The impacts of country characteristics upon the value of information technology as measured by productive efficiency

Based on the theory of production, this paper investigates information technology (IT) contribution at a country level by linking it to the complementarity/substitutability phenomena created by the joint presence of IT and the five selected national characteristics. It negates the relationship between IT value and productivity based on a comprehensive panel data set from 25 countries over the period 1997-2006, when the individual analytical method is applied and productive efficiency is used as the performance criterion. The IT productivity paradox is re-examined under the one-equation stochastic frontier production model, while the influence of the five national characteristics is tested under the two-equation stochastic frontier production model. The findings include the following: (i) The IT productivity paradox occurs in not only middle-income (developing) countries but also high-income (developed) countries. (ii) Eastern European countries gain more productive efficiency than the G7 countries when IT is considered as a production factor. (iii) Different national characteristics have impacts on a country's output and productive efficiency. (iv) The chosen national characteristics present both complementarity and substitutability phenomena in association with IT investment, however, the joint presence of national savings and IT creates the substitutability phenomenon across different frontiers. (v) In linking cross-country differences in the IT investments to stages of economic development, our complimentary qualitative analysis tends to conclude that the investments in IT in the advanced developed countries (e.g., G7) and some of the newly developed or emerging economies are likely needed to keep the pace with other competitors and maintain their status of economic development; and the IT investments in the Eastern European countries are necessary to reach the competitive level as well as to raise their economic-development level. (vi) An important policy implication is that policy makers must carefully utilize national characteristics while formulating IT investment strategies.     

企业中的信息技术生产率悖论

信息技术 (IT)生产率悖论描述了从信息技术投资所获得的实际收益和期望收益的不匹配。本文综合国外最新研究进展 ,将关于企业层面的信息技术生产率悖论研究分为三个阶段 :2 0世纪 90年代中期之前为悖论的证实和解释阶段 ;2 0世纪 90年代中期悖论消失 ;2 0 0 0年以后新悖论出现。对新悖论的成因进行分析并探讨了新悖论存在的问题。最后 ,给出企业信息技术生产率悖论对我国企业信息技术投资的启示。     

Information technology and its changing roles to economic growth and productivity in Australia

In this paper we describe our investigation of the role of investment in information technology (IT) on economic output and productivity in Australia over a period of about four decades. The framework used in this paper is the aggregate production function, where IT capital is considered as a separate input of production along with non-IT capital and labour. The empirical results from the study indicate the evidence of robust technical progress in the Australian economy in the 1990s. IT capital had a significant impact on output, labour productivity and technical progress in the 1990s. In recent years, however, the contribution of IT capital on output and labour productivity has slowed down. Regaining the IT capital productivity therefore remains as a key challenge for Australia, especially in the context of greater IT investment in the future.     

Oligopolistic competition,IT use for product differentiation and the productivity paradox

Empirical studies suggest that the huge investment in information technologies (IT) of the past two decades has led to no significant increase in productivity; this phenomenon is known as the ‘productivity paradox’. It has been argued that the paradox might result from oligopolistic competition: because of strategic interaction, each individual firm might find it profitable to invest in cost-reducing IT, but total investment might then be excessive from the industry’s point of view. I confirm this view and strengthen it by allowing IT investment to be also devoted to product differentiation which makes the productivity paradox more likely. The emergence of Web-based electronic commerce provides an illustration of the forces identified in the model.     

Computer Use and Productivity Growth in US Federal Government Agencies, 1987–92

We examine the impact of information technology (IT) on productivity in the public sector econometrically, using data from the BLS Federal Productivity Measurement Program and from Computer Intelligence Infocorp, and by interviewing some government officials. We estimate a production function for government services that includes IT capital as an input, and find a strong positive relationship across federal agencies between productivity growth and computer-intensity growth during the period 1987–92, controlling for growth in compensation and other outlays per employee, and in the number of employees. Our estimates are consistent with the hypothesis that there are 'excess returns' to IT capital.     

