Heterogeneous Firms and Asymmetric Product Differentiation

We introduce asymmetric product differentiation in a model characterized by a linear demand system, endogenous markups and heterogeneous firms (as in Melitz‐Ottaviano [2008]). In particular, a single industry is divided into a number of market segments, each characterized by a different degree of horizontal product differentiation. Such a setup allows us to explain, within a single theoretical framework, the non‐linear relations between firm productivity, size and exporting behavior that have been documented by the empirical literature. The theoretical results are tested empirically by examining the performance of French wine producers operating in market segments characterized by different levels of horizontal product differentiation. Such segments are identified using the official classification of French wines based upon the controlled denomination of origin, i.e., the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) system.     

Exchange rate fluctuations,plant turnover and productivity

In a small open economy, fluctuations in the real exchange rate can affect plant turnover, and thus aggregate productivity, by altering the makeup of plants that populate the market. This paper develops a structural model that captures the effect of plant-level productivity and real exchange rate fluctuations on plant entry and exit decisions, and how this, in turn, affects average industry productivity. Using plant-level data for a single industry, the model's dynamic parameters are estimated in two-stages using the Nested-Pseudo Likelihood algorithm and the Method of Simulated Moments. Simulations of the model are used to investigate the effects of shocks to the exchange rate process on productivity. The results suggest that, given the mechanisms highlighted in the model, transitory and permanent depreciations have similar long-term effects on average industry productivity.     

Process reengineering: A review of enablers

In an attempt to improve productivity, performance and overall competitiveness in both domestic and global markets, organisations have realised that there is a need to reform their business practices and become more customer focused. Consequently, these organisations have recognised the need for organisational change, but do not necessarily know how and what to change, to achieve improvements in productivity and performance. Process reengineering has been described as the elixir for achieving dramatic improvements in production time and cost. Process reengineering is not about fixing current processes, but rebuilding them, with the aim of process improvement. This paper will explain what is meant by process reengineering and suggests that before an organisation attempts to process reengineer, a thorough understanding of current practices, procedures and enablers of change are required. Typically, information technology is implemented as the key change enabler of process reengineering implemented as the key enabler without prior consideration to other enablers such as organisational, human resource and total quality management. This paper suggests that the use of information technology as an enabler is rarely sufficient to cause process change. The paper concludes by suggesting that a combination of information technology, organisational and human resource enablers and a total quality management based philosophy are requisite for the effective redesign of business processes.     

中国服务业劳动生产率的地区差异研究

在中国服务业发展增速较快的同时,伴随着地区发展不平衡现象的日趋严重。1993年-2010年,全国服务业劳动生产率的省际差距经历了一个逐渐扩大,在高位又略有下降的过程。Theil指数对服务业发展差异来源的分析显示：东、中、西三大地带间的差异对全国服务业发展差异影响很小,中国服务业发展差异主要来源于省际差异。落后地区要提高服务业劳动生产率应在以下方面努力：进一步推动城镇化进程、推进市场化进程、加强人才培训和对高素质人才的吸引、加大地区的对外开放水平。     

Modeling beef supply response and price volatility under CAP reforms: The case of Greece

This study examines the supply response of the Greek beef market and the possible effect of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on the Greek beef sector during the period 1993–2005. A Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) process is used to estimate expected price, and price volatility, while several different symmetric, asymmetric and non-linear GARCH models are estimated. The empirical results show that price volatility and feed price are important risk factors in the supply response function, while the negative asymmetric price volatility that was detected implies that producers have a weak market position. Furthermore, the empirical findings confirm that the annual premium paid by the EU to beef producers had a positive impact on the production level and also, the change of the EU price support regime, after 2006, is having negative effects on beef production level in Greece.     

R&D project selection: Productivity considerations

The paper consists of a theoretical discussion of the circumstances justifying the use of R&D to increase the productivity of a firm's manufacturing capability. There are three possibilities: Increase the productivity of existing capacity; re-equip with purchased existing best-practice technology; or use R&D to develop new technology.
The choice depends on which of the four following situations exist: 1) When the productivity of existing capacity is well below its potential and is also well below that of the industry's best-practice; in this case the right strategy is first to bring actual productivity up to potential, and then to consider the purchase of best-practice. 2) When productivity is well up to potential but is well below best practice; the advice is then to purchase best-practice. 3) When existing capacity is already best-practice but productivity is well below capacity; in this case productivity of existing plant should be increased. 4) When existing capacity is bestpractice and productivity is near the maximum; then and only then is R&D to develop new technology justified.
The paper concludes with a brief account of the process to be undergone between the establishment of a case for R&D using the above criteria and, if R&D is undertaken and completed, the retrospective review of its outcome.     

