A model of the free-entry producer cooperative

One of the most frequent criticisms of the Illyrian model of the labour-managed firm is that it does not take into account key institutional factors which are likely in practice to eliminate the perverse short-run supply and degeneration results well known in the literature. This paper presents a new model of the labour-managed firm, incorporating several of the most significant institutional factors actually in evidence in Western cooperative sectors. The free-entry producer cooperative model includes differing member and nonmember compensation methods, free access to membership, and special capital financing and shutdown rules. The new model's results differ from Ward's Illyrian firm model in a number of ways: first, capital is always variable for these firms, so the perverse short-run supply response does not apply; second, free-entry producer cooperatives do not degenerate into capitalist firms as Illyrian firms do; and third, such cooperatives will always have higher survival rates than both Illyrian and conventional firms.     

Female leadership,internet use,and performance of agricultural cooperatives in Vietnam

Supporting agricultural cooperatives might contribute to the livelihood improvement of many small-scale farmers in developing countries. This research examines the factors affecting the internet use of agricultural cooperatives with a focus on female leadership, its effects on cooperatives’ economic, social, and innovative performance, and the distributional effects of internet use on economic performance. Our analysis relied on the data of 3,512 agricultural cooperatives collected in 2021 from Vietnam. We addressed the endogeneity issue of internet use in impact assessment by employing an instrumental variable approach. Our results show that female leadership was positively and significantly associated with internet use and that internet use had a positive and significant effect on returns on assets, returns on equity, labor productivity, payment per laborer, contribution to labor union and insurance per laborer, and innovation in products of agricultural cooperatives. In addition, unconditional quantile regressions show that internet use in agricultural cooperatives exacerbated income inequality. Enhancing female leadership and promoting rural education were recommended to improve agricultural cooperatives’ performance.     

Productivity effects of environmental performance: evidence from TFP analysis on marketing cooperatives

The object of the present article is to offer a decomposition of productivity indices incorporating environmental changes. The model followed is an input oriented approach related to undesirable output (environmental performance attribute) in horticultural marketing cooperatives. This study is motivated by both the lack of analysis of environmental performance's effects on agribusiness productivity and the relevance of cooperative firms in the European agricultural model for attaining sustainability. For this purpose, bootstrapped envelopment analysis is applied and the best practice frontier obtained corresponds to decision making units showing the best environmental behaviour. The Malmquist total factor productivity (TFP) is decomposed into technological change, efficiency and environmental change. In the second stage, the correlations of these changes with other management variables of cooperatives are analysed. The indicators obtained, on one hand, advice about the nonseparable distance function estimations when the environmental factor is introduced. On the other hand, the results display a relevant increase in efficiency and environmental components for the period under study showing a high influence from labour qualification, environmental effort and spillover effect in the sector.     

The role of agricultural cooperatives in sustaining the wheat diversity and productivity: the case of southern Italy

We hypothesize that institutions such as agricultural cooperatives influence regional levels of variety diversity through input supply, processing or marketing functions. This diversity can also affect yield, a partial measure of crop productivity. We test these hypotheses with data from southern Italy, a mega-diversity spot and centre of diversity for durum wheat. Cooperatives in the southern regions of Italy process farmers’ harvests of durum wheat into bread, label it, and sell it locally. In this relatively marginalized region of the country, cooperatives enable farmers to capture more of the value of the final product and reduce marketing costs. To test the hypothesis, we apply a two-stage estimation approach with a Cobb-Douglas production function and panel data analysis. Findings suggest that the density of cooperatives in a region is associated with greater spatial diversity in wheat varieties grown, and that, over a 14-year period, this diversity positively affected crop yields.     

Knowledge and productivity in the world’s largest manufacturing corporations

This paper develops a model linking firm knowledge with productivity. The model captures three characteristics of firm knowledge (capital, diversity and relatedness) that are tested on a sample of 156 of the world’s largest corporations. Panel data regression models suggest that unlike knowledge diversity, knowledge capital and knowledge relatedness explain a substantial share of the variance of firm productivity. Relatedness matters because it lowers coordination costs between heterogeneous activities. Consequently, the traditional econometric specification has repeatedly underestimated by 15 percent the overall short-run contribution of intangible assets to firm productivity. This underestimation becomes fiercer in high-technology sectors.     

