Openness,human capital and total factor productivity: evidence from China

This paper examines the drivers behind China's economic growth. In particular, it focuses on the channels of knowledge spillovers: human capital and openness to trade and foreign direct investment. The specific features of the study include using the most recent comprehensive panel data consisting of 29 provinces during the period 1994–2006 and performing unit root and cointegration tests in the panel data framework. The paper finds that human capital, trade and FDI are the significant determinants of total factor productivity, but their importance varies with technological levels of provinces. These findings have important policy implications.     

China's interregional capital mobility: A spatial econometric estimation

Free interregional mobility of capital refers to the efficiency of resource allocation. Using a general spatial autocorrelation model that extends the traditional Feldstein–Horioka (FH) test, we analyze Chinese provincial data for the periods before and after 1993, and show that the FH coefficients differ to those in the existing literature. During China's period of reform and opening up between 1979 and 1992, the FH coefficient is significantly negative or not statistically significant. However, for the period after 1994, the FH coefficient is significantly higher than that shown in prior studies. This study explains this phenomenon from the perspective of Chinese-style decentralization. The FH test is an indirect method of showing regional capital mobility. Therefore, we need some form of direct measurement. Thus, we use the rate of the proportional change in physical capital stock as a proxy variable to demonstrate capital mobility directly, and use it to analyze various factors affecting Chinese provincial capital mobility. When investigating these factors, and to establish a realistic foundation on which the spatial effects take place, we devise four spatial weight matrices from the perspectives of geographical features and economic characteristics. Lastly, in order to promote regional capital mobility in China, the Chinese central government needs to take urgent measures to change local governments' strong preferences for GDP under the pressure of political promotion.     

Green total factor productivity: A re-examination of quality of growth for provinces in China

In this paper we try to assess the quality of growth for provinces in China over the period of 1997–2015. To do so we calculate a set of Green total factor productivity (or GTFP) indexes by incorporating environmental performance variables at the provincial level. A nonparametric approach (Directional Distance Function a la Chung et al., 1997) is adopted in the estimation. Furthermore, we apply bootstrapping method to correct estimation bias and obtain statistical property of the estimated indexes. The GTFP indexes estimated here demonstrate very different trends from the GDP growth rateand standard TFP indexes ignoring environmental outcomes. For the period of interests, when annual GDP growth rate was very high, no steady growth was found in TFP and GTFP, by contrast. The rankings of provinces differ significantly across measures of GDP growth, TFP and GTFP. In addition, our estimates of GTFP trends are also significantly different from findings by other papers of GTFP estimation (Hu et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2010) without bootstrapping procedure.     

Interjurisdiction political competition and green total factor productivity in China: An inverted-U relationship

Considering environmental pollution, excessive interjurisdictional competition has an adverse effect on green total factor productivity (GTFP), whereas moderate competition does not. Using a panel dataset of 278 prefectures during the 2004–2013 period, we calculate GTFP via a stochastic frontier model and find an inverse U-shaped relationship between county-level government competition and prefectural GTFP. The relationship is robust to endogeneity and alternative specifications. Mechanisms of the relationship consist of traditional input–output ratio, pollution emissions, and environmental technical progress. The spatial spillover effect of political competition is insignificant, indicating that a political promotion tournament in a prefecture is characterized by internal competition within the prefecture.     

Technological factors and total factor productivity in China: Evidence based on a panel threshold model

This study investigates the effects of technological factors, including indigenous research and development (R&D) investments, technology spillovers coming from foreign direct investments, export, and import, on China's total factor productivity (TFP). Using provincial panel data of China, covering 30 provinces over the period 2000–2014, our results confirm that indigenous R&D investments play a leading role in promoting TFP. Linear analysis suggests that, except for export, the technology spillovers through openness are beneficial for TFP growth. However, a further discussion based on a panel threshold model suggests that the different behaviours of these technology spillovers are dependent on the technological absorptive capacity affecting factors, such as human capital and indigenous R&D investments. The human capital will strengthen the spillover effects of each technology spillover. However, R&D intensity initially tends to hamper their spillover effects. Once the R&D intensity exceeds a certain level, the negative spillover effect of export on TFP tends to be alleviated, and the positive spillover effect of foreign direct investment and import on TFP will increase.     

Inflation and total factor productivity in Germany: A response to Smyth

Conclusion The results in this paper support a somewhat modest conclusion: that for the rather tight range of inflation experienced by Germany over the sample period (-1.8 to 7.8 percent), inflation’s impact on TFP growth was so minor that it did not show up as statistically significant in the analysis. This conclusion is consistent with previous cross-sectional based research.⁹ The findings illustrate that Smyth’s analysis of the contemporaneous correlation between TFP growth and inflation quite likely overstates the potential benefit to Germany of zero inflation. One area for future inquiry, however, is whether the absence of inflationary effects on TFP growth also holds true for nations which have experienced higher levels, and greater fluctuations, of inflation than has Germany since 1950. It is possible that the German results are not the norm due to the nation’s relatively low average rate of inflation.     