Radial and non-radial decompositions of Luenberger productivity indicator with an illustrative application

Viewing slacks as one possible source of inefficiency, and that inputs have differential importance in the production process, this paper develops, based on the directional Russell measure of inefficiency, the non-radial Luenberger indicator. This indicator is then shown as the sum of the individual input-specific Luenberger indicators. The Luenberger indicator and its various input-specific indicators are also then shown as the composite measure of efficiency change and technical change. This decomposition enables the researcher to empirically examine the contributions of each factor input towards the productivity change and its components—efficiency change and technical change. Our proposed decomposition scheme is then empirically illustrated to analyze the eco-productivity performance behavior of the 22 OECD countries during the period 1995-2004. Our results indicate that first, the productivity change estimates yielded from the non-radial Luenberger indicator are different from those yielded from its radial counterpart, when slacks are present; second, most of these countries are found experiencing productivity growth due to technical progress alone; and finally, as regards the order of input-specific contributions towards productivity growth, capital contributes the most, followed by savings in emissions and labor, respectively.     

Participative Bureaucracy and Productivity in the Machined Products Sector

In a participative bureaucracy, group-based employee participation mechanisms provide opportunities to reexamine old routines and to take advantage of informal shortcuts that employees have worked out on their own. Instead of proving to be dinosaurs, older and larger bureaucratically structured organizations are demonstrating a capability for adaptation and change and achieving new productivity advantages through such participative structures. For small firms, a participative bureaucracy is complementary to the productive use of information technology in the machining process.     

The Pin Factory Revisited: Product Diversification and Productivity Growth

Manufacturing plants have been producing an increasingly homogeneous product mix over recent years. Individual plants have been manufacturing fewer and less dissimilar products. The trend is ubiquitous across industries and is unlikely to be a random event. An index of product diversification is introduced into a fixed-effects model of productivity growth derived formally from a factor-minimal cost function. Specialization at the production site is found to have spurred productivity growth. Over the 1963–87 period, decreasing product heterogeneity has accounted for about 17 percent of productivity growth in U.S. manufacturing, second in importance only to technical change and equaling the contribution of scale economies.     

Trade Unions and Productivity: The German Evidence

This paper provides a brief review of the empirical evidence on union productivity effects in Germany. The influence of trade unions on productivity is the net effect of conflicting forces which can lead to higher or lower productivity. Although the German dual system of workers' representation via unions and works councils is quite favourable to the existence of productivity-enhancing 'voice' effects, various empirical studies have not been able to detect significant positive net effects of these institutions on productivity.     

The cross-price effect on willingness-to-pay estimates in open-ended contingent valuation

Previous literature has shown that potential buyers use a reference price or product to form their opinion about the value of a new product. Therefore, the pricing decision is an interactive process. We investigate the two generalizations of the cross-price effect (the neighborhood price effect and the asymmetric price effect) on consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for multiple similar products in an open-ended contingent valuation context. Results show that the cross-price effect on WTP is prominent, with the neighborhood price effect holding in contingent valuation. No conclusions are reached about the asymmetric price effect.     

Union Presence and Corporate Productivity Practices: Evidence from Singapore

This paper explores the influences that unionisation may have on managerial processes to improve productivity. Unionisation is cast as a contextual variable, along with sector, size and culture. A recently established Singapore data base of employees' perceptions of corporate productivity practices is used to detect such possible influences. Regression analysis, with productivity practice as a dependent variable, suggests that unionisation explains some of the variations in such practices.     

Managing learning in informal innovation networks: overcoming the Daphne-dilemma

In this article we discuss the nature and productivity of informal innovation networks, i.e. informal collaborative arrangements between organizations engaged in product or process innovation. Such networks can be used in any phase of the innovation process, but their informal nature makes them especially suited for its fuzzy front end. We explore their potential in technology exchange and learning on the basis of a combination of organization network theory and knowledge management theory. We discuss issues in network governance and network operational management and discuss the basic dilemma – which we named the Daphne-dilemma – facing attempts to improve the productivity of informal innovation networks: too little management effort may lead to under-exploitation of their potential and poor productivity, but too much management effort may destroy their informal nature and hence their creative and explorative potential.     

