A tale of industrial stagnation from Africa

Many African economies have experienced rather dismal industrial development since the 1980s. The consensus is that African firms lack competitiveness in a world with increasing trade openness. What determines competitiveness? A well‐known explanation is that resource endowments in Africa favour land not labour, which results in high wages, especially in comparison with ‘labour abundant’ Asian economies. This paper examines the validity of this view on the basis of the case of Sudan. We demonstrate that the lack of competitiveness of manufacturing industries is not caused by high wages. Assuming a direct relationship between labour productivity and international competitiveness, we argue that acute capacity underutilisation, caused by supply‐side constraints, lowers manufacturing productivity, which in turn negatively influences competitiveness.     

Localised Technological Progress And Intra-Sectoral Structures Of Employment

In this paper we put forward a model that explains a firm's employment growth with the degree of technological efficiency and labour costs. To measure efficiency, we use a non-parametric linear programming method. DEA. The results of empirical analysis of 450 firms in 12 manufacturing sectors confirm that innovative firms experience stronger employment growth. Because the demand growth effect of technological leadership outweighs the factor saving effect, firms which m technological leaders are in most cases the creators of jobs. Technologically backward firms, on the other hand, have few options to compensate their demand loss probably caused by deteriorating competitiveness. Consequently, their employment growth is relatively weak. The employment growth additionally depends on the type of factor combination, i.e. the technological trajectory chosen by an individual firm. The trajectory's effects vary significantly across industries. The effect of labour costs is generally negative. However, technologically leading industries are. less sensitive to increases in labour costs than nature industries.     

Engines of growth. Innovation and productivity in industry groups

The diversity of technological activities that contribute to growth in labour productivity is examined in this article for manufacturing and services industries in eight major EU countries. We test the relevance of two “engines of growth”, i.e., the strategies of technological competitiveness (based on innovation in products and markets) and cost competitiveness (relying on innovation in processes and machinery) and their impact on economic performance. We propose models for the determinants of changes in labour productivity and we carry out empirical tests for both the whole economy and for the four Revised Pavitt classes that group manufacturing and services industries with distinct patterns of innovation. Tests are carried out by pooling industries, countries and three time periods, using innovation survey data from CIS 2, 3 and 4, linked to economic variables. The results confirm the specificity of the two “engines of growth”; economic performances in European industries appear as the result of different innovation models, with strong specificities of the four Revised Pavitt classes.     

Demand and innovation in productivity growth

The labour productivity impact of demand and innovation is investigated in this paper combining insights from the Kaldorian and Schumpeterian traditions. After a review of studies in such traditions, a general model is proposed for explaining productivity growth in European manufacturing and service industries in the late 1990s, followed by two distinct specifications for the industries oriented toward product innovation, and for those where process innovation dominates. The empirical analysis is based on the match of the SIEPI‐CIS2 database developed at the University of Urbino and Eurostat Input–Output Tables at the industry level, for 22 manufacturing sectors and 10 services sectors. Six European countries are considered: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. The results show that productivity growth in European industries can be explained by a combination of technology factors and demand dynamics, confirming the complementarity of technology and demand effects. On the demand side, household consumption emerges as the most pervasive component of demand, able to stimulate greater efficiency in all manufacturing and service industries. Investment also has a role, focused however on the capital goods producing industries. On the technology side, the mechanisms of productivity growth are fundamentally different in the industries oriented towards product innovation and in those dominated by process innovation. This evidence supports the view that innovation in firms and industries can be associated to two contrasting strategies, searching either for technological competitiveness, through knowledge generation, product innovation and expansion of new markets, or aiming at greater cost competitiveness, through job reductions, labour saving investment, flexibility and restructuring.     

