (FDI); Gross domestic product (GDP); Population density (POD); Scale efficiency change (SEC); Stochastic frontier analysis (SFA); International spillovers from foreign countries (SPF); Cross-sectoral external knowledge spillovers within China (SPH); Neutral technical change (TC); Technical efficiency (TE); Technical efficiency change (TEC); Total factor productivity (TFP); International trade (TRD); Degree of urbanization (URB)     

An International Comparison of Banking Sectors: A DEA Approach

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to measure and compare the efficiency of the banking system in several countries and stages of development using the non-parametric?mathematic methodology Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Thus, we expect to broaden the range of studies about banking efficiency. Differently from most studies that use accounting data for measuring efficiency we employed market data, measuring returns and risk (calculated in different ways) in order to build a new measure of efficiency. This approach allows the comparison of different countries, which have different accounting rules and are not comparable using standard models. The main results suggest a downward trend in the average efficiency level of developed countries and a slight upward trend in the efficiency level of emerging market countries during the period. According to this study, efficiency tends to level off emerging and developed countries. It may be partially explained by the increasing globalization and integration processes that markets have been going through in the last years.     

Green total factor productivity: A re-examination of quality of growth for provinces in China

In this paper we try to assess the quality of growth for provinces in China over the period of 1997–2015. To do so we calculate a set of Green total factor productivity (or GTFP) indexes by incorporating environmental performance variables at the provincial level. A nonparametric approach (Directional Distance Function a la Chung et al., 1997) is adopted in the estimation. Furthermore, we apply bootstrapping method to correct estimation bias and obtain statistical property of the estimated indexes. The GTFP indexes estimated here demonstrate very different trends from the GDP growth rateand standard TFP indexes ignoring environmental outcomes. For the period of interests, when annual GDP growth rate was very high, no steady growth was found in TFP and GTFP, by contrast. The rankings of provinces differ significantly across measures of GDP growth, TFP and GTFP. In addition, our estimates of GTFP trends are also significantly different from findings by other papers of GTFP estimation (Hu et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2010) without bootstrapping procedure.     

Inflation and total factor productivity in Germany: A response to Smyth

Conclusion The results in this paper support a somewhat modest conclusion: that for the rather tight range of inflation experienced by Germany over the sample period (-1.8 to 7.8 percent), inflation’s impact on TFP growth was so minor that it did not show up as statistically significant in the analysis. This conclusion is consistent with previous cross-sectional based research.⁹ The findings illustrate that Smyth’s analysis of the contemporaneous correlation between TFP growth and inflation quite likely overstates the potential benefit to Germany of zero inflation. One area for future inquiry, however, is whether the absence of inflationary effects on TFP growth also holds true for nations which have experienced higher levels, and greater fluctuations, of inflation than has Germany since 1950. It is possible that the German results are not the norm due to the nation’s relatively low average rate of inflation.     

Productivity growth in Indonesian agriculture, 1961–2000

This paper uses an index number approach to measure total factor productivity (TFP) growth in Indonesian crop and livestock agriculture from 1961 to 2000. Tornqvist-Theil chain-weighted indices of output, input and TFP are developed to minimise biases that may result from relative changes in input and output price aggregation weights. The results indicate that agricultural TFP growth accelerated in the 1970s and 1980s but stagnated in the 1990s. Without new efforts to increase productivity in agriculture, Indonesia's goal of using agricultural growth to generate broad-based rural development and further reduce poverty may be undermined.     

Call For Papers: The Eighth International Convention of the East Asian Economic Association

This paper provides empirical estimates of total factor productivity (TFP) trends in a sample of 17 APEC countries over the period 1975 to 1996. TFP growth is an important measure of an economy's performance and if measured correctly it can provide valuable guidance on issues related to the assessment of sustainable growth trends. We use the Malmquist index to measure TFP growth and decompose it into an efficiency change and a technical change component. This decomposition provides extra insight on assessing sustainable growth trends. The measurement technique itself is regarded as a significant improvement over previous conventional measures of TFP growth. The results are very interesting. Japan, Thailand and primarily Indonesia and Malaysia are identified as countries exhibiting on average negative TFP growth rates in the 1975-1990 period. In all these countries as well as in South Korea and Taiwan the main cause of low TFP growth is a poor (negative) efficiency record. The average TFP growth rate for Japan and Malaysia is positive in the 1975-1996 period but the efficiency change component remains negative. In all these countries the main contributor to labour productivity growth is capital accumulation. Unlike previous studies we find no evidence of a poor TFP growth performance for Singapore. Furthermore, we estimate that most of Singapore's labour productivity growth is driven by efficiency change. Estimates of rates of convergence towards the frontier economy that is estimated (not assumed as in other studies) to be the US, are also reported.     

