Overaccumulation,Interest, and Prices

I use a financial accelerator model to study interest and prices under boom–busts driven by changes in expectations about total factor productivity (TFP) and credit. I show that inflation falls in the boom phase of the TFP episode and then recovers during the bust, yet rises in the boom phase of the credit episode and then falls during the bust. Furthermore, for both episodes, the overaccumulation of debt relative to capital during the boom is critical for the busts since it implies a fall in credit worthiness. Finally, I show that stricter inflation targeting reduces inefficiencies in all instances but the boom phase of the TFP episode.     

全要素生产率、产能利用率与企业金融资源配置——基于中国上市企业委托贷款公告数据的经验分析

基于手工收集整理的2007-2015年沪深证券市场A股上市企业公告的委托贷款数据,运用理论模型和实证检验相结合的方法考察全要素生产率、产能利用率与企业金融资源配置之间的关系。结果发现:在控制了与委托贷款发放相关的企业其他内外部特征影响后,全要素生产率、产能利用率越低的企业,发放委托贷款的概率越大、数量越多,这说明,全要素生产率、产能利用率低的企业,更可能(或更多地)从事类金融业务活动。进一步分析发现,交易双方的关联程度越强,贷款企业与政府的关系越紧密,全要素生产率、产能利用率与委托贷款发放概率和发放数量之间的负向关系越明显。     

The Effects of Occupational Injuries After Returns to Work: Work Absences and Losses of On-the-Job Productivity

We extend the research on postinjury employment by estimating productivity losses for workers with permanent partial disabilities (PPDs) in the first three years after injury. Our method distinguishes between productivity losses attributed to spells of work absence versus reduced earnings during spells of employment. The method is applied to data for 800 Ontario workers with PPDs. The results document large productivity losses persisting at least three years after injury, with different loss patterns for workers returning to stable versus unstable employment. Human capital investments or job accommodations can reduce productivity losses, but the significant determinants of losses differ for the stable versus unstable employment groups.     

What have we learned from a decade of empirical research on growth? Comment on "It's Not Factor Accumulation: Stylized Facts and Growth Models," by William Easterly and Ross Levine

William Easterly and Ross Levine document five stylized factsabout growth and argue that they imply a bigger role for totalfactor productivity (TFP) and technology than for physical andhuman capital. I agree with the first four of their facts andbelieve facts 1 and 3 provide strong support for their conclusionthat TFP should be the focus of growth research.     

Measurement matters: Productivity-adjusted weighted average relative price indices

Commonly used trade-weighted real exchange rate indices are computed as indices-of-indices, and thus do not adequately account for growth in trade with developing countries. Weighted Average Relative Price (WARP) indices solve this problem but do not control for productivity differences, as developing countries are observed to have lower price levels via the Penn Effect. I remedy these problems in two ways. First I propose a Penn Effect productivity adjustment to Weighted Average Relative Price indices (P-WARP). Secondly, I introduce a Weighted Average Relative Unit Labor Cost index (WARULC) for manufacturing and show that this measure does a much better job predicting trade imbalances and declines in manufacturing employment than the IMF's Relative ULC measure created as an index-of-indices. The new series reveal that for many countries currently mired in liquidity traps, relative prices reached historic highs heading into the financial crisis of 2008. I document that in 2002 – during the surprisingly sudden collapse in US manufacturing – US relative prices had not been that overvalued relative to trading partners since the worst year of the Great Depression.     

我国产业结构与就业结构协调发展路径选择

合理的产业结构和就业结构是我国经济持续健康发展的必要前提,首先,通过对我国三次产业结构偏离度的分析,揭示出我国就业结构调整滞后于产业结构调整的现状.其次,利用相关系数矩阵、就业贡献率等指标对我国经济增长与就业的关系做进一步分析,得出第三产业对促进就业具有巨大的作用.再次,深入分析了TFP和DEEP对我国就业的影响,发现现阶段的技术进步和资本深化对劳动力产生了替代作用.最后,提出了促进劳动力流动和扩大就业的政策建议.     

On‐the‐Job Learning and News‐Driven Business Cycles

This paper proposes a new channel of on‐the‐job learning to explain the positive comovement between consumption and employment following good news about future productivity. The new recruits can generate an additional stream of output production in all future periods, and the firm's labor demand is thus characterized by the forward‐looking property. Therefore, the firm is motivated to hire more new recruits in advance in response to good news about future productivity. Once the increase in labor demand is greater than the decrease in labor supply caused by the income effect, the coincident rise in consumption and employment can be driven by the news shock. When such a channel is paired with investment adjustment costs and the endogenous capacity utilization rate, this paper provides a plausible explanation for simultaneous booms in current consumption, investment, output, and employment to match the empirical evidence under the news shock.     

