Some Hicksian and Marshallian consumer's surplus estimates in discrete choice

This note describes the theory and practice of applying the Hicksian approach to cost-benefit analysis to discrete choice models. It illustrates the technique with numerical estimates of Hicksian and Marshallian consumer's surplus measures based on computer simulations using real-world data.     

VERTICALLY INTEGRATED PRODUCTIVITY MEASURES: TESTS OF STANDARD ASSUMPTIONS

In this paper we use an input-output framework to examine two criticisms of standard measures of total factor productivity. These criticisms are (1) that the contribution of capital to productivity growth is underestimated, and (2) that the use of cost shares to weigh factor input contribution is questionable. Using various vertically integrated productivity measures we find that capital's productivity contribution is underestimated in the neoclassical formulation. We also find that in a Pasinetti-Rymes growth model, factor shares do not approximate output elasticities. We conclude that the argument made by Pasinetti, Rymes, and others is supported, that in long-run productivity analysis capital should not be treated as a primary input, but should be measured as an intermediate, produced input.     

Perversity without complementarity ∗

It has been shown by Tatsuo Hatta that, in a Wicksellian or dated labour model of production, Hicksian input complementarity is a necessary condition for ‘capital perversity’. It is shown here that Hicksian input complementarity at the more fundamental level of real industries is nota necessary condition for ‘perversity’.     

Research and development and labour productivity: do high-tech firms exhibit labour- or capital-saving technical change?

Employment and output in the advanced technology sectors have generally exhibited above-average growth for more than two decades. While this industry accounts for a relatively small share of total employment, the majority of private sector research and development (R&D) expenditures in the US is concentrated within seven sub-sectors. However, little attention has been paid as to whether high-tech productivity exhibits Hicksian capital or labour ‘savings’ bias or tendency to displace either factor input over time. Biased technical change can occur as economies transition between growth regimes. An augmented production function is employed to analyse the additional impact of R&D activity on firm-level labour productivity. A panel data set comprised of high-tech firms located across the advanced economies, China and India from 1990 to 2013 is used in the analysis. Labour-saving technical change was present across the advanced technology sectors and most countries. The expanded models of labour productivity that used fixed effects with lagged regressors confirmed the prior results as well as finding that R&D per employee, relative R&D intensity and firm market share contribute to firm-level labour productivity growth across countries and sectors. Additional support was found for diminishing returns to scale but not for R&D spillover effects.     

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。     

Monetary policy shocks and productivity measures in the G-7 countries

An implication of two-country international real business cycle models is that total factor productivity should be an exogenous stochastic process. Economic theories which feature labor hoarding, variable capacity utilization, and increasing returns predict that measured productivity shifts are not exogenous; instead, expansionary aggregate demand shocks should lead to an increase in measured productivity. For each of the G-7 countries, this paper measures quarterly aggregate total factor productivity for the domestic country and its rest-of-world (G-6) counterpart. In each case the domestic productivity measures are not strictly exogenous: expansionary U.S. monetary policy shocks, as well as other G-6 monetary policy shocks, lead to productivity expansions. The evidence indicates that international business cycle models are misspecified unless they feature endogenous productivity mechanisms.Received: June 2001, Accepted: December 2001, JEL Classification: E5, F4Correspondence to: Charles L. EvansFor their helpful comments, we thank Mario Crucini, Patricia Reynolds, and Steve Strongin. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago or the Federal Reserve System.     

Cost structure,technological change,and productivity growth in the greek banking sector

This paper first empirically investigates the cost structure of the Greek banking sector. Secondly, it provides measures of economies (diseconomies) of scale and quantifies technical change and its sources. Finally, this paper measures total factor productivity growth and identifies its sources. Bank production is presented with two different approaches (the intermediation and the production approach) which are used to specify a translog cost function. The two different translog cost models are estimated through the full information maximum likelihood method of estimation on pooled time series and cross sectional data. The results obtained are not significantly affected by model specification. Both models indicate significant economies of scale and negative annual rates of growth in technical change and in total factor productivity.     

CONSUMER'S SURPLUS: SIMPLE SOLUTIONS TO AN OLD PROBLEM

The paper presents a concise account of recent results on the axiomatization of various welfare measures. Following the introduction and discussion of some elementary properties that a welfare measure should satisfy, valid measures are derived. In particular, the Hicksian equivalent and compensating variation and a measure based on the money metric are characterized.     

ON THE RELATION BETWEEN HICKSIAN SURPLUS AND TRUE COST-OF-LIVING INDICES

This note demonstrates how recent results in the literature on true cost-of-living indices are of direct relevance to attempts to measure Hicks'compensating and equivalent variations because of the close inter-relationship between the Hicksian surplus measures and true (or constant-utility) price indices.     

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.     

Exact welfare measures and economic index numbers

Summary Welfare measures and economic index numbers are usually defined by formulae or by verbal definitions. This paper develops characterizations of some important measures and corresponding index numbers by an axiomatic approach. These results facilitate the choice between different welfare indicators, and they show the strength of assumptions like MM and RM. Indeed these properties rule out CI and yield the Hicksian measures EV and CV, and their dual counterparts, respectively. At the same time one can conclude that these measures have to be used very carefully, if one considers the limitations implied by these properties.The author would like to thank Dieter Elixmann, Sigrid Müller, and an anonymous referee for valuable suggestions and criticism.     