亚洲一带一路国家科技研发效率及其影响因素研究——基于 DEA 和累积 TFP 指数

研究不同国家间的科技研发效率及其影响因素对于比较不同国家间的科技资源配资效率、制定科技研发效率提高的相关政策具有指导意义。本文利用亚洲 12 个一带一路国家科技研发的两投入、两产出指标测算这些国家的科技研发效率及其影响因素。结果表明：这些国家技术进步率的提高带动了科技研发效率的上升;发展中国家科技研发表现出明显的后发优势。经济规模与科技研发效率之间呈现“U”型关系,金融深化程度、人力资本水平、健康人力资本和产业结构与科技研发效率之间存在显著的正相关。最后本文提出对策建议。     

生产性服务业对经济增长贡献分析——以江苏为例

生产性服务业已经成为西方发达国家经济结构中增长最快的部门。生产性服务的发展不但改变了以往服务业的生产和经营方式,带动了传统服务业的升级改造,而且时国民经济的增长产生越来越大的影响,对经济增长的贡献也越来越大。文章从定性和定量两个角度分析江苏生产性服务业对GDP的影响,发现江苏生产性服务业有良好的发展趋势,其对GDP的拉动作用越来越明显,对产业结构的合理化发展有很大助推作用。因此,江苏生产性服务业在国民经济中的地位越来越重要,对江苏经济增长的贡献也是越来越大。     

北京市发展现代制造业的经济分析

北京市发展现代制造业，必须打破传统所有制观念的限制，即国有经济成分的多少代表一定的社会属性的观念，让行业的技术特点和生产组织形式决定行业的各种经济份额比例，使各种所有制资本在现代制造业的发展中各尽所能，发挥其最大作用；并且北京市的一般机械制造业生产技术传统，组织形式落后，只有用现代的光电技术进行改造，才能提升行业的层次，而信息行业和汽车制造业则需通过非国家资本提升行业的生产技术和集中度，至于医药行业则需通过国家资本开发新产品和提高行业集中度，这样才能提高这些行业的经济效益。     

ECONOMIC EVALUATIONS FOR INNOVISTIC NEW PRODUCTS

An economic evaluation criterion is synthesized for calculating the social benefit and cost of engineering projects in developing nations. The framework of this synthesized criterion is the concept of benefit-cost analysis. However, modifications are carried out so that national goals and important economic characteristics of developing countries are reflected in the decision-making criterion. These modifications are made possible by introducing concepts such as the social rate of discount, the social opportunity cost of capital, the reinvestment of some portion of benefits from the project, and the shadow prices for production factors and products.     

Radial and non-radial decompositions of Luenberger productivity indicator with an illustrative application

Viewing slacks as one possible source of inefficiency, and that inputs have differential importance in the production process, this paper develops, based on the directional Russell measure of inefficiency, the non-radial Luenberger indicator. This indicator is then shown as the sum of the individual input-specific Luenberger indicators. The Luenberger indicator and its various input-specific indicators are also then shown as the composite measure of efficiency change and technical change. This decomposition enables the researcher to empirically examine the contributions of each factor input towards the productivity change and its components—efficiency change and technical change. Our proposed decomposition scheme is then empirically illustrated to analyze the eco-productivity performance behavior of the 22 OECD countries during the period 1995-2004. Our results indicate that first, the productivity change estimates yielded from the non-radial Luenberger indicator are different from those yielded from its radial counterpart, when slacks are present; second, most of these countries are found experiencing productivity growth due to technical progress alone; and finally, as regards the order of input-specific contributions towards productivity growth, capital contributes the most, followed by savings in emissions and labor, respectively.     

