Focus: Productivity in UK Manufacturing Industry

Manufacturing industry has been the major casualty of the recession, recording a total fall in output of about 20 per cent. It is unusual for productivity to rise when output is falling, yet in the last two years output per person employed in manufacturing has risen by 15 per cent. As a result, and in spite of earnings growth of over 25 per cent between 1980 and 1982, the increase in unit labour costs was held to under 15 per cent in the same two-year period. In this Focus we examine how and why these developments have taken place. Our general conclusion is that, with a recovery now under way, normal pro-cyclical productivity gains are reinforcing the abnormal achievements of the last two years and that, in consequence, industrial costs and profits are improving sharply.     

Factor Utilization and Adjusted Productivity Estimates for the UK*

This paper derives series for capital utilization, labour effort and total factor productivity (TFP) for the UK from a general equilibrium model with variable utilization and labour adjustment costs. Capital utilization tracks survey‐based measures closely, but persistent movements in total hours worked mean our labour effort series is not as highly correlated with its comparators. Our estimated TFP series is less cyclical than the traditional Solow residual, although a weighted average of capital utilization and labour effort – aggregate factor utilization – and the Solow residual are not closely related.     

Capital Services Growth in the UK: 1950 to 2006*

This paper describes a capital services dataset for the United Kingdom developed for use in empirical work, and some of its key features. The estimates are consistent with National Accounts output estimates, making them ideal for use in growth‐accounting or business‐cycle analysis. The divergence between the volume of capital services and the volume of the capital stock after 1980 is highlighted. This divergence is driven by a shift in investment towards short‐lived and more productive information and communication technology assets for which the flow of capital services is high. Standard capital stock measures understate growth in the productive input of capital, especially after 1990.     

Anti-Abortion Activities and the Market for Abortion Services: Protest as a Disincentive

Cross-section data for the US are used to estimate the effects of anti-abortion activity on the demand and supply of abortion services in 1992. Empirical results show that anti-abortion activity had a signi~cant negative impact on both the demand and supply of abortion services. Using estimates from a two-stage least-squares estimation of demand and supply, anti-abortion activities (measured as picketing with physical contact or blocking of patients) have decreased the market equilibrium abortion rate by an estimated 19 percent and raised the price of an abortion by approximately 4.3 percent. Taken together, the empirical results show that anti-abortion activities have been successful in making abortion services scarcer.     

Issues in the Industrial Organization of the Market for Physician Services

What is the nature of the industrial organization of the market for physician services? Is the market “competitive?” Are there pareto-relevant market failures, such that there is room for welfare-improving policies? Economists have devoted a great deal of attention to this market, but it remains relatively poorly understood. The key features of this market are that the product being sold is a professional service, and the pervasive presence of insurance for consumers. A professional service is inherently heterogeneous, nonretradable, and subject to an asymmetry of information between buyers and sellers. These characteristics are what bestow market power on sellers, further strengthened by the fact that consumers face only a small fraction of the price of any service due to insurance. This paper considers the implications of these characteristics for agency relationships between patients and physicians, and insurers (both private and public) and physicians. Agency relationships within physician firms are also considered. Both theoretical and empirical modeling of contracting between insurers and physicians and of the joint agency problems between patient and physician and insurer and physician are recommended as areas for future research. Because failures in this market are seen to derive largely from the structure of information, the potential gains from government intervention may be sharply circumscribed. Nonetheless, careful consideration of the competitive implications of contracting between physicians, insurers, and other health care providers is an important area for antitrust policy.     

Market Imperfection and Productivity Growth—Alternative Estimates for Taiwan

This study first explores why the shares of factor inputs have not been measured correctly and concludes that the earlier findings are biased due to the miscalculation of factor shares which have produced low estimated total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the East Asian countries. Second, three approaches are proposed to empirically illustrate the impact of capital and labor shares on the estimates of TFP growth. It is suggested that TFP growth in the East Asian economies will be understated if net indirect taxes and imperfect competition profit are ignored. Finally, by taking the net indirect taxes and imperfect competition profits into account, the result of this paper indicates that Taiwan's economy has enjoyed an average annual TFP growth rate of 3.6% over the period 1980–1999.     

