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.     

Productivity Trends in Australian and New Zealand Manufacturing

The purpose of this article is to study relative trends in total factor productivity (TFP) between the Australian and New Zealand manufacturing sectors from 1986 to 1996. Since 1984 both economies have undergone major structural changes with varying degrees of speed and intensity. We use the Malmquist index to measure TFP growth and decompose it into an efficiency change and a technical change component. This decomposition provides extra insight on assessing relative productivity trends during a period of economic reform. The results indicate the Australian manufacturing sector exhibits better rates of individual factor productivity performance while multifactor productivity is estimated to be higher in New Zealand manufacturing. TFP growth in New Zealand is driven by technical rather than efficiency change. In fact, the New Zealand manufacturing average rate of efficiency change is estimated to be negative over the sample period.     

Testing the Olson Hypothesis within the Australian Context

This article seeks to empirically test whether the Olson hypothesis is applicable in the Australian context. Both cointegration and regression analyses which are utilised for this purpose provide strong support for this hypothesis; that is, the existence of a statistically significant negative relationship between import protection and the proportion of manufactured goods exported. More specifically, it is revealed that falling levels of import protection have underpinned an increase in the proportion of manufacturing goods exported and hence assisted in improving the manufacturing sector's export orientation in the period 1980:1–1996:2. A particularly important dimension of the empirical results is the strengthening of this relationship in the more recent years to 1996:2. This phenomenon probably indicates the favourable impact of the accumulated reduction in the protection levels since the early 1970s.     

The Impact of Technical Change and Profit on Investment in Australian Manufacturing

This paper combines W.E.G. Salter's analysis of capital-embodied technical change with Kalecki's analysis of financing investment from retained profits to provide a Post Keynesian model of investment with process innovation, which is applied to data from Australian manufacturing industries. The approach to process innovation taken in this study is to identify new capital stock introduced through physical investment, which results in the older vintage stock being decommissioned as technologically obsolete. In the estimated model, the profit factor is used as a measure of the ability to invest, and the rate of labour productivity growth factor reveals the inducement to invest as this rate acts as a proxy for technical change in the Kaleckian investment-ordering model. The two factors combine to explain the accumulation process, both level and variability, and its link to technical change. In conclusion, this paper demonstrates that investment, incorporating technical change, enables industries to become sustainable into the uncertain future with varying states of investment instability.

…technical progress cannot be regarded as automatic and independent of accumulation. (Salter, 1966, p. 72)     

The Role of Government Assistance in Structural Change in Manufacturing: Australian Evidence

By the 1970s the Australian manufacturing sector was, by OECD standards, small, fragmented and inward looking. Successive Australian Federal Governments have since responded by progressively reducing levels of assistance to manufacturing in an effort to promote structural change. In this article we investigate whether these lower levels of assistance have accelerated the pace of structural change by estimating an empirical model using a pooled cross-section time-series data set. Our results suggest that reduced levels of assistance to manufacturing have had a positive impact on the pace of structural change in the Australian manufacturing sector. In addition, we find that taxes on factor inputs can be expected to impede structural change, and it would appear that structural change proceeds at a faster pace in more specialised manufacturing sectors.     

制造业FDI行业内和行业间溢出对全要素生产率变动的影响*

在中国制造2025的大背景下,如何利用FDI来促进制造业全要素生产率、技术效率与技术水平的提升具有重要意义。采用2005—2014年中国制造业的26个行业的面板数据实证分析FDI行业间和行业内的技术溢出对全要素生产率变动的影响,结果发现行业内直接溢出能有效促进内资制造业全要素生产率和技术效率的提高;行业内间接溢出则会挤占内资企业的生存空间阻碍全要素生产率、技术效率和技术水平的增长;行业间后向关联程度能显著且明显地促进内资制造业全要素生产率和技术效率的提升;行业间前向关联程度能显著但微弱地抑制内资制造业全要素生产率和技术效率的提升。     

INFRASTRUCTURE AND PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY: AN ANALYSIS ON THE KOREAN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

This study estimates an aggregate production function of manufacturing industry using panel data of 11 Korean regions covering 1977–1992. While the previous studies regard infrastructure as a direct input for production, the present study proposes that infrastructure has an effect on actual output by enhancing technical efficiency thereby, reducing the gap between maximum potential output and actual output. To investigate the relationship between infrastructure and technical efficiency, a stochastic frontier approach is applied to Korean manufacturing industry. Confirming the presence of substantial technical inefficiency in production, this study shows that an increase in infrastructure reduces the technical inefficiency level. The study also finds that, contrary to expectation, the industrialized regions are less efficient than the less industrialized ones. (JEL O20, H54, C23)     

Do Australian Trade Policies Discriminate Against Less Developed Countries?*

The view that Australian protection discriminates against the less developed countries (LDCs) is examined in this paper. It distinguishes between direct discrimination through tariff preferences and indirect discrimination through inter-commodity differences in rates of protection. The second mechanism proves to be more important. While Australian protection did not discriminate against the LDCs in 1968–49, by 1977–78 it did. This reflects changes in the commodity composition of Australia's imports from the LDC_S.     