Technological convergence, R&D, trade and productivity growth

This paper analyses productivity growth in a panel of 14 United Kingdom manufacturing industries since 1970. Innovation and technology transfer provide two potential sources of productivity growth for a country behind the technological frontier. We examine the roles played by research and development (R&D), international trade, and human capital in stimulating each source of productivity growth. Technology transfer is statistically significant and quantitatively important. While R&D raises rates of innovation, international trade enhances the speed of technology transfer. Human capital primarily affects output through private rates of return (captured in our index of labour quality) rather than measured TFP.     

Employment Effects of Product and Process Innovation in Europe

This paper develops a model of the employment impact of innovation considering, on the one hand, the interactions with demand and labour costs and, on the other, the variety of patterns of technological change. Different technological strategies are considered. First, a search for technological competitiveness is based on product innovation and productivity rooted in quality advantages; second a strategy of active price competitiveness has productivity growth rooted in process innovation-based restructuring; third a passive price competitiveness strategy is pursued by non-innovators relying on cost-cutting. The new European innovation database drawn from the Community Innovation Survey 1994-96, merged with structural and macroeconomic data 1994-99 drawn from the OECD are analysed at a sectoral level across eight European countries: Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, the UK, and Sweden. The innovation survey data provide information on several quantitative and qualitative aspects of firms' innovative activities. A comparison of the results from the first (1990-92) and second (1994-96) Community innovation survey data is also carried out. The results show that, in the last decade, technological change has had a major impact on employment in manufacturing industry, associated with the dominance of an active price competitiveness strategy.     

Costs,knowledge and market structure: understanding the puzzle of international competitiveness with Greek export data

This is an analysis of the sources of international competitiveness with Greek export data for the period 1987–2007. The framework used in the study incorporates factors that do not only represent cost competitiveness but also shed light on the determinants of economic complexity. Economic complexity is the amount of knowledge capabilities embodied in exports that indicates – as a source of comparative advantage – the ability for product differentiation and product variety. The empirical analysis shows that industries benefit substantially from their own R&D activity but, owing to weak economic complexity in the country, there are no cross-industry knowledge spillovers (both at national and international level) that can benefit export activity. Greek exports were found to be sensitive to relative unit labour costs (RULC) but the most important export component of this index is relative labour productivity and not labour cost. Not all institutional arrangements have the same impact on exports, for example high trade union density might harm competitiveness but this factor is uncorrelated with R&D investment. In the view of these findings, Greece’s route to international competitiveness should be primarily by improving its economic complexity, making sure that the country specialises in productive activities that enrich its knowledge capabilities as well as increase the potential of knowledge transfer.     

“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。     

INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF LABOR COSTS IN MANUFACTURING

This paper presents a comparative study of the levels of unit labor costs in the manufacturing sectors of several countries. We begin by surveying earlier estimates of relative productivity and unit labor cost levels and evaluating the various methodologies that have been used in previous studies. Empirical estimates of relative unit labor costs, based on output levels that are translated at purchasing power parity exchange rates, are then presented and compared to earlier estimates. The results show that the relative levels of unit labor costs in the United States and abroad have fluctuated significantly in recent years, due largely to movements in nominal exchange rates. In 1988, unit labor costs in the United States were below the average level of other industrialized countries, but were significantly above the level in a representative newly industrialized country, Korea. Insofar as unit labor costs serve as an indicator of international competitiveness, these results imply that the competitiveness of the U.S. manufacturing sector had improved significantly since 1985, at least with respect to other major industrialized countries.     

Cost relationships and challenges in the Spanish apparel industry

In the twenty-first century, the Spanish textile and apparel industries have faced substantial challenges, resulting in declining sales and employment. This study concentrates on the apparel industry, since its economic challenges and opportunities differ from those of the textile industry. The analysis employs a transcendental logarithmic cost function to investigate the presence of scale economies and the interrelationships among inputs of domestic capital, labour and intermediate goods as well as outsourced intermediate products for the Spanish apparel industry and discusses the implications for its future competitiveness and the demand for domestic inputs. The results are consistent with diseconomies of scale or, in the case of one model, possibly constant returns to scale, indicating that some contraction of the industry due to international competition will not raise unit costs. All of the inputs except for capital and intermediate goods were found to be substitutes. An important finding is that the cross elasticity values of both labour and domestic intermediate goods with respect to the price of outsourced goods have risen over time, indicating an increased sensitivity of the quantity demanded of these home-country inputs to the price of imported intermediate goods. It follows that domestic input markets will be more substantially affected by international prices for outsourced inputs as the industry tries to maintain its competitiveness in the global environment.     