Productivity and Trade Orientation in UK Manufacturing*

We show that improvements in aggregate productivity in UK manufacturing during the first years after the implementation of the Euro, by the UK's main trading partners in Europe, are determined by both market share reallocation and within‐company productivity growth. Furthermore, we outline a structural methodology for estimating parameters of a production function linking the unobservable productivity to endogenous company‐level trade orientation, investment and exit decisions. This allows us to back out consistent and unbiased estimates of productivity dynamics by trade orientation of companies within four‐digit UK manufacturing industries using FAME data over the period 1994–2001. Our estimates of productivity dynamics indicate that improvements in aggregate productivity were mainly driven by market share reallocations away from inefficient and towards efficient exporting companies alongside productivity improvements within non‐exporting companies.     

Productivity and Growth in UK Industries: An Intangible Investment Approach*

This article calculates some facts for the ‘knowledge economy’. Using new data, first we document UK intangible investment and find that (i) this is greater than tangible investment by £37bn in 2008; (ii) R&D is 11% of total intangible investment, software 15%, and training and organizational capital 22% each; (iii) the most intangible‐intensive industries are manufacturing and financial services. Next, we measure the contribution of intangible capital to growth for 2000–08. We find that intangible capital accounts for 23% of labour productivity growth and treating intangibles as investment lowers total factor productivity growth in the 2000s by 24% (R&D lowers it by 3%).     

Productivity Growth in the UK Regions, 1968–1991

This paper provides estimates of total factor productivity growth for the regions of the UK. It shows that the peripheral regions generally performed better than the national average in the 1980's. A model to explain TFP growth found that much of this increase can be attributed to a general upskilling of a more flexible workforce, falling plant sizes, and a 'catch-up' effect in the unionized sector.     

浅谈服务业与市场经济

随着服务业对经济增长拉动力的增强,服务经济日益成为经济持续发展的重要源泉,对于未来社会经济走向的影响越来越大。服务业是规模空间最大,覆盖面最广的产业。现代服务业是经济可持续发展的重要支持。     

Productivity Shocks and Labour Market Outcomes for Top Earners: Evidence from Italian Serie A

How are top earners affected by productivity shocks? We address this question using a unique longitudinal data set on the universe of professional football players in the Italian Serie A, representing 20% of top earners in Italy. We use traumatic injuries and adopt an IV strategy to provide causal estimates of the impact of productivity shocks on several labour market outcomes. We find that a 30-day injury substantially affects the probability of contract renegotiation and reduces net wages by around 12%. We show that this large penalty is due to employer's precautionary motives rather than to shock-induced reduction in current player's performance.     

Firm Productivity and the Foreign‐Market Entry Decision

We use Japanese firm‐level data to examine how a firm’s productivity affects its foreign‐market entry strategy. The firm faces a choice between exporting and foreign direct investment (FDI). In the case of FDI, the firm has two options: greenfield investment or acquisition of an existing plant (M&A). If it selects greenfield investment, it has two ownership choices: whole ownership or a joint venture with a local company. Controlling for industry‐ and country‐specific characteristics, we find that the more productive a firm is, the more likely it is to choose FDI rather than exporting and greenfield investment rather than M&A.     

数字技术赋能服务业生产率：理论机制与经验证据

本文基于理论模型阐释数字技术对服务业生产率的影响,分析高技能劳动力与市场化水平对二者关系的调节效应,并从数字产业的发展与数字技术的应用等维度构建指标体系,测算2011—2019年中国30个省份的数字技术水平,实证检验数字技术对服务业生产率的影响与异质性冲击。结果表明：（1）数字技术对服务业生产率有显著的赋能效应;（2）数字技术对服务业生产率的赋能效应在中西部地区更加凸显,在东部地区暂未显现;（3）数字技术对服务业生产率的影响更加偏向于批发和零售业,交通运输、仓储和邮政业,金融业,房地产业等数据要素投入较多的行业;（4）高技能劳动力更易适应数字技术带来的变化,能够强化数字技术对服务业生产率的赋能;（5）市场化水平的提高能够进一步释放数字技术红利,从而显著增强数字技术对服务业生产率的积极影响。     

