我国高等教育生产率增长、技术进步与效率变化

本文运用Malmquist指数对2003—2008年我国31个省、市、自治区高等教育的生产率变化情况进行分析,然后将其分解为技术进步与效率变化分析生产率变化的动力来源以及各地区的差异,并进一步对高等教育规模扩张与技术进步之间的关系进行研究。研究结果表明:我国高等教育生产率指数显示波动性上升趋势,且主要动力来源于技术进步;高等教育生产率的增长呈现出较大的地区差异性;高等教育的规模扩张与技术进步之间存在显著的负相关关系,当前的技术水平显然不能满足高校的需求。最后针对高等教育生产率变动的特征对高等教育的未来发展提出几点政策建议。     

Productivity measurement in Swedish departments of gynecology and obstetrics

The rapid growth of public spending and the need to assess its impact on the welfare system has made the studies of productivity in the public sector an important subject. This paper is concerned with the specification and estimation of total factor productivity growth using the primal panel data approach. The total factor productivity growth is decomposed into technical change and scale components. Several competing models are used to explore whether there are any similarities in the estimates of total factor productivity growth and technical change among these models. The models are estimated using different estimation methods. Some of the models, although assuming a Cobb–Douglas technology, exhibit firm-specific technical change. These models are used to measure productivity growth in departments of gynecology and obstetrics in Sweden. Empirical results show evidence of large and negative rate of productivity growth. In comparison among different specifications proposed, the level and the time pattern of productivity measures vary substantially across models and estimation methods.     

Estimating total factor productivity growth in Singapore at sectoral level using data envelopment analysis

Trends in total factor productivity growth (TFPG) are examined in the ten major sectors of Singapore. Data are drawn from the Yearbook of Statistics, Singapore, (various issues) and Economic Survey of Singapore series ranging from the year 1985 to 2000. Due to the heterogeneous characteristic of each sector and non-availability of reliable input price data, this study uses a non-parametric, frontier methodology known as data envelopment analysis (DEA) to obtain the Malmquist Productivity Index at the sectoral level. The results can help Singapore identify the ‘best practice' sector and laggards in three aspects: efficiency change, technical change and TFPG, which is the qualitative productivity improvements needed for long-term economic growth. The three sets of productivity estimates are adjusted for effects of inflation and business cycles so that they are more reliable for policy implications. This exercise will provide a platform for more detailed study on the determinants of TFP growth in different sectors and at the firm level in Singapore.     

Technological Progress versus Efficiency Gain in Manufacturing Sectors

This study decomposes the nonparametric Malmquist productivity index for 36 Korean manufacturing sectors into two components: technological change and technical efficiency change. The empirical results show that while each sector displays quite different growth patterns, productivity growth is dominated by technological change. Technological change is found to have a negative correlation with efficiency change. Secondary regression performed in this study identifies the relationship between productivity growth measures and several key policy variables, such as effective protection rate, market concentration, and so forth. The productivity estimates are compared with those of the conventional Törnqvist productivity index.     

Technical change and the “tendency of the rate of profit to fall”

For the most part, the discussion of Marx' falling rate of profit has been of a qualitative and fairly imprecise nature. In particular, the transformation problem concerning the relationship between the price and value rates of profit is usually not adequately dealt with. The present article defines the various concepts rigorously and demonstrates the relationship between the price and value concepts. It is then shown that technical change which competitive capitalists will introduce always raises the rate of profit, if real wages are constant; that these viable technical changes are always socially desirable; but that there are socially desirable technical changes which will not be introduced under competitive capitalism. Some of these desirable technical changes would cause the profit rate to fall. Any efforts to demonstrate a falling rate of profit as a consequence of technical change must therefore concentrate on the relationship between technical innovation and changes in the real wage.     

