Productivity growth decomposition with FE-IV approach: Rethinking Thai commercial banks after the financial crisis

To cope with the Asian Financial Crisis, Thai commercial banks have gone through a reconstructing period. This study aims to decompose the Total Factor Productivity growth (TFP) for Thai commercial banking industry with an output distance function. With an unbalanced panel dataset, we used the Fixed Effect (FE) model with Instrumental Variables (IV) to estimate the TFP growth empirically. We found the technical inefficiency change and scale effects were the two major contributors to the recent growth, while the input price effect of the premises and equipment was the major preventer of the growth. Moreover, the Thai commercial banking industry produced in decreasing return to scale, and the input–output allocation was not at the profit maximization optimum under the exogenous prices.     

出口贸易是否促进了我国劳动生产率的持续增长——基于工业企业微观数据的实证检验

本文采用2000～2006年持续经营的工业企业数据实证分析了我国企业的出口行为对其劳动生产率增长率的作用。倍差法的Kernel倾向评分匹配估计结果表明,我国企业的出口行为能在出口后的1年或2年内将显著提高其劳动生产率增长率,但此后该影响作用并不显著,出口贸易未能促进我国劳动生产率的持续增长。进一步的实证分析发现,企业出口活动的"干中学"效应与出口加工贸易度和技术水平均密切相关,而通过出口贸易而产生的"扩张陷阱"只存在于出口加工贸易度高的(中)低技术行业以及金属制品业中。     

埃尔斯伯格悖论评析

主观期望效用理论认为个体的概率分布可以由行为的偏好导出,并且理性人的行为选择应该遵循主观期望效用理论,但是,埃尔斯伯格悖论显示了没有一个主观的概率测度,而且实际行为的选择并不总是和该理论的结果相一致。因此,围绕埃尔斯伯格悖论,展开了行为决策理论应该是规范的还是描述的争论。     

External knowledge search,innovative performance and productivity in the Korean ICT sector

In recent years, Korea’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry has grown rapidly. The prosperity of the ICT industry has brought growing recognition that rising productivity and innovative performance have made major contributions to ensuring competitive advantage in international markets. In this context, recent studies stress the importance of external knowledge for improving both innovative performance and productivity. This paper empirically investigates the effects of firms’ external knowledge search behavior on their productivity as well as their innovative performance in the Korean ICT manufacturing sector. Based on firm-level data from the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), this study indicates that incremental innovation and productivity are both related to external knowledge search.     

碳排放、绿色全要素生产率和经济增长

通过把资本存量、就业人数、能耗、时间等变量纳入超越对数生产函数,将碳排放总量、能源强度等变量以及区域虚拟变量作为生产无效率函数的解释变量构建随机前沿模型进行实证分析。结果显示：碳排放增长会扩大技术无效率项并降低绿色全要素生产率;技术进步降低了能源强度却引至了更多的碳排放,符合杰文斯悖论;减排技术较高的地区对应较高绿色全要素生产率增长水平;绿色全要素生产率增速比传统全要素生产率增速更快。     

人力资本与区域全要素生产率分析

本文采用Malmquist指数分析了我国30个省级行政区1996—2003年的全要素生产率(TFP)增长,并将其分解为技术进步指数和效率变化指数。为了减少计算偏差,我们在使用承认无效率项存在的生产前沿技术的同时,引入了人力资本要素。本文的分析结果表明我国的人力资本水平增长迅速,30个省区的经济增长效率差距逐年扩大。同时我们发现在引入人力资本要素后,1996—2003年区域全要素生产率的增长得益于技术进步;如果不考虑人力资本存量,则低估了同期的效率提高程度,而高估了期间的技术进步指数。     

Should we worry about the decline of the public corporation? A brief survey of the economics and external effects of the stock market

In recent years, the number of listed companies has been declining in many countries across the world. This paper provides a selective survey of the literature on the real economic effects of the stock market to assess the potential effects of this decline and determine whether it is likely to continue. The leading economic role of the stock market’s primary market, in which firms raise capital by issuing new shares, is to help growing firms secure financing. We discuss providing and certifying information, coordinating investors, and easing the redeployment of capital as the means through which capital allocation can be efficiently achieved. The main economic roles of the stock market’s secondary market, the trade in existing shares, is to provide liquidity to shareholders, to aid in price discovery and to provide diversification opportunities. Positive external effects from an active stock market may arise for consumers, labor and private firms due to increased corporate investment, more socially responsible business strategies and a more positive business climate. Negative external effects on capital allocation and productivity can arise from short-termism, market mispricing, and increased cross-ownership. Local stock markets can spur innovation and foreign direct investment (FDI) and reduce the risk of early cross-border acquisitions. Given the myriad of useful economic functions the stock market performs, a future entirely absent of public companies is difficult to imagine and the decline is therefore likely at some point to come to an end. Whether we need to worry about the decline depends on the relative importance of the positive and negative external effects, a topic we feel warrants more research.     

农地产权的残缺和征地效率的损失

我国农地产权残缺是由对区位和时间属性的管制造成的,而采用产值数倍补偿法导致了征地效率的损失。同时从制度变迁的角度说明宏观层面的调控并不能有效地限制征地热情,只有发挥微观产权主体的约束作用才能减少效率损失。     

Total factor productivity convergence in German states since reunification: Evidence and explanations

A quarter-century after reunification, labor productivity in the states of eastern Germany continues to lag systematically behind the West. Persistent gaps in total factor productivity (TFP) are the proximate cause; conventional and capital-free measurements confirm a sharp slowdown in TFP growth after 1995. Strikingly, eastern capital intensity, especially in industry, exceeds values in the West, casting doubt on the embodied technology hypothesis. TFP growth is negatively associated with rates of investment expenditures. The stubborn East-West TFP gap is best explained by low concentration of managers, low startup intensity and the distribution of firm size in the East rather than R&D activities.     

生产性过剩条件下中国宏观经济政策取向探讨

目前我国之所以出现生产性过剩，商品过剩为其直接原因，生产和消费关系失调为其根本原因。为此，国家宏观经济政策应由主要调控投资转向主要调控消费，以消费带动投资。