Market size and seasonalities: The case of the UK investment trust industry

The particular characteristics of the UK mutual funds industry provide ideal ground for examining the pertinence of the ‘Small-size effect’ and the ‘tax-loss-selling’ hypothesis. The evidence indicates the presence of a modest-size premium for smaller investment trusts, but, rather surprisingly, size in general does not appear to be a determining factor of market performance. Moreover, in spite of some variation in the rates of return around the turn of the tax year, the evidence as a whole does not unambiguously support the tax-loss-selling hypothesis. However, there is ground to believe that the overall poor performance of the UK investment trust industry could be due to the tax regimen governing the industry's operations during the period 1965–80.     

生产性服务业生产率与经济增长关系分析

生产性服务业作为现代服务业的核心,集中体现了对经济的促进作用。生产性服务业通过提高经济增长效率、延展产业链和促进就业,推动了经济的增长,而经济的增长也为生产性服务业的发展提供了所需的基础设施和经济环境。     

A Cost Indirect Evaluation of Productivity Change in UK Universities

The study provides an empirical analysis of productivity change in publicly-funded UK universities, against a background of government policy specifically designed to enhance the productive efficiency of universities in the provision of teaching and research. The nonparametric analysis employs a cost indirect approach to measuring productivity change, taking explicit account of the quality of research output and decomposing productivity change into technical change and efficiency change. The latter is also decomposed into changes in pure technical efficiency, scale efficiency and output congestion. Changes in size efficiency are also computed. On average, productivity declined by 4% over 1989–92, mainly as a result of regressive technical change. Evidence of biased technological change was found, with the frontier shifting out in favour of the teaching outputs and in relative to the research output.     

中国服务企业生产率异质性与资源再配置效应

本文采用世界银行提供的中国服务企业调查数据,运用半参数的LP方法测算了中国服务企业的全要素生产率（TFP）,并进一步将TFP分解考察了中国服务业TFP的增长源泉和市场资源的再配置效应。结果表明：管理、设计和通信等中间投入对服务企业产出的贡献率是最高的;中国服务企业TFP总体上呈现出上升态势;不同类型企业和行业的TFP水平及增长率存在较大差异。TFP分解后发现,中国服务业TFP的增长主要是靠外部市场需求和企业自身进步同时拉动的;但劳动力资源产生了误置,且国有化程度越高的技术密集型服务行业的资源再配置效应越差。与制造业企业的比较显示,中国服务企业的规模、TFP水平和增长率普遍偏低;总体上服务企业间的再配置效应优于制造业企业,但再配置效应在各服务行业上表现出更强的异质性。     

企业异质性、贸易成本与服务业生产率

基于异质性企业的内生技术选择视角和世界投入产出表的大样本数据,考察了国际服务贸易成本对服务业生产率的影响。结果表明,更低的贸易成本与更高的生产率及更快的生产率增长相联系,且该效应主要体现在生产性服务部门,但服务贸易成本下降的效应系数远远低于商品部门;对中国样本的检验结果显示,不论是生产性服务业还是生活性服务业,其双边贸易成本下降并未带来服务业生产率及其增长的提升,而商品部门的表现与跨国经验结果一致,我们将该现象称为“中国对外服务贸易成本的生产率效应悖论”,对此提出了3种可能的解释。     

International Comparisons of Labour Productivity in Transport and Communications: The US,the UK and Germany

We construct benchmark estimates of labour productivity covering the transport and communications sectors for the US, UK and Germany for 1992 and 1993. The US lead is substantial in rail and trucking, even after adjusting for differences in stage length, but Britain leads in air transport and all three countries have similar productivity levels in local transport. In telecommunications and postal services the US enjoys a large lead over both the UK and Germany. We compare these estimates based on industry data with ones derived from the national accounts and find them similar in communications but not in transport. For 1973–96, and also 1989–96, productivity was growing slower in the US, hence some of the gap has been closed.