Regional foreign direct investment and technology spillover: evidence across different clusters in India

This paper examines whether there exist productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) to domestic firms at the regional level, using firm-level panel dataset covering 22 manufacturing industries in India from 2000 to 2012. In order to estimate the productivity spillovers from FDI at the regional level, we select 10 industrial clusters across 4 regions in India. In estimating productivity, we control for a possible simultaneity bias by using semi-parametric estimation techniques. We find that local firms benefit from horizontal and vertical FDI, but the benefits from the latter are found to be substantially stronger. The absorptive capacity of domestic firms is highly relevant to harvest the spilled technology from foreign-owned firms. Furthermore, we find that domestic firms belonging to high-technology industries benefit more from FDI at the regional level. We also find that market concentration is a crucial conduit for firm innovation, technological upgradation, and having a direct effect on local firm total factor productivity.     

The productivity trend in Iran Evidence from manufacturing firms

Iran has been experiencing slow growth for the past ten years. Using plant‐level information, we show that on average firm‐specific productivity in manufacturing sectors declined at the rate of 2.6% annually, while large top decile firms experienced a modest growth in productivity between 2005 and 2011. We decompose this trend and find that within‐plant variation is its main driving force while the between firms and industries component is insignificant. We test several alternative explanations that may contribute to these negative trends. We show that the subsidy reform had a negative effect, while privatization seems to have had no effect. Private management not affected productivity growth, while firm size is associated with higher productivity growth. Also, we find that productivity growth decreases with the energy intensity of the firm. We also find that R&D expenditures significantly increase productivity growth, while the R&D sales ratio is about 0.5% in manufacturing sectors, which is about one‐fifth of the world average. A one‐percent point increase in R&D expenditures increases productivity growth by 0.5%.     

Asymmetric impacts of ICT and energy intensity on agricultural productivity: Evidence from Asia-Pacific region

In the contemporary times of rising food insecurity and malnutrition, the agricultural sector needs more attention. This study aims to investigate the asymmetric impacts of information and communication technologies (ICTs), energy intensity, urbanization, and inequality on agricultural productivity for 20 Asia-Pacific countries from 1990 to 2020. To investigate asymmetric impacts, the study employs the panel nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model. The estimated results revealed that positive and negative shocks in ICT, energy intensity, and urbanization have asymmetric impacts on agricultural productivity in the long run, whereas symmetry is observed in short-run impacts. It is found that a 1% increase (decrease) in ICT and urbanization increases (decreases) agricultural productivity by 0.292% (0.662%) and 2.717% (2.759%), respectively, whereas a 1% increase (decrease) in energy intensity decreases (increases) agricultural productivity by 0.252% (0.216%) in the long run. Furthermore, the results of the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test point out the existence of bi-directional causality between agricultural productivity and the independent variables (ICT, energy intensity, urbanization, and inequality). Based on the findings, the study suggests that the Asia-Pacific countries should increase the application of ICT and use energy more efficiently in agriculture to boost agricultural productivity.     

Foreign exchange exposure and impact of policy switch – the case of Malaysian listed firms

This article undertakes an in-depth study of the foreign exchange exposure of Malaysian listed firms. We examine several issues related to firm-specific and overall exposure, including an evaluation of the efficacy of adopting a hard-peg on such exposure. Our sample consists of 158 listed firms and spans the 16 year period, 1990–2005. A multivariate model using four bilateral exchange rates is used to determine firm level exposure while panel data analysis using a random-effects Generalized Least Squares (GLS) model is used to determine system-wide or aggregate sample exposure. We find a total 71% of our sample firms to have significant exchange rate exposure, a rate substantially higher than that reported for most countries, especially developed ones. The US$ is by far the single most important source of exposure with 63% of sample firms exposed to it. The sign of the beta coefficient for three of the four currencies are negative, implying that our sample firms are largely net importers in these currencies. We find exposure to be time variant and dependent on the sector within which a firm operates. Interestingly, the panel data analysis which measures aggregate exposure, shows the US$ to be a significant source of exposure even with the adoption of the hard peg. The change in policy regime to a fixed peg following the crisis appears to have had no impact at either firm-level exposure or overall system-wide exposure.     