Inflation and total factor productivity in Germany

Conclusions This paper has found a significant and substantial negative relationship between inflation and economic growth in Germany. Thus, inflation substantially reduced the rate of productivity growth and output growth in Germany. German policymakers, especially the Bundesbank, have emphasized the importance of low inflation rates, and inflation in Germany has been less than in most OECD countries. As a result, Germany has benefitted from relatively high rates of economic growth. But had the Bundesbank succeeded in achieving zero inflation, the underlying rate of productivity growth would have been almost a third higher and output growth about a sixth higher.     

Business reforms and total factor productivity in Vietnamese manufacturing

Vietnam implemented reforms in the 2000s to ease start-up of new businesses with dramatic effect on firm entry and market competition. This study examines firm level data for the period 2000–2010 to analyze total factor productivity (TFP) in connection with the reforms, adopting a semi-parametric technique developed by Wooldridge (2009) and Petrin and Levinsohn (2012) to measure TFP. Intensified competition is hypothesized to have driven convergence of TFP within industrial sectors as technologies best suited to Vietnamese market conditions became more widely implemented. The evidence strongly supports this hypothesis with convergence found for 16 of the 17 sectors analyzed. Further, comparison of TFP growth rates between the first and second half of the decade shows mixed results by sector and region. More often than not, TFP growth is seen to have slowed over time. This suggests that competition acted not only to push low TFP firms to exit the market or raise productivity, it also discouraged use of technologies that may have been overly advanced and not cost efficient for Vietnam.     

Transactional activities and total factor productivity growth in Taiwan

Total factor productivity (TFP) growth shows how rapidly an economy is enhancing technology and the efficiency with which it allocates resources. It has been argued that “miraculous” growth in East Asian economies may not be sustainable, due to relatively low rates of TFP growth. Among these economies, it appears that Taiwan has indeed exhibited substantial technological progress. Failure to control for transactional activities, however, can distort the impression of TFP growth. This study recalculates Taiwan's TFP growth for the 1957–1993 sample period, adjusting for transaction costs in the government and private sectors. For the early years of the sample, 1957–1973, the economy's technological progress is better than GDP-based calculations suggest. In recent years, 1983–1993, productivity improvement has been overstated, but the economy has still exhibited relatively fast TFP growth.     

Racial differences in unemployment: A spatial perspective

Conclusions It has been demonstrated that racial differences in unemployment in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas are widespread. The differences tend to vary, however, by region with the greatest difference occurring in the metropolitan areas of the North-Central region and the least difference occurring in the metropolitan areas in the West.     

Income distribution and total factor productivity: a cross-country panel cointegration analysis

International Economics and Economic Policy - This study investigates the relationship between income inequality and total factor productivity (TFP) across countries for a period covering the years...     

Openness and total factor productivity in Swedish manufacturing, 1980–1995

Openness and Total Factor Productivity in Swedish Manufacturing, 1980–1995. — This paper studies the effect of openness on total factor productivity (TFP) growth. Using industry-level data for Swedish manufacturing from 1980 to 1995, the paper shows that integrated industries tend to be more engaged in R&D and have more entry and exit activity than other industries. The results show that domestic R&D intensity does not contribute to the TFP growth rate. Instead, openness to international markets, which helps facilitate technology spillovers, is an important factor. There is also some evidence that producers exiting the market are less productive, implying that such exits will increase the average productivity of the industry.     

Agricultural productivity evolution in China: A generalized decomposition of the Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen productivity indicator

China has undergone a series of agricultural policy reforms since 1978. The measurement of the productivity gains and identification of the underlying drivers thereof are important facets of policy analysis. The commonly used Total Factor Productivity (TFP) measures often lack such desirable properties as completeness or independence of the direction of the optimization (orientation). In this paper, we take a top down approach by beginning with a TFP measure and then decomposing it into three mutually exclusive, exhaustive elements. In particular, we begin with the additively complete Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen (LHM) TFP indicator that takes into account both input and output changes when measuring productivity and then additively decompose it into measures of technological progress, technical efficiency change, and scale efficiency change. We develop a generalized decomposition of the LHM TFP indicator which encompasses both input-oriented and output-oriented changes over time. We illustrate this additively complete LHM TFP indicator using agricultural data from 31 Chinese provinces over the period 1997–2015. Our empirical results show that Chinese agricultural productivity growth (3.05% per annum) was mainly driven by technological progress (2.35% p.a.), with relatively small contributions from scale efficiency change (0.65% p.a.) and technical efficiency change (0.04% p.a.). We also found that productivity change and the relative importance of its components varied across both time and provinces.     