A NOTE ON MEASURING SECTORAL INPUT PRODUCTIVITY*

This note attempts to shed some light on the relationship between the total factor productivity derived from national income accounts and the total input productivity based upon input-output accounts, especially on a sectoral basis. Since there has been no positive evidence to support a constancy between changes in net and gross output in individual industries, the formulation of a measure of sectoral input productivity change by using the formula of the Divisia index based on input-output accounts may be valuable in examining possible biases which are associated with a common notion of the total factor productivity. An operational definition of sectoral input productivity change and its relation to sectoral total factor productivity are discussed in the present note, in addition to its empirical application to the Japanese data.     

A Comparative Study of Alternative Approaches to Estimate Productivity

Theoretically, for single output-single input, annual productivity are expected to be identical across index, non-parametric programming and parametric statistical approaches. The following models within each approach is considered—index (Tornqvist-Theil and Ideal Fisher), the non-parametric programming (Malmquist input, output and graph; Malmquist total factor productivity) and parametric (Input and Output; total factor productivity) regression. Empirically, for single output-single input, this research show differences in annual productivity and productivity growth rate between and within each of the three approaches using Nebraska agriculture data from 1936 to 2004. The annual productivity growth rate from 1936 to 2004 was identical across non-parametric Malmquist output, input, graph and Malmquist total factor productivity, and parametric Malmquist total factor productivity. However annual productivity estimated by parametric Malmquist total factor productivity is identical to Ideal Fisher productivity.

     

“双碳”目标下碳交易与制造业绿色全要素生产率——基于异质性技术创新模式的机制检验

碳交易是推动制造业绿色发展,实现“双碳”目标的重要市场化工具,交易价格和市场规模能够反映碳交易实施状况,是影响制造业绿色全要素生产率的重要因素。从碳交易价格和市场规模切入,基于2008—2020年中国内地30个省份面板数据,构建连续型双重差分模型评估碳交易对制造业绿色全要素生产率的作用效果,并考察异质性技术创新模式的传导路径。结果表明,提高碳交易价格和扩大市场规模均能显著提升制造业绿色全要素生产率。机制检验表明,碳交易价格和市场规模能够推动自主创新、减少技术改造投入,进而影响制造业绿色全要素生产率,而技术引进并非有效路径。进一步研究发现,自主创新对技术改造存在挤出效应。研究结论对完善碳交易制度顶层设计、精准制定技术创新配套政策具有重要启示意义。     

THE SOURCES OF AGGREGATE PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH: US MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES, 1958–1996

The sources of aggregate productivity growth are explored using detailed data for four‐digit US manufacturing industries during 1958–96 and a decomposition formula that allows us to quantify the contribution of structural change. Labour productivity as well as total factor productivity are considered with either value‐added or employment shares serving as aggregation weights. It is shown that structural change generally works in favour of industries with increasing productivity. This effect is particularly strong in the years since 1990, in high‐tech industries and in durable goods producing industries. The impact of the computer revolution can be clearly identified.     

Multi-Output Capacity Measures and Their Relevance for Productivity

In this paper, measures of capacity are developed following those suggested in 1968 by Leif Johansen. By taking advantage of Shephard's duality, both primal and dual multi-output measures of capacity can be derived. Having generalized the capacity utilization measures, the authors show how these may be entered into measures of productivity. In particular, it is shown how the Malmquist direct and indirect productivity measures are related to various measures of capacity utilization.     

Measuring capital services by energy use: an empirical comparative study

From an engineering perspective, the service that a capital good provides is energy conversion – that is, the physical ‘work’ done by a machine. A capital good’s service can thus be measured directly by the energy consumed in production. We show important empirical advantages of this approximation over traditional measures. The empirical application reveals that this approach avoids a number of conceptual problems of the latter. Furthermore, this measure captures the utilization of the capital stock more accurately as it is more sensitive to fluctuations in economic activity. With a growth accounting exercise, it is shown that the differences between the new and the traditional measures are important for empirical work. Using the new measure yields significantly different results. Especially in times of global recession it provides higher and more feasible total factor productivity growth rates.     

Market power in a billateral monopoly model of industry wage determination

A variant of the Hicksian bilateral monopoly model is constucted. We show that market power can, in principle, affect the rate of change of money wages quite independently of unemployment, hence deserves a place in the derived wage equation, contrary to the postulate of the excess demand model. Our modified Hicksian model is submitted to a test and found to be consistent with the empirical evidence. Finally, some implications for the Phillips curve analysis are discussed.     

Public capital,productivity and trade balances: some evidence for the Italian regions

This paper analyses the extent to which intensive investments in public capital may have had an unfavourable impact on the regional trade balances across the 20 Italian regions. Our working hypothesis is that investments in public capital, while stimulating the demand for tradables across the regions, may have a limited positive impact on the supply of tradables in regions characterised by relatively low productivity like the South of Italy (or Mezzogiorno). The empirical results are consistent with our expectations and suggest that programs of investments in public capital should be accompanied by additional policy measures that can remove the structural factors that hamper the total factor productivity growth in specific areas.     

Economic liberalization and sources of productivity growth in Indonesian Banks: is it efficiency improvement or technological progress?

This article investigates the sources of productivity growth in the Indonesian banking sector during 23 years period from 1993 to 2015. The industry has gone through several episodes of policy reforms, starting from the radical deregulation in the late 1980s, the restructuring period following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the consolidation period in the mid-2000s to the economic expansion in the 2010s. Using panel data of 98 commercial banks, we explore productivity growth using Malmquist indices complemented with bootstrapping technique to provide measures of the statistical precision of the results. The Malmquist index measures total factor productivity, efficiency change and technological change. Results show that productivity improves moderately and appears to be less volatile towards the end of the period. Furthermore, efficiency change tends to be the main source of productivity improvement rather than technological change.