Revisiting "The Fallacy of Free Trade"

The paper examines results presented by Batra in an article entitled "The Fallacy of Free Trade" ( Review of International Economics 1(1) (1992): 19–31). Batra contends that technical change in Japanese manufacturing necessarily reduces US real wages in the confines of a two-good, two-country Ricardo-Viner model. A parsimonious empirical Ricardo-Viner model is constructed to analyze the same issue. It is found that the impact on US real wages is very small. Systematic sensitivity analysis shows that increases in the ral wage are as likely as decreases. It is concluded that Batra's assertions are empirically unlikely.     

POST-REFORM PRODUCTIVITY PERFORMANCE AND SOURCES OF GROWTH IN CHINESE INDUSTRY: 1980–85

This paper examines the productivity growth and its sources in 39 Chinese industries in the post-reform period 1980–85. We use both the gross-output and value-added models to isolate the contributions of labor, capital, materials and technical efficiency to growth in industrial output. Using new data from the National Industrial Census of China (1988) for large and medium-size enterprises, we find that Chinese industries, in particular, those in the manufacturing experienced sharp increases in total factor productivity growth in the 1984–85 period as compared to the 1980–84 period. Moreover, collective and private enterprises show higher output and total factor productivity gains than do state enterprises. Our regression results show that total factor productivity gains are closely tied to increases in retained profits and the proportion of total employees that are technical workers. However, labor bonuses have a negative effect on total factor productivity growth.     

Singapore's Manufacturing Sector's TFP Growth: A Decomposition Analysis

Singapore has been criticized recently for experiencing insignificant total factor productivity (TFP) growth. This paper examines whether this criticism is valid in the context of the manufacturing sector of Singapore. Using new data and the stochastic production frontier approach, TFP growth is decomposed into technological progress and changes in technical efficiency. While the results could not reject the hypothesis that Singapore's output growth is mostly input-driven, they show that, despite technological progress, technical inefficiency is the cause for the low and declining TFP growth in the manufacturing sector.J. Comp. Econom., December 2000, 28(4), pp. 828–839. The University of Queensland; Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.     

逆向外包与技能偏向性技术进步

经济新常态和新工业革命背景下,中国经济迫切需要通过技术创新,尤其是技能偏向性技术进步的创新来实现经济增长方式的转变和产业结构的升级。文章根据后金融危机时期中国企业加快海外并购等典型事实,基于李嘉图框架构建了包含逆向外包的一般均衡模型,从理论上论证了逆向外包作为一种后发国家集聚全球创新资源的新方式,能够弥补后发国家高技能劳动力的不足,诱导企业采用更加偏向技能劳动力的生产技术,进而对后发国家的技能偏向性技术进步产生促进作用。利用制造业16个细分行业2003－2011年样本数据的实证检验表明,本土制造业企业主导的逆向外包显著促进了制造业的技能偏向性技术进步,FD I和人力资本供给的增加加速了技能偏向性技术进步的形成和发展。文章的研究不仅丰富了现有的关于技能偏向性技术进步和逆向外包的全球化理论,对中国制造创新方式的转变和经济结构的调整也具有重要的启示。     

Public Sector Capital and the Production Efficiency of U.S. Regional Manufacturing Industries

This paper applies a stochastic frontier production model with time-varying technical efficiency to investigate the relationship between public capital and technical efficiency. It is based on the proposition that public capital has an effect on actual output by enhancing technical efficiency, thereby reducing the gap between maximum potential output and actual output. Empirical results using panel data from U.S. state manufacturing industries during 1969–86 show that technical efficiencies varied substantially, both between states and between years; variations in technical efficiency are significantly explained by variations in public-sector capital.
JEL Classification Numbers: O20, H54, C23.     