Innovation and productivity in manufacturing and service firms in Catalonia: a regional approach

This article analyses the determinants of research and development (R&D) and the role of innovation on labour productivity in Catalan firms. Our empirical analysis found a considerable heterogeneity in firm performances between the manufacturing and service industries and between low- and high-tech industries. The frontiers that separate manufacturing and service industries are increasingly blurred. In Catalonia high-tech knowledge-intensive services (KIS) play a strategic role in promoting innovation in both manufacturing and service industries, and driving growth throughout the regional economy. Empirical results show new firms created during the period 2002–2004 that have a greater R&D intensity than incumbent firms (54.1% in high-tech manufacturing industries and 68.8% in high-tech KIS). Small and young firms in the high-tech KIS sector are very prone to carrying out R&D and they invest more in innovation projects. R&D expenditures, output innovation, investment in physical capital, market share and export have positive effects on labour productivity in both the manufacturing and service sectors. Firm size, on the other hand, has a positive effect on productivity in manufacturing industries but not in services.     

多边比较下的中国制造业国际竞争力研究:1980—2004

本文首次以1997年购买力平价为基础,利用多边比较方法从相对价格水平、劳动生产率、单位劳动成本和国际价格等方面对中国制造业1980—2004年的国际竞争力进行研究。经测算得出:1997年中国制造业各类PPP(购买力平价)接近于3·7元/国际美元。20世纪80年代中期以后,相对价格水平是参与比较的五国中最小的,且逐年下降;单位劳动成本一直在波动过程中下降。80年代,劳动生产率呈现了“没有追赶趋势的快速增长”。但在1992年后,表现出明显的追赶趋势。     

FDI、产业聚集是否有助于国际竞争力提升*——基于中国制造业PVAR模型的实证研究

本文运用联合国商品贸易数据库2004-2013年共十年数据,对我国27个制造业国际竞争力、外商直接投资程度、产业集聚度进行测算,并利用静态面板回归和动态向量自回归PVAR模型对三者之间的内在作用关系进行实证对比分析。结果发现：（1）中国整体制造业国际竞争力稳步提升,但具备较强国际竞争力的还主要集中在劳动密集型行业,而中高技术行业是中国参与全球竞争形成优势最有潜力的行业;（2）我国引入外商直接投资占比变化不大,但其总额提升速度迅猛;（3）我国制造业的平均产业集聚程度呈上升趋势,但其大小程度及变化趋势在不同行业之间有着明显差别;（4）静态面板回归结果表明,FDI渗入程度越高,产业集聚程度越大,越有利于制造业国际竞争力的提升,此外,FDI与产业集聚间存在交互效应继而正向影响国际竞争力的提升;（5）向量自回归（PVAR）模型也显示FDI、产业聚集、国际竞争力间存在长期稳定的相关关系。     

Technological Change in Australian Manufacturing

In the modern era, the extent and character of technical change features prominently in discussions of productivity growth and movements in the competitiveness of manufacturing. While technical change is pervasive in modern manufacturing, it occurs unevenly. In this study, technical change is estimated by fitting dual cost functions for each of 38 sectors of Australian manufacturing over the 32 year period, 1968–69 to 1999–2000. The estimates show that technical change is heavily labour-saving in all industries, but that the overall rate of change, as measured by a rate of cost diminution, and the degree of bias towards saving labour, rather than capital or material, varies substantially across industries.     