总需求、国际贸易与我国省际生产率变化——基于省际面板数据的研究

全要素生产率的提高是促进经济持续增长的重要原因,对生产率的研究,主要是从供给方面展开的,本文试图从需求角度研究全要素生产率变动的原因。理论上看,总需求通过影响技术创新、技术选择、规模经济效益和要素的使用效率等途径引起生产率的变化,国际贸易则通过促进分工深化、产生技术溢出等促进生产率的提高。然后,本文采用数据包络分析方法测算了中国省际全要素生产率变化,并将其分解为技术效率的变化和技术进步。结果发现中国改革开放以来全要素生产率增长主要是技术进步的结果,技术效率的作用很小。在测算和分解的基础上,利用省际面板数据,就总需求和国际贸易对生产率增长的影响作了实证分析,发现最终消费和资本形成对技术进步和全要素生产率的提高作用显著,出口对生产率增长的作用不显著,进口显著地促进了省际全要素生产率增长和技术进步。     

低碳约束下中国全要素生产率的时空演变——基于Sequential Malmquist-Luenberger生产率指数分解方法

在全要素框架下运用基于连续前沿的Malmquist-Luenberger生产率增长指数方法,估算了1987—2009年中国28个省(自治区、直辖市)的低碳全要素生产率、技术进步和效率改善,对中国低碳全要素生产率的总体发展、区域差异进行实证分析。然后,利用核密度估计,对累积相对低碳全要素生产率增长、累积相对技术进步和累积相对效率改善做分布动态演进分析。结果表明:考察期内中国整体的低碳全要素生产率趋于上升,但上升幅度逐渐减小;东、中、西三大区域的低碳全要素生产率存在显著差异,呈东高西低的增长格局;东、中部地区的低碳全要素生产率提升是技术进步和效率改善共同推进的结果;西部地区的低碳全要素生产率提升仅靠技术进步驱动,效率改善存在退步迹象;省际间的低碳全要素生产率呈一定程度的"俱乐部收敛"特征,技术进步有明显的"追赶效应"。     

Does Environmental Protection Lead to Slower Productivity Growth in the Chemical Industry?

Efficiency and productivity growth is measured at the three-digit SIC level for six chemical industries for 1988–1993. The directional distance function is used to measure the lost chemical manufacturing output and the overproduction of toxic chemical releases. Total factor productivity growth is decomposed into a product of efficiency change and technical change. Accounting for toxic chemical releases, productivity grows at anannual rate of between 2.4% and 6.9%. We find no evidence that environmental protection measures reduce productivity growth.     

Threshold Effects on the Relationship Between Inflation Rate and Economic Growth in Tunisia

Using an econometric technique suggested by Hansen [(2001). The new econometrics of structural change: Dating breaks in U.S. Labor productivity. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15, 117–128], this paper studies the inflation–economic growth nexus in the case of Tunisia for the 1993-01–2012-11 period. The results show that there is one inflation threshold value that does exist for Tunisia. This evidence strongly sustains the view that the relationship between inflation rate and economic growth is non-linear. The estimated threshold regression model suggests that a threshold value of inflation rate below 3.48% fosters economic growth. In addition, above this threshold level, there is a statistically significant negative relationship between inflation rate and economic growth. These results have important implications to policy-makers who should pay attention to the inflation phenomena. Therefore, a new policy that takes into account such a threshold should be set up.     

Long-run technical change and multifactor productivity growth in US manufacturing

This study utilizes a translog cost function to produce econometric estimates of the separate influences of technical change versus scale efficiency in contributing to multifactor productivity growth within the US manufacturing sector. The analysis generates (two-digit) industry-specific parameters that capture the effects of output versus time-related shifts in the cost function over the 1949–1991 period. Thus initial evidence concerning the relative importance of technical progress (versus ‘scale’) cannot be provided as a source of productivity gains within two-digit industries. The parametric estimates of total factor productivity growth are compared with existing Divisia measures to explore the shortcomings of the growth accounting technique. These long-run patterns hold implications for the productivity convergence hypothesis traced to knowledge spillovers between industries.     