Corporate financial structure,misallocation and total factor productivity

This paper studies the quantitative relevance of the cross-sectional dispersion of corporate financial structure in explaining the intra-industry allocation efficiency of productive factors. I solve a heterogeneous firms model with financial constraints and distortions to the marginal rental-rate of capital, and develop a measure for the intra-industry misallocation of factors of production. The distribution of capital rental rate and two types of firm-level balance sheet characteristics (pledgeability and liquid asset positions) determine the extent of misallocation and industry level total factor productivity (TFP). I calibrate the model using firm-level balance sheet data from seven major industry clusters of the US economy. The counterfactual policy experiments show that weakening the observed balance sheet positions for financially constrained firms leads to a reallocation of production factors from firms with high cost distortions to firms with low cost distortions and cause quantitatively important industry level TFP losses.     

Productivity,restructuring, and the gains from takeovers

This paper investigates how takeovers create value. Using plant-level data, I show that acquirers increase targets' productivity through more efficient use of capital and labor. Acquirers reduce capital expenditures, wages, and employment in target plants, though output is unchanged. Acquirers improve targets' investment efficiency through reallocating capital to industries with better investment opportunities. Moreover, changes in productivity help explain the merging firms' announcement returns. The combined announcement returns are driven by improvements in target's productivity. Targets with greater productivity improvements receive higher premiums. These results provide some first empirical evidence on the relation between productivity and stock returns in takeovers.     

Financial frictions on capital allocation: A transmission mechanism of TFP fluctuations

This paper provides a theory of financial frictions as a transmission mechanism for news shocks to drive aggregate TFP fluctuations. We show that in an economy calibrated to U.S. data, variations in financial frictions on capital allocation in response to news about future technology can generate aggregate TFP fluctuations and, thus, trigger business cycles before the actual technological change is realized. Using the COMPUSTAT dataset, we find that the relative capital productivity of financially constrained to unconstrained firms is highly countercyclical. Moreover, our VAR analysis shows that news shocks can account for a substantial fraction of the relative capital productivity fluctuations over business cycle frequencies.     

服务业全要素生产率研究——基于丝绸之路经济带数据

基于考虑人力资本的非参数 Malmquist 指数法,测算中国丝绸之路经济带沿线九省市2003~2012年服务业全要素生产率(TFP )变动情况,从技术进步与技术效率两方面考量服务业 TFP 。结果发现,丝绸之路沿线九省市服务业 TFP 的增长主要源于技术进步的贡献,而技术效率却在恶化,同时人力资本对技术进步和技术效率均具有正向贡献。结果表明：交通基础设施、对外开放和财政金融支持都对服务业TFP 的增长具有显著正向促进作用。鉴此,应强化交通基础设施建设,实现道路互通;深化对外开放,推动贸易畅通;增强财政金融支持力度,推进货币流通。     

The micro elasticity of substitution and non‐neutral technology

This article provides evidence on the micro capital‐labor elasticity of substitution and the bias of technology. Using data on US manufacturing plants, I find several facts inconsistent with a Cobb‐Douglas production function, including large, persistent variation in capital shares. I then estimate the elasticity using variation in local wages, and several instruments for them, for identification. Estimates of the substitution elasticity using all plants range between 0.3 and 0.5, with similar estimates across industries. I use these elasticity estimates to measure labor augmenting productivity, and find that labor augmenting productivity is highly persistent, and correlated with exports, size, and growth.     

知识产权保护对我国全要素生产率的影响研究

通过构建包含执法力度的知识产权保护区际度量指标,将全要素生产率分解为技术进步与技术效率,运用2000～2010年我国的时间序列及省际面板数据,考察了知识产权保护对全要素生产率及其不同方面的影响效应。实证结果表明:知识产权保护对于全要素生产率尤其是技术效率部分,具有一定程度的促进作用;人力资本、贸易开放、FDI是推动我国全要素生产率提升的重要要素。     

The future of financial fraud

Is financial fraud becoming a bigger or smaller problem over time? Current empirical approaches to this question generate mixed inferences. As an alternative, I use two theoretical constructs that isolate several factors that motivate fraud, and use them to consider the impact of technological and wealth changes over time. Some changes, such as an increase in anonymity in some financial transactions, facilitate new fraud innovations and increase the possibility of fraud. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic shutdown has fostered major disruptions in relative demands and organizational capital that also increase the likelihood of fraud over the next few years. Viewed over a longer time scale, however, the majority of technological and wealth changes seem likely to increase the use and effectiveness of reputational capital, third-party enforcement, and ethical motivations as fraud deterrents. I predict that, on net, these changes will drive a long-term decrease in the incidence of fraud.     