Governance and agricultural productivity: A cross-national analysis

In this study we examine the relationship between governance and agricultural performance by employing the World Bank’s Aggregate Governance Indicators. Based on a cross-country panel sample, two methods are employed to test the hypothesis that better governance fosters agricultural productivity. The empirical results of both methods support the hypothesis. As for the first method, the estimation results of the widely-used inter-country aggregate agricultural production function show that a country with better governance can produce more agricultural outputs, given the same amounts of agricultural inputs, the same education level, and the same climate condition. As for the second method, the empirical results of a structural equation model reveal that, given the same amounts of agricultural capital stock and land, an agricultural worker in a country with better governance produces more. Better governance can indirectly improve agricultural productivity by driving agricultural capital accumulation. Our empirical work lends support to the claim of Hayami and Ruttan [Hayami, Y., Ruttan, V., 1985. Agricultural Development: An International Perspective. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore] that governance is a basic factor explaining the poor economic performance of many developing countries. In order to improve the agricultural performance of many developing countries, apart from physical and education investments, more emphasis should be placed on improving the governance infrastructure of these countries.     

有偏技术进步、要素替代与区域经济增长——研究综述

很多学者将区域经济差异产生的原因归结于地理区位、制度、工业产业布局、生产集中、人口 分布、贸易开放等外生经济变量,而忽视了资本、劳动力以及技术进步等内生变量对区域经济增长的解释。本文以内生新经济增长理论为出发点,从经典文献中寻找研究有偏技术进步与要素替代的经济学基础,从国内外文献中梳理要素替代对经济增长的“效率效应”和“分配效应”的微观机理的研究进展,尝试为区域经济尤其是透析区域经济、收入差距的成因提供一个新的视角。     

Intraregional foreign direct investment in the asian pacific region

This article attempts to identify the emerging pattern of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and/or international production in the Asian Pacific region. The internationalisation of production has accelerated in the Asian Pacific region as competitive advantage has shifted and as protectionist measures have changed traditional source patterns. The Asian Pacific region has evolved into an interactive international production system comprising three tiers of countries: Japan, the four Asian Newly Industrialized Countries (ANICs), and the four developing countries of the Asian Pacific region (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand). The fundamental economic reality which has molded this system is the dynamic complementarity in location advantages of the three tiers.The authors are in the Department of International Business at The University of Michigan. W. Chan Kim is the author of a forthcoming book on Asian Business. Vern Terpstra is a former president of the Academy of International Business and the author of books on international business.     

闲暇效应对经济产出和技术效率的影响

本文认为闲暇不仅仅对生产具有替代作用,在现代社会,还需要注意到闲暇对生产的互补效应。具体表现为闲暇对人力资本积累、物质资本积累和技术效率提升分别具有闲而优效应、等势效应和闲中学效应。利用OECD经济体30年间的面板数据进行随机前沿分析,结果表明:闲暇效应对经济产出和技术效率具有显著的影响,如果忽略该效应,人力资本和技术效率都会被低估;经济体中闲暇效应的发挥程度部分体现了经济体在产出方面的效率程度。本文建议,为了赶超OECD这样的发达经济体,需要关注到闲暇对效率提升和技术进步的积极作用;未来,需要进一步发挥个体和经济体的闲暇效应,推进经济增长方式从技术推动型向效率推动型的转变。     

The impacts of value chain upgrading on the export of processed food

Upgrading in global value chains (GVCs) is an important path for developing countries to move along to capture higher benefits. Several qualitative studies of GVCs have identified two main upgrading types: economic (product, process, functional, and inter-sectoral) and social upgrading. The upgrading concept is widespread in productive sectors such as processed food, which has become a key export for developing countries. However, they have confronted multiple product standards required by global buyers. This study uses a case study of Thailand’s processed food exports (TPFEs). Although Thailand is a leading exporter of processed food, the country needs to upgrade in many areas related to production to meet global product standards and requirements. If Thailand fails to comply with global product standards, it will lose its export competitiveness. This study uses a gravity model to evaluate the impact of economic and social upgrading (EUP and SUP) on TPFEs. Our results show that upgrading types are significant in TPFEs, particularly for exports to developed countries. Process upgrading has a negative impact on TPFEs because of increased production costs to comply with product standards. However, process upgrading can lead to increased producers’ and exporters’ knowledge about how to comply with international standards. Consequently, process upgrading exhibits a lagged positive effect on TPFEs.     