制造业FDI行业内和行业间溢出对全要素生产率变动的影响*

在中国制造2025的大背景下,如何利用FDI来促进制造业全要素生产率、技术效率与技术水平的提升具有重要意义。采用2005—2014年中国制造业的26个行业的面板数据实证分析FDI行业间和行业内的技术溢出对全要素生产率变动的影响,结果发现行业内直接溢出能有效促进内资制造业全要素生产率和技术效率的提高;行业内间接溢出则会挤占内资企业的生存空间阻碍全要素生产率、技术效率和技术水平的增长;行业间后向关联程度能显著且明显地促进内资制造业全要素生产率和技术效率的提升;行业间前向关联程度能显著但微弱地抑制内资制造业全要素生产率和技术效率的提升。     

中国地区工业生产绩效:结构差异、制度冲击及动态表现

This paper is dedicated to probing into the dynamic performances of industrial productivity across regions of transitional China, using the panel data of provincial level. Based on the approach by Kumbhakar (2000), TFP (total factor productivity) growth is decomposed into four components. The main results are as follows. First, since 1988, the industrial TFP growth has been commonly accelerated across regions, with a rising technical change rate as the principal impetus. Second, meanwhile, technical efficiency and factors’ allocative efficiency are deteriorated with scale efficiency switching from being retrogressive to being progressive. Third, although the SOE (state-owned enterprise) reform in the late 1990s has constituted a common shock to the industrial productivity, the eastern area with relatively few SOEs suffers the least from this policy enforcement. Fourth, by exploring the sources of productivity differences, we further confirm that the institutional shock launched by SOE reform in the late 1990s is crucial for the enhancement of scale effects as well as the temporarily rapid decline of factors’ allocative efficiency; in addition, the educational level of the labor-force and the share of non-SOEs in the industrial output contribute positively to the acceleration of technical change and the improvement of allocative efficiency. The economic transition, accompanied by gradual institutional reforms, is reshaping the map of regional industrialization through various channels. Translated from Jingji Yanjiu 经济研究 (Economic Research Journal), 2006, (11): 48–59     

Developmental aspects of China��s trade pattern: The role of imported intermediate goods

This paper studies the relationship between China’s trade and its economic development. More than two centuries ago Adam Smith argued that it is the use of imported intermediate goods that constitutes the vector through which openness improves productivity. Imported intermediate goods can relieve what would otherwise be key constraints allowing faster growth, together with better human development. While China’s trade reform is often related to its productivity growth, there has been remarkably little attention to the relationship between imports and productivity growth at the industry-sectoral level. Our paper examines the sector-specific impact of intermediate goods utilizing a time series for the share of imported intermediate goods in each sector derived from our model calculations. Our study indicates that imported intermediate goods are playing an important role in the growth of Chinese productivity.     

Parametric Approaches to Productivity Measurement: A Comparison among Alternative Models

This paper deals with modeling total factor productivity (TFP) growth in a flexible manner using panel data. Several competing parametric models are used to explore whether there are any similarities in the estimates of TFP growth and technical change among these models. Using a primal approach, we decompose TFP growth into different components. The models are then used to measure productivity and technical change in the Swedish cement industry. In general, the results are found to be model dependent and often conflicting, although much less so for returns to scale and overall productivity growth.
JEL classification: O 30; C 33     

Dynamic productivity growth and its determinants in the Indonesian food and beverages industry

ABSTRACT

This research investigates dynamic productivity growth and its determinants in the Indonesian food and beverages industry decomposing dynamic productivity growth into the contributions of dynamic technical inefficiency change, dynamic technical change, and dynamic scale inefficiency change. The empirical application employs unbalanced panel data of 44 subsectors in the Indonesian food and beverages industry over 1990–2014. To estimate dynamic productivity growth, this research uses a Luenberger indicator accounting for the presence of adjustment costs. The results show that dynamic productivity growth exhibits a decreasing trend. Dynamic technical inefficiency change and dynamic scale inefficiency change contribute positively to dynamic productivity growth, while dynamic technical change contributes negatively. Dynamic productivity growth is affected by the change in industrial concentration, the growth rate of capital intensity, the growth rate of exports, the growth rate of foreign direct investment, and location.     