Measuring embodied technical change in the US local telephone industry

This study attempts to measure the rate of embodied technical change by using a short-run variable cost function that contains arguments for labour and capital quality. In this short-run variable cost model, the expansion of the amount of physical capital increases variable costs due to more maintenance outlays, and then it leads to improvements in capital quality. When a measure of competition is included as a proxy for organizational efficiency, improvements in labour and capital quality explain more than two-thirds of productivity growth. The degree of returns to scale and the shadow cost of capital input in the embodiment cost model are presented as well. The study is based on pooled time-series and cross-section data of eight US local exchange carriers.     

Impact of cooperative membership on market performance of Nepali goat farmers

In developing countries, agricultural cooperatives are increasingly used by farmers as a mechanism to gain market power in input and output markets. To assess the impact of cooperative membership on market channel selection and pricing outcomes, we conducted a survey of 661 Nepali goat farmers in 2019–20 and applied an endogenous switching probit model to analyze the data. Our findings indicate that cooperative membership had a significant and positive influence on farmers choosing cooperatives as their market channel. Additionally, farmers who sold their goats through cooperatives received significantly higher prices than those who sold through local markets or to goat collectors. We also observed that farmers who had access to price information were able to obtain better prices for their goats. Overall, our study highlights the potential benefits of promoting cooperative membership and marketing through cooperatives, as these efforts can help farmers improve the returns on their agricultural investments.     

Does agricultural cooperative membership influence off-farm work decisions of farm couples?

Membership in agricultural cooperatives may influence intra-household decisions regarding the division of household labor. However, the linkages between cooperative membership and labor allocation remain unexplored. To fill this gap, we examine the impact of cooperative membership on off-farm work decisions of couples engaged in farming, using data collected from 595 banana farmers in China. The recursive bivariate probit model and endogenous-treatment Poisson regression model are employed to address the self-selection bias inherent in cooperative membership. The results show that cooperative membership increases the probability of participating in off-farm work by 38% for husbands and 31% for wives. Having large households reduces the probability of husbands but increases that of wives working off-farm. Cooperative membership is also associated with more time spent on off-farm work and higher earnings for both husbands and wives. Our findings point to the potential of agricultural cooperatives to increase farm couples’ off-farm employment, thus increasing household income and quality of life.     

Effects of regulatory burden and corruption on firm performance: Evidence from Moldova

Firms in Moldova face a high level of regulatory burden, as proxied by the number of inspections by public authorities. At the same time, they face high levels of corruption. We examine the effect of frequent inspections on four measures of firm performance: labour and total factor productivity, and levels of tangible and intangible assets. We also investigate how corruption affects the relationship between inspections and firm performance. We perform panel data analysis using firm-level administrative data and survey data from Moldova in 2005–2015. The results show that inspections and corruption each affect firm productivity negatively, but corruption moderates the negative effect of inspections. We also find that inspections and intangible assets are positively correlated, but this correlation is weaker for higher levels of corruption. Finally we examine whether these results differ by industry, firm size and ownership types. Inspections and corruption affect medium and large firms, and state-owned enterprises differently from micro and small firms and private firms respectively.     

“农校对接”叫好不叫座的原因及对策研究

“农校对接”是把农业合作社的农产品直接送到高校食堂的新型供销模式.在进行的过程中出现“叫好不叫座”的尴尬现象,原因在于：高校和农业合作社认识不足,政策扶持不足,采购模式和供应模式的矛盾,运作的模式不够规范,高校的需求不稳定,与之对接的农户销量难以保证.“农校对接”的完善对策在于：以法律合约作为保障,建立农校信息交流平台,完善农产品的检测体系,积极发展中介信息服务企业,加强对农业合作社的专业培训和特殊时期多轮支撑.     