政府补贴对中国装备制造业企业创新绩效的影响机制

利用基于倾向得分匹配的倍差法,采用2006-2013年中国沪深股市A股上市公司的数据,系统讨论了政府补贴影响中国装备制造业企业创新绩效的微观机制和效应。进一步采用中介效应模型揭示了政府补贴抑制企业技术效率提升的主要途径。研究结果表明:政府补贴有效促进了装备制造业模仿创新下的技术进步,但显著抑制了资源的最优配置和技术效率改善;政府补贴引发的要素市场扭曲、企业寻租、市场集中和投资过度是导致创新活动技术效率损失的重要途径。因此,政府应通过补贴政策全面提升企业的自主创新能力、保证竞争性市场中资源的有效配置和营造良好的创新支持环境来提高中国装备制造业创新发展的质量和效益。     

Transport Cost and Tariff Protection of Australian Manufacturing*

This paper provides estimates of transport cost and tariff protection available to import-competing Australian manufacturing industries. It finds that transport costs provide an important component of total protection available to such industries; one which, for many, is more important than the Australian tariff. In view of the effects of protection on industrial structure and performance, it should be explicitly recognized that transport costs are an unavoidable element of the protective structure and are deserving of study in their own right.     

Productivity Growth and its Components in Chinese Agriculture after Reforms

This study uses nonparametric Malmquist procedures to investigate the temporal and spatial nature of productivity growth and its components in Chinese agriculture over the period 1980–1995. The results of this study indicate that total factor productivity grew at 2.4% annually with technical change augmenting the growth by 3.8% while efficiency change reduced productivity growth by 1.3%. For all provinces, 288 out of a total of 442 cases experienced productivity growth while the rest showed productivity regression during this post-reform period. Coexistence of improvement in technical change and retardation in efficiency change indicates the lack of success in diffusing the existing agricultural technology. Continuing innovation and efficiency improvement through capital investment, modern input use, and greater competitive market pressures are important for augmenting productivity growth in Chinese agriculture.     

Economic Growth and Convergence of EU Member States: An Empirical Investigation

The aim of this article is to construct a European production frontier using deterministic methods, and to break down growth and convergence during the period 1980–2001. The results show that EU growth is primarily driven by physical and human capital accumulation, the contribution of which is essential for the cohesion of European countries. We find capital accumulation and efficiency change to be important convergence factors within the EU, while technical change has worked against it. The approach used has also enabled us to analyze the differences in growth performance of Member States and highlight the role of human and public capital, supporting the European cohesion and development policies carried out in this period.     

Recent Changes in Personal Income Tax

The amendments to the Australian system of personal income tax effected in the 1975–76 budget and in the measures announced by the Treasurer on 20 May constitute the first major change in the system since 1950. The legislation of that year established a structure of tax rates and concessional deductions which remained substantially unaltered for 25 years. During that period, the shape and impact of the personal income tax was affected more by inflation than by legislative change, most of which was concerned either with closing loopholes or with monetary adjustments consequent on inflation.     

Labour and capital saving technical change in telecommunications

The Australian telecommunications sector is being improved and extended through substantial recent investment in intelligent technology such as digital switching, fibre optics, satellite and cellular transmission, and the Internet. These technologies are being progressively integrated with technology from the broadcasting, computer and electronics industries, providing a unified information infrastructure for information transmission and processing. Technological progress embodied in new equipment has the effect of increasing the efficiency of the factors of production. Such efficiency increases can be biased towards a particular factor. For instance, the impact of labour-augmenting technical change is a decline in the cost of labour per unit of production. When such biases are apparent the relativity between the costs of labour and capital per unit of production is changed. In the longer term, technical change can impact on the rate of employment growth and also on the rate of capital accumulation. In this study the Australian telecommunications cost structure is examined for the period 1919 to 1988. To measure labour saving and capital saving technical change a translog cost model is estimated. Multiproduct telecommunications cost studies typically employ the translog cost model (Evans and Heckman, 1984; Roöller, 1990a; 1990b; Shin and Ying, 1992; McKenzie and Small, 1997). The translog model places no a priori restrictions on substitution possibilities among the factors of production, and allows scale economies to vary with the level of output.     

ESTIMATION OF CES PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS WITH NEUTRAL TECHNICAL CHANGE FOR INDUSTRIAL SECTORS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY 1958–1968

This paper discusses the estimation of the CES Production Function with Hicks-neutral technical change, and gives the results of an empirical study based on time series data (quarterly values) for sixteen industrial sectors in the Federal Republic of Germany (including West-Berlin), 1958–1968. The validity of the basic assumptions of the production model used in this investigation—neutrality of technical change and perfect competition—is tested by estimation of alternative specifications of the equations of this model. For this purpose two different methods of estimation were used.