Sulphur emissions and productivity growth in industrialised countries

Abstract ** :  In this paper, we examine the relationship between economic and environmental performance. More specifically, we analyse the impact of SO2 reduction in the eighties (1980–1992) on productivity growth, technical efficiency and technological progress for a set of 12 OECD countries. Our timeframe roughly corresponds to the adoption and implementation of the First Sulphur Protocol signed in 1985. First, we estimate an output based Malmquist productivity index using distance functions derived from successive DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) frontiers. This index is decomposed in two components namely technical and efficiency change. Second, we regress the change in productivity and its two components on a set of explanatory variables including annual variations in SO2 emissions. The results indicate that reductions in SO2 do not seem to have had a significant impact on productivity growth. The decomposition into efficiency and technology changes suggests that two countervailing effects may explain this result. On one hand, SO2 cutbacks adversely affect efficiency but on the other hand, they stimulate technical change .     

The implications of heterogeneous resource intensities on technical change and growth

Abstract We analyze the long‐term dynamics of an economy in which sectors are heterogeneous with respect to the intensity of natural resource use. It is shown that heterogeneity induces technical change to be biased towards resource‐intensive sectors. Along the balanced growth path, the sectoral structure of the economy is constant as the higher resource dependency in resource‐intensive sectors is compensated by enhanced research activities. Resource taxes have no impact on dynamics except when the tax rate varies over time. Research subsidies and the sectoral provision of productivity‐enhancing public goods raise growth and provide an effective tool for structural policy.     

ChinHow R&D Investments Influence TFP Growth: Evidence from China’s Large and Medium- Sized Industrial Enterprises

This paper investigates the potential channels through which R&D may influence TFP growth using industry-level panel data of China’s large and medium-sized industrial enterprises over the period of 2000–2007. Comparing with existing literature, we provide a closer look of the relationship between R&D and TFP growth by decomposing TFP growth into efficiency change and technical change components using Malmquist productivity index and distinguishing between upstream R&D spillovers and downstream R&D spillovers. We find TFP grow slightly during 2000–2007, and R&D investment indeed serves as an engine of productivity growth just as endogenous growth theories argued, which is largely because R&D accelerates technical progress even it also results in enlarging technical inefficiency. However, we find a robust negative effect of downstream R&D spillovers on TFP growth, the effects of upstream is positive but not statistically significant. In addition, we do not find the positive effects of human capital on TFP as endogenous growth theories indicated, but find human capital severs as “assimilation device” for R&D spillovers both in promoting TFP growth and increasing technical efficiency even the effects on technical progress is adverse.     

Volumes of evidence: examining technical change in the last century through a new lens

Abstract New indicators of technical change based on titles included in the catalogue of the Library of Congress and on Amazon.com's website are presented along with evidence that they do capture technological innovation. The indicators are used to chart the pattern and nature of technical change over the last century. A strong, causal relationship is found to exist between these indicators and changes in TFP and output per capita. Moreover, innovations in some subgroups have had a greater impact on output and productivity than in others and the key players change over time. Information technologies are currently the dominant subgroup. JEL classificatiion: E32, O3, O4, N1     

Sources of energy productivity growth and its distribution dynamics in China

The purposes of this paper are to determine the sources of energy productivity growth at the provincial level in China and to examine the relative contributions of the sources and their impacts on regional inequality. Energy productivity change is first decomposed into five components attributable to changes in capital–energy ratio, labor–energy ratio, output structure, and technical efficiency change and technological change. Then a nonparametric analysis is implemented to statistically test the relative contributions of the components and their roles in the distribution dynamics of energy productivity. It is found that (1) changes in capital–energy ratio, output structure, and technological change contribute to energy productivity growth in China, (2) increase in capital–energy ratio caused by capital accumulation is the primary driving force for energy productivity growth, and (3) capital accumulation contributes to energy productivity convergence between Chinese provinces over the time period of 1990–2005.