要素市场扭曲下农业绿色全要素生产率测度及效应研究

基于非径向非角度的SBM方向性距离函数构建Malmquist生产率指数,考虑碳排放和农业面源污染等非期望产出,测算中国28个省份1997—2018年农业绿色全要素生产率,最后采用空间杜宾模型探讨要素市场扭曲下农业绿色全要素生产率空间影响。研究结果表明:考虑碳排放和农业面源污染等非期望产出的农业绿色全要素生产率更符合中国农业高质量绿色发展的实际水平;中国农业全要素生产率提升多数源于农业技术进步,较少出现农业技术进步和技术效率双轮助推的情形;农业绿色全要素生产率呈现增长趋势,但增速较缓慢,且不同地域存在显著差异;要素市场扭曲抑制了农业绿色全要素生产率提升,具有空间溢出效应。     

INVENTOR PRODUCTIVITY AND FIRM SIZE: EVIDENCE FROM PANEL DATA ON INVENTORS

It has long been recognized that worker wages and productivity are higher in large firms. Moreover, economists have been interested in the efficiency of large firms in R&D enterprises. This paper uses inventor panel data to examine the relationship between inventor productivity and firm size in the pharmaceutical and semiconductor industries. In both industries, we find that inventors' productivity increases with firm size even after controlling for inventors' experience, education and other firm characteristics. We find evidence in the pharmaceutical industry that this is partly accounted for by differences in the way in which large and small firms organize R&D activities.     

The impact of product market regulation on productivity through firm churning: Evidence from European countries

Productivity performance in European countries has been a policy concern for several decades. This paper shows that productivity can be enhanced by product market policies which, by increasing competition and efficiency, facilitate higher rates of firms’ entry and exit (i.e. firm churning). Drawing on annual country-sector data for the period 2000–2014 across the EU countries, we find that: (i) competition-enhancing regulation is associated with a higher rate of firm churning; (ii) firm churning, in turn, appears to be positively related to higher total factor productivity at the sector level by facilitating the entry of new competitive firms and the exit of less productive ones. Overall, we conclude that stringent product market regulation can be indirectly associated, via its impact on business dynamism, with the somewhat weak productivity performance in a number of EU countries. Thus, our results point towards substantial productivity gains that could follow from the introduction of further competition-enhancing measures in product markets.     

认证标识对农产品品牌信任的影响路径分析

本文以信息不对称理论为基础,用结构方程模型的研究方法,对认证标识影响农产品品牌信任及其各维度路径进行实证分析。结果表明:认证标识可有效提升农产品品牌能力信任和善意信任,认证标识对于提升农产品品牌能力信任的作用大于对品牌善意信任的作用。品牌能力信任和善意信任会交互影响,善意信任对于增强能力信任有较大作用,能力信任也间接影响善意信任,但影响稍弱。     

Understanding the Effect of Productivity Changes on International Relative Prices: The Role of News Shocks

The US real exchange rate and terms of trade have been found to appreciate when US labour productivity increases relative to the rest of the world. This finding is at odds with predictions from standard international macroeconomic models. In this paper, we find that incorporating news shocks to total factor productivity (TFP) in an otherwise standard open‐economy sticky‐price dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with variable capital utilization can help the model replicate the above empirical finding. Labour productivity increases in our model after a positive news shock to TFP because of an increase in capital utilization. Under some plausible calibrations, the wealth effect of good news about future productivity can increase domestic demand strongly and induce an increase in home goods prices relative to foreign goods prices.     

The puzzle on the causality of the productivity and employment growth: evidence from firm-level data

This article analyses the causality between the firm’s employment and productivity growth based on the population of manufacturing firms registered in Slovenia in the 1994–2003 period. By using the system GMM estimator, we show that the employment–productivity growth trade-off does not exist. Moreover, we find significant complementarities between employment and productivity growth, mostly driven by SMEs and firms from high-tech industries. Accordingly, we argue that the job-creation policy and productivity-promoting policy are complementary rather than trade-offs and that policymakers should focus on the optimal policy mix that provides the highest aggregate effect with regard to all growth aspects. Further, significant differences among the factors of employment and productivity growth suggest that job-creation policy measures are most successful when targeted at younger export-oriented firms with high total factor productivity levels and capital-intensive production. Meanwhile, the outcome of policy measures aimed at promoting productivity increases with a firm’s capital intensity and size up to the threshold employment level and with the intensity of market competition.