ICT as a source of output and productivity growth in Finland

This paper analyses the impacts of information and communications technology on output and labour productivity growth in Finland in 1995–2005. Information and communications technology (ICT) accounted for 1.87 percentage points of the observed labour productivity growth at the average rate of 2.87 per cent. The contribution from increases in ICT capital intensity was 0.46 percentage points. The rest is attributed to multi-factor productivity growth in ICT production, especially in telecommunications production. The ongoing outsourcing of ICT production to low-wage countries provides a threat to productivity performance in the future. Policy makers should consider where the next wave of productivity growth will come from.     

出口行为如何影响企业环境绩效

本文首次采用中国制造业企业层面的能源消耗和产出微观数据,利用细分能源类型的二氧化碳排放因子换算得到微观企业环境绩效指标,即单位产出的二氧化碳排放量(二氧化碳排放强度),并试图以企业劳动生产率为桥梁,结合中国出口企业“生产率悖论现象”,研究中国企业出口行为对其环境绩效的影响机制。本文基于企业生产函数框架构建计量模型,实证结果表明:①出口造成中国企业二氧化碳排放强度显著增大,同时,排放强度随着企业出口密度的提高不断增长,出口并没有显著提升企业环境绩效,考虑不同生产函数形式后结论均较为稳健。②传统的“污染避难所问题”并不是造成中国出口企业二氧化碳排放强度更高的主要原因。③中国出口企业生产效率更低,进而导致更高的碳排放强度。④出口企业的低效率和低加成率(低利润率)进一步拖累了企业技术升级和环保投资,这是出口造成企业更为污染的重要原因。本文的研究弥补了贸易与中国微观企业层面环境绩效关系研究的缺口,从微观层面给予污染治理与减排策略以政策参考,证实了在国际贸易进程中不仅应制定宏观目标,还应直接着眼于微观企业,特别是促使出口企业提高自身的生产率,从而推动经济与环境的全面可持续发展。     

中国的劳动生产率：是高还是低?——兼论劳动生产率的计算方法

本文用不同的计算方法 ,从企业、制造业和国家三个角度进行了劳动生产率的国际比较 ,计算结果表明 :和大家普遍接受的观点相反 ,中国的劳动生产率并非低于发达国家 ,而是高于发达国家。这种结论上的差异并非来源于所采用的数据和计算公式 ,而是来源于计算劳动生产率时投入和产出的计量单位。在比较研究中 ,我们习惯于投入产出均用价值量指标即“元 /元”来计算资本的生产率 ,用“元 /人·年”指标来计算劳动的生产率。由于不同国家同样数量的“人·年”劳动投入折算为价值量投入会存在很大的差异 ,致使使用不同计量单位计算和比较劳动生产率会得出完全相反的结论。本文认为 ,进行国家之间劳动生产率的比较 ,正确的计算方法应当是和计算资本生产率的公式一样 ,投入产出均使用价值量指标。     

Assessing farm performance by size in Malawi,Tanzania, and Uganda

Many Sub-Sahara African countries have long endured sluggish agricultural productivity growth and a farm structure dominated by smallholders. This prevailing structure has led to public policies focusing on access to land and its distribution as ways to boost agricultural supply. Drawing on data from the Living Standards Measurement Study–Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) for three East African countries (Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda), our purpose is to: test whether smaller farms in these countries are more productive than larger ones; examine how managerial performance varies with farm size; and assess how public policy may improve farm performance. We adopt the Random Parameters Stochastic Production Frontier model to estimate and then decompose Total Factor Productivity (TFP) across different farm size classes. In doing so, we test for possible measurement errors of farmer self-reported land area using Global Positioning System (GPS) data, and explore the imperfect factor markets hypothesis. The results show that across the three countries TFP is higher for smaller farms than for larger ones. Overall, managerial performance is low suggesting that programs designed to enhance managerial capacity would promote farm productivity across all sizes. Other policies are size specific. Access to agricultural input markets improves the productivity of the small farms, while greater spending on transportation infrastructure and extension services enhances the productivity of the large.