China’s manufacturing performance from a multilateral perspective: 1980–2004

This paper examines international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing industry during the period of 1980–2004 from a multilateral perspective in terms of purchasing power parities, relative price levels, labor productivity and unit labor costs. The various measures of PPPs in China’s manufacturing industry are found to be approximately 3.7 RMB per international dollar in the base year 1997. Since the mid-1980s, the relative price of China’s manufacturing products has been declined and is the lowest compared with the US, UK, Germany, Japan and South Korea. The unit labor cost is found to show a declining trend with some fluctuation. The labor productivity of China’s manufacturing industry is relatively low and is found to converge with other countries since 1992. __________ Translated from Economic Research Journal (经济研究), 2005, (12) (in Chinese)     

制造业竞争力对人民币升值的敏感性——基于长三角制造业面板数据的实证分析

利用2005—2010年我国长三角地区21个制造业的面板数据,基于面板数据模型,分析了人民币升值与长三角地区的制造业全行业、劳动密集型产业、技术密集型产业、资本密集型产业的国际竞争力的关系。研究结果显示:人民币升值会导致由人均制造业出口额代表的长三角地区制造业全行业的国际竞争力水平降低;分行业看,人民币升值对技术密集型产业和资本密集型产业的国际竞争力水平的影响较劳动密集型产业更大。     

Sources of aggregate labour productivity growth in Canada and the United States

Abstract.  In this paper we propose a decomposition technique to examine the sources of industrial contribution to aggregate labour productivity growth. We show that in terms of pure labour productivity growth, the manufacturing and service sectors contributed equally to the aggregate Canada‐U.S. labour productivity growth gap during the 1987–98 period. But, in terms of total industrial contributions, which also take into account the contributions from a change in relative size, the service sector was the largest contributor. We also find that high labour productivity growth industries did not attract resources from stagnant industries – a phenomenon consistent with Baumol's cost disease of stagnant industries. JEL Classification: O47, C43     

The influence of international trade on labour productivity in services: The case of Brazil in the 1990s

In the developing world, services account for a rising share of domestic employment and international trade. Thus, it is important to know whether trade liberalization contributes to labour productivity in services. We explore this question, examining the 1990–2000 Brazilian trade liberalization. We find that growth of imports and exports strengthened labour productivity in services, but the contribution was smaller in subsectors with more college graduates, and this negative offset was larger in subsectors that received large foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. Improved access to imported manufactured intermediate inputs raised downstream services' labour productivity and downstream manufacturing firms benefitting from tariff cuts enacted by trade partners generated spillovers that improved the labour productivity of upstream service subsectors. However, FDI inflows and investments in human and physical capital modified these downstream factors. We conclude that the Brazilian trade liberalization strengthened productivity in services, but unequally across subsectors.     

Wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry

We show that wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry is not fundamentally driven by labour productivity in contrast to the standard theoretical prediction. On the contrary, internal institutional arrangements – payroll taxation, the minimum wage or the price wedge between manufacturing and consumption prices – together with a higher exposure to international trade – connected to the increasing globalization of the Colombian economy – appear as the crucial drivers. These findings lead us to question the political strategy followed to attain cost competitiveness in a context of growing exposure to international trade. Implementation of a true wage bargaining system is suggested as a critical policy target to prevent the disruptive economic consequences of the current wage‐setting mechanism and help rebalance the trade deficit.     

Structure and performance of the service sector in transition economies1

This paper examines the performance of the service sector in the Eastern European transition economies during the 1997–2004 period. The performance of the service sector as a whole and of its sub‐sectors is very heterogeneous within the region. Service sub‐sectors that are information and communications technology producers or users and those using skilled labour more intensively exhibit the highest labour productivity growth. Our estimates show a positive and significant effect of liberalization on service labour productivity growth that is stronger for sub‐sectors that are more distant from the technological frontier. Service liberalization is also shown to have a positive effect on labour productivity levels and growth of downstream manufacturing industries.