家庭社会网络与就业质量——基于2009-2015年“全国高校毕业生就业状况调查”的分析

家庭社会网络如何从宏观机制上影响个体和社会的就业质量,在理论上缺乏细致的讨论。本文在内生贴现因子模型中引入家庭社会网络,从理论上首次探究家庭社会网络对高校毕业生就业质量的影响机制,家庭社会网络通过影响贴现因子和进入不同行业的概率分布作用于就业质量,导致热门专业需要的最优家庭社会网络积累量低于非热门专业,进而提出“家庭社会网络积累更广泛的个体会较为分散地选择专业,但会集中于高收入行业就业,导致就业质量受到影响”的假说。进一步,基于2009-2015年“全国高校毕业生就业状况调查”数据进行实证分析,证实:更广泛的家庭社会网络积累会显著提升毕业生的就业满意度,但会降低就业匹配度。总之,家庭社会网络会显著影响高校毕业生“专业分散,行业集中”就学与就业特征的形成,进而提升就业满意度,并降低就业匹配度。     

宏观经济因素与经常项目失衡的调整:跨国经验及其对中国的启示

本文利用1980年至2005年全球范围内106个国家或地区的相关经济数据,确定了经常项目失衡调整的事后标准,进而识别出经常项目失衡的不同调整期间。借助于调整期间的界定,本文针对宏观经济因素与经常项目失衡的调整问题进行了实证研究。基于跨国数据的实证研究结果表明了一些宏观经济变量对经常项目失衡的调整具有显著的影响作用,例如固定资本形成、贸易条件变化以及官方储备等。本文合理借鉴了经常项目失衡调整的跨国经验,并且结合中国经济实际情况针对中国经常项目的盈余调整给出了相关政策建议。     

Employment protection and leverage adjustment speed: Evidence from China

Stricter employment protection may affect capital structure adjustment speed in two ways. First, it may increase the cost of capital and decrease the leverage adjustment speed. Second, it increases financing needs and capital adjustment speed. Using China's 2008 Labor Contract Law as a natural experiment and the PSM-DID methodology, we find that the latter effect dominates the former. Specifically, stricter employment protection increases leverage adjustment speed, and this effect is more pronounced for non-state-owned firms and firms with larger leverage deviations. Furthermore, transmission channel tests show that employment protection increases firms’ substitution of labor with capital, driving up investment and financing needs. Finally, the increased leverage adjustment speed induced by enhanced employment protection is beneficial to firm performance.     

The Role of Total Factor Productivity Growth in Middle-Income Countries

We examine the importance of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in middle-income countries (MICs) based on cross-country panel data for the period of 1975–2014. We find that TFP growth contributed significantly to a country’s upward transition from middle-income to high-income country group. The TFP growth model reveals that the catch-up effect, human capital, smaller population, weak currency, and research and development growth are significant sources of TFP growth. We do not find a systematic difference in the TFP growth models for MICs. In analyzing the role of factors influencing TFP growth at different income stages, strengthening innovative activities and building innovative capacities are important in overcoming the challenges that MICs face when transitioning to the high-income group. Governments of upper MICs need to initiate reform to motivate innovation by optimizing national R&D systems, and redesigning the educational system to target promoting innovation.     

The productivity effects of privatization: The case of Polish cooperatives

This paper evaluates the productivity effects associated with privatization of producer cooperatives. The results, based on a sample of 2164 Polish cooperatives, indicate that privatized cooperatives have: (1) 1% lower total factor productivity (TFP) the year prior to privatization and 3-20% higher TFP in the year of privatization and three years post-privatization, (2) 9-36% higher labor productivity, (3) capital productivity effects of − 16-6%. The evidence is consistent with governance and incentive mechanisms of cooperatives being more effective outside of state interference, and with competition and hard budget constraints leading to pressure to restructure and adopt practices that improve productivity.