New perspectives on farm size and productivity

The farm size and productivity debate has been limited by the focus on land or labor productivity, generally showing respective productivity advantages to smaller or larger sized farms. Our purpose is to provide new perspectives on the debate by bringing together evidence from a set of novel case studies in both rich and poor countries. Common to them are the adoption of total factor productivity (TFP) as the comparative performance measure, and the reliance on panels of farm micro data. The present article presents a synthesis of findings from five case studies in (i) Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda; (ii) Bangladesh; (iii) Brazil; (iv) Australia; and (v) the United States. The preponderance of evidence from these studies suggests that there is no single economically optimal agrarian structure; rather, it appears to evolve with the stage of economic development. Certain farm sizes face relative productivity advantages, such as small farms in Africa. But with economic and market growth, that smallholder advantage will likely attenuate, moving toward constant and eventually increasing returns to size. Yet, importantly, small farms may be quite dynamic, and need not be a drag on agricultural growth until perhaps well into the development process.     

物流产业集聚对制造业劳动生产率的影响机理研究——基于空间杜宾模型

本文利用2006~2015年我国30个省份（西藏除外）的面板数据,基于空间杜宾模型分析物流产业集聚对我国制造业劳动生产率的作用及空间溢出效应。结果表明,物流产业集聚、物流劳动生产率、外商直接投资、交通基础设施、地方政府投资等影响因素的直接效应与间接效应的方向与显著性均存在差异性。从总效应来看,物流产业集聚与地方财政支出均显著为正,是制造业劳动生产率提升的重要源泉。外商直接投资显著为负,一定程度上抑制我国制造业劳动生产率的提高。     

Innovation,R&D productivity,and global market share in the pharmaceutical industry

In this paper, we estimate two empirical models using a pooled, cross-section sample of international pharmaceutical firms for the period 1987 to 1989. The first model tests the relationship between R&D productivity and a vector of firm-specific characteristics. The second model tests the determinants of global market share. The empirical analysis reveals three findings. First, we find evidence that there are diminishing returns in the pharmaceutical R&D process. Second, we find that firm size has a positive effect on average R&D productivity and a positive impact on the marginal R&D productivity for plausible R&D staff sizes. And third, we find evidence that R&D productivity and the number of sales employees have a positive effect on the firm's global market share.The views presented in this paper reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. International Trade Commission or any of its individual commissioners. We thank William Comanor, Daniel Gropper, Daniel Hamermesh, Susan Pozo, Paul Thistle, and Mark Wheeler for their comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. We assume all responsibility for any errors contained herein.     

Agricultural policies and general economic policy : The Polish experience

Agricultural planning in Poland is an integral part of the central planning process of the socialist state. For agriculture, central planning is combined with the influence of a controlled market which makes use of various market mechanisms. The authors review agricultural planning in relation to general economic policy and show that with a largely peasant agriculture its productivity is intimately connected with the productivity of the whole economy. In planning income, the rule used is that the income of the agricultural population should increase proportionally with that of the nonagricultural population. The implications of this in the present five-year plan are discussed.     

The effects of divestiture,privatization, and competition on productivity in U.S. and U.K. telecommunications

The telecommunications industries in the United States and the United Kingdom have undergone massive changes during the 1980s. This paper decomposes the total factor productivity growth of AT&T and British Telecom into their various components. It finds that while a great deal of the productivity increases apparently resulted from continuing scale economies, competition for AT&T and privatization of BT have been responsible for 17 percent and 25 percent of their respective gains in recent years. Among other variables, divestiture appears to have initially depressed AT&T's productivity growth, and competition for BT is too insignificant to yet have an impact.     

信息产业与中国经济增长的实证分析

信息产业对经济增长的贡献不断上升,对优化产业结构和平抑物价总水平的上涨都起到了重要的作用,已成为经济发展的主导产业部门。信息产业较高的全要素生产率增长率,使得中国技术进步的变化越来越依赖信息技术的创新和应用。在当前全球经济危机的背景下,信息技术产业依然是我国经济增长的重要源泉。     

Your new product development (NPD) is only as good as your process: an exploratory analysis of new NPD process design and implementation

Given industry competitiveness, how do firms' new product development (NPD) process designs differ when responding to an innovation mandate? How do NPD design elements differ across firms when implementing NPD processes? These design elements are strategic business unit (SBU) senior management involvement, business case content, customer interactions, and cross‐functional integration. What are the consequences of different combinations of NPD process design elements for innovation productivity? We explore these questions via a collective case study of newly implemented NPD process designs at three different SBUs of a major US‐based international conglomerate, 1 year after receiving the mandate to grow through innovation. Our analysis suggests that industry competitiveness and firm characteristics influence the NPD process design as SBUs employ distinct combinations of NPD design elements. The differential emphasis on design elements leads to variation in process design and divergence in innovation productivity.