Role of TFP in China's Growth*

This paper uses the dual approach to growth accounting to examine the role of total factor productivity (TFP) in recent Chinese growth. Most previous growth accounting studies on China have followed the primal approach, which depends heavily on the national income accounts. Unfortunately, despite efforts to rectify them, Chinese national income accounts data continue to have problems that affect primal approach growth accounting results. The dual approach, in contrast, allows independent price information to play a role. Recent research has focused on the following two questions: (i) How significant has TFP's role been in post‐reform Chinese growth? (ii) Has TFP growth rate slowed down in more recent years? This paper finds that: (i) the TFP growth rate for mainland China computed using the dual approach also proves high; and (ii) there has been some slowdown in TFP growth rate in recent years.     

The “news view” of economic fluctuations: Evidence from aggregate Japanese data and sectoral US data

This paper uses aggregate Japanese data and sectoral US data to explore the properties of the joint behavior of stock prices and total factor productivity (TFP) with the aim of highlighting data patterns that are useful for evaluating business cycle theories. The approach used follows that presented in [Beaudry, P., Portier, F., 2004. News, stock prices and economic fluctuations. Working paper 10548. NBER]. The main findings are that (i) in both Japan and the US, innovations in stock prices that are contemporaneously orthogonal to TFP precede most of the long-run movements in total factor productivity and (ii) such stock prices innovations do not affect US sectoral TFPs contemporaneously, but do precede TFP increases in those sectors that are driving US TFP growth, namely durable goods, and among them equipment sectors. J. Japanese Int. Economies 19 (4) (2005) 635–652.     

环境约束下中国区域工业技术效率与生产率及其影响因素实证研究

本文运用方向性距离函数和曼奎斯特-卢恩伯格指数方法测算了环境约束下中国1998--2007年各地区工业技术效率、全要素生产率指数和环境规制成本,并对影响技术效率和全要素生产率增长的因素进行了实证分析。结果显示：环境技术效率呈现东、中、西依次递减,并且技术效率越高的地区,环境管制成本越低;考虑环境因素后,中国各地区工业全要素生产率指数降低,主要是由技术进步推动;环境约束下工业全要素生产率东部最高,西部次之,中部最低;人均GRP、FDI、工业结构、能源结构、人口密度对技术效率和全要素生产率有不同程度的影响。     

农业全要素生产率时间演变及区域差异研究——基于江苏省的实证分析

基于江苏省13个地级市的农业投入产出面板数据,运用DEA-Malmquist方法,对江苏农业全要素生产率进行了实证分析。结果表明,2001-2014年间江苏省农业技术进步增长幅度较大,而技术效率变动呈现递减态势,农业TFP增长主要是靠技术进步推动的,且江苏农业TFP增长率及其构成存在显著的地区差异,苏南农业TFP增速明显高于苏中和苏北地区。     

Technological factors and total factor productivity in China: Evidence based on a panel threshold model

This study investigates the effects of technological factors, including indigenous research and development (R&D) investments, technology spillovers coming from foreign direct investments, export, and import, on China's total factor productivity (TFP). Using provincial panel data of China, covering 30 provinces over the period 2000–2014, our results confirm that indigenous R&D investments play a leading role in promoting TFP. Linear analysis suggests that, except for export, the technology spillovers through openness are beneficial for TFP growth. However, a further discussion based on a panel threshold model suggests that the different behaviours of these technology spillovers are dependent on the technological absorptive capacity affecting factors, such as human capital and indigenous R&D investments. The human capital will strengthen the spillover effects of each technology spillover. However, R&D intensity initially tends to hamper their spillover effects. Once the R&D intensity exceeds a certain level, the negative spillover effect of export on TFP tends to be alleviated, and the positive spillover effect of foreign direct investment and import on TFP will increase.     