The global trends of total factor productivity: evidence from the nonparametric Malmquist index approach

In this paper the Malmquist index of total factor productivityis applied to a sample of 87 countries observed over the period1960–90. This index and the method needed to quantifyit, data envelopment analysis, have substantial advantages ascompared to traditional growth accounting. Two of these advantagesare that they do not rely on questionable equilibrium assumptionsto merge multiple inputs into a single index and that the rateof total factor productivity growth can be explicitly decomposedinto a measure of efficiency change and the rate of technologicalprogress. Results are reported both in the form of growth ratesand measures of relative productivity levels. In each case relatedlabor productivity measures are calculated and the differencesfrom the total factor productivity measures are analyzed. Amongthe topics covered are the productivity slowdown, the AsianMiracle and the bimodality of the distribution of relative productivitylevels.     

中国上市公司资本结构的行业因素分析

根据国外研究的结果，公司的资本结构与其所处行业是否显著相关并无确定的结论。与国外研究不同，国内的相关研究大都发现行业对资本结构有重要影响；但也有学者发现行业并不显著影响公司资本结构。国内的相关研究多数限于初步研究，他们是在采用多元线性回归模型对资本结构的影响因素进行研究时，仅将行业作为因素之一加以考虑；且在行业分类方法和统计检验方法上也都存在不足。即使近来有学者对资本结构与行业因素的关系作过专门研究，由于所选样本的时间跨度和数目太小，也难以对其进行全面深入的研究。本文针对前人的不足以1999～2003年的708家公司为研究样本，首先从理论上说明了不同的行业面临的行业特征有差异，从而具有不同的资产负债率，然后以单因素方差分析法检验样本公司的资产负债率是否具有显著的行业间差异，再用Seheffe法进行行业间两两比较，以考察是否由于个别行业的异常值而导致了检验结果的显著性。     

服务业绿色全要素生产率的影响因素分析——以重庆市为例

文章选取10个指标,运用灰色关联方法对全要素生产率的影响因素进行分析,结果表明影响服务业绿色全要素增长率的因素很多,最主要的是经济发展水平、消费需求和规模和服务业的资本强度,而环境规制政策和创新研发对提升绿色全要素生产率的重要作用还未凸显。     

The knowledge spillover effects of FDI on the productivity and efficiency of research activities in China

As China is moving toward an innovation-driven economy, this paper offers new insights for both policymakers and investors to optimize the effectiveness of investment performance. This paper studies China's provincial research activities with a focus on the spillover-induced productivity and efficiency change. The results show that spillovers as a result of inflow of foreign investment contribute positively to the performance of overall research activities, however, the productivity effects vary across regions. Our analysis also indicates that highly skewed distribution of FDI leads to a less improved innovation efficiency in FDI-rich provinces. Future innovation policy should adjust the investment profiles based on the preferential innovation output on one hand, and optimize the complementary policy for FDI on the other hand to reduce inefficiency and the potential negative effects of knowledge spillovers. Inter-provincial governmental cooperation is necessary to resolve the uneven distribution of FDI and improve the innovation efficiency in both FDI-poor and rich regions.     

Accounting and determinants analysis of China's provincial total factor productivity considering carbon emissions

One of the most undesirable output of China's rapid economic growth has been increasing carbon emissions. This study measures and analyzes the impact of carbon emissions on China's regional total factor productivity from 2000 to 2017. Using global Malmquist-Luenberger productivity indexes, we re-estimate the provincial total factor productivity taking carbon emission into account, comparing different assumptions of returns to scale and considering the rank reverse issue. The differences of technical progress and efficiency change across Chinese regional economies are also investigated and we found that the former was the primary contributor to improved Chinese provincial productivity performance. In addition, we analyze the influencing factors of productivity based on provincial panel data. Our results indicate that innovation capacity, energy and employment structure had significant impact on the provincial productivities while urbanization had a negative impact. A more sustainable development can be expected by expanding regional investment in R&D, adjusting and optimizing structures of regional industries and energies.     

基于资本、人口等要素流动轨迹的我国城市化路径研究

在城市化的过程中,有关城市化是先走大城市化还是小城镇化的道路一直以来处于争论之中没有达成共识。本文从规模经济理论、人口迁移理论、成本收益理论等方面,从理论上论证了在没有外力参与的自然城市化进程中人口、资本等要素的流动轨迹:先向大城市聚集,然后向中小城镇扩散;同时分析了资本、人口在大城市小城镇和农村内部的流动情况。