New estimates and a decomposition of provincial productivity change in China

Productivity and efficiency change lies at the heart of achieving sustainable growth in China. This paper computes and decomposes provincial-level Färe–Primont TFP indexes for the period 1978 to 2010. On average across provinces, we find evidence of rapid TFP growth mostly due to technical change, but with changes in scale–mix efficiency also playing a supplementary role. Considerable heterogeneity from province to province is also documented both with respect to the rate of TFP growth and its components. Policy implications are discussed.     

An Application of the Extended Glass and McKillop Procedure for Computing TFP Growth to the Malaysian Rice Sector

The objective of the present study is three-fold: to employ an aggregated data to investigate the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of the Malaysian rice sector; to investigate the sources of the TFP growth; and, to examine and extend the Glass and McKillop procedure for computing TFP growth. To this end, we establish several procedures which make it possible for us to: (i) link the TFP analysis with the theory of production; (ii) disentangle the sources of TFP growth into scale and technological change effects; and (iii) apply, compute, examine and extend the Glass and McKillop procedure for computing TFP growth.The finding of the study is as follows. (i) Using the standard procedure forcomputing TFP growth it was found that the average TFP growth for Malaysian rice farming was 1.37%, of which the scale effect contributed 0.29% and the remaining 1.08% was due to the technological change effect. (ii) Using the extended Glass and McKillop procedure, however, it was found that the average TFP growth, the technological change effect and the scale effect were 3.48%, 3.19% and 0.29%, respectively. (iii) Comparing these two results, derived from two different procedures, we concluded that the difference in magnitude of the TFP growth was due to the two distinct procedures for computing the technological change effect per se.     

Développement financier,croissance économique et productivité globale des facteurs en Afrique Sub‐saharienne**

Résumé: L’article analyse empiriquement les liens développement financier (DF)‐croissance économique, et développement financier‐productivité globale des facteurs (PGF) en Afrique Sub‐saharienne. L’étude est basée sur une approche VAR: tests de cointégration de Johansen et modèles à correction d’erreurs. L’échantillon comprend 22 pays et porte sur la période 1960–2002. Les résultats suggèrent que le DF et la croissance, et le DF et la PGF sont cointégrés, dans plusieurs pays. De plus, dans plusieurs cas, la relation entre le DF et la croissance est caractérisée par une causalité bidirectionnelle au sens de Granger, alors que la relation entre le DF et la PGF est caractérisée par une causalité unidirectionnelle allant du DF vers la PGF. Il apparaît, à quelques exceptions près, que le développement financier stimule la croissance dans les pays où cette croissance est soutenue par le progrès technique. L’implication de nos résultats est que toute mesure qui stimule le développement financier, va stimuler la croissance économique à travers l’accélération du progrès technique. Abstract: The paper empirically analyzes the financial development (FD)‐growth nexus, and the financial development‐total factor productivity (TFP) link in sub‐Saharan Africa. The study is based on a VAR approach: Johansen cointegration tests and error correction models. The sample includes 22 countries over the period from 1960 to 2002. Results suggest that FD and economic growth and, FD and TFP are cointegrated for many countries. Moreover, in many cases, the relationship between FD and growth is characterized by bidirectional causality in the Granger sense, whereas the relation between FD and TFP is characterized by a unidirectional causality running from FD to TFP. With few exceptions, it appears that financial development spurs economic growth in countries where that growth is supported by technological progress. The implication of the findings is that any reform that causes betterment in the financial sector will foster economic growth through a sharp increase in technological progress.     

广东现代服务业全要素生产率研究

本文利用Malmquist指数法,对广东2000～2008年现代服务业全要素生产率进行了测算。结果显示,广东现代服务业的快速增长并非源于要素使用效率的提高,而是得益于要素投入的增长;但各经济区差异较大,珠三角和西翼经济区现代服务业TFP高于全省平均水平,且现代服务业加速增长的同时,增长方式向集约型方式转变;而东翼经济区和山区现代服务业TFP不升反降,经济增长仍然主要依靠要素投入的增长。