Search results for "PRODUCTIVITY"
showing 10 items of 618 documents
Trading activities, productivity and markups: Evidence for Spanish manufacturing
2019
This work analyses the firms’ internationalization strategies of importing intermediates and exporting output, and the potential rewards of these activities in terms of total factor productivity (TFP), as a proxy for marginal costs, and markups. It further deepens into the study of the relationship between internationalization strategies and markups by disentangling whether it operates through affecting firms’ marginal costs and/or firms’ prices. The panel database employed in this paper is the Spanish Survey on Business Strategies (ESEE) for the period 2006- 2014. Results in the paper distinguish between SMEs and large firms and indicate that there is high persistence in the performance of…
The calculation of shadow prices for industrial wastes using distance functions: An analysis for Spanish ceramic pavements firms
2001
Abstract This paper deals with the calculation of shadow prices for two industrial wastes generated on their production processes by 18 firms belonging to the Spanish ceramic pavements industry. These prices are then used to calculate an extended productivity index which takes into consideration wastes going with the production of marketable goods. We follow the methodological approach first proposed by Fare et al. (The Review of Economics and Statistics 75 (1993)). A negative correlation is found between absolute shadow prices and wastes production intensity, reflecting a greater marginal cost of eliminating wastes for those firms using less contaminant production processes. Differences be…
John M. Clark and frank H. Knight on the adding-up theorem, overhead costs, and more
2018
This note offers new archival insight into a 1925 polemical exchange between Frank Knight and John Maurice Clark that was hosted in the pages of Journal of Political Economy. Although the exchange centered on the effects of overhead costs on marginal productivity theory and the so-called adding-up theorem, it also provided significant elements to assess the methodological differences between two of the most representative American economists of the interwar years.
Skill Biased Technical Change and Misallocation: A Unified Framework
2019
Due to strict reliance on competitive labor markets, standard approaches which measure skill biased technical change (SBTC) conflate labor market distortions which prevent firms from choosing the efficient ratio between skilled and unskilled labor and `true' SBTC. This contrasts with recent evidence on decoupling between wages and productivity. To overcome this limitation, we present a unified framework to estimate SBTC which accounts for factor accumulation (FA) effects, and quantifies the discrepancy (i.e., relative misallocation) between the wage ratio (skilled to unskilled) and the marginal rate of technical substitution (MRTS). The suggested methodology takes advantage of recent develo…
Supply and Use of Human Capital in the Spanish Regions
2009
Besides enrichment at personal level entailed by the increase in the cognitive and intellectual levels of the person associated with education, a large number of studies have verified the greater the human capital of a person, the greater is his employability, his participation in the labour market, his functional and geographical mobility and, thereby, his productivity. This results in higher wages and less likelihood of unemployment for individuals with more schooling. From the social point of view, the accumulation of resources associated to higher educational attainment levels permits societies to make sustained progress towards higher levels of welfare. It makes possible to adapt to gl…
The Export-Productivity Link in Brazilian Manufacturing Firms
2015
This paper explores the link between exports and total factor productivity in Brazilian manufacturing firms over the period 2000–08. The Brazilian experience is instructive, as it is a case of an economy that expanded aggregate exports significantly, but with stagnant aggregate growth in total factor productivity. The paper first estimates firm-level total factor productivity under alternative assumptions (exogenous and endogenous law of motion for productivity) following a GMM procedure. In turn, the analysis uses stochastic dominance techniques to assess whether the ex ante most productive firms are those that start exporting (self-selection hypothesis). Finally, the paper tests whether e…
A bootstrap approach to analyse productivity growth in European banking
2010
This paper analyses productivity growth for European banks over the 1995–2001 period. In contrast to previous literature, our study covers the majority of current European Union (EU) countries—all except Greece and those joining the EU in 2004. We also use resampling methods so as to gain statistical precision, which turns out to be especially important due to the limitations of the database. In order to be consistent, we use additional nonparametric methods to disentangle why productivity differentials might exist. Results show that productivity growth has occurred in most countries, mainly due to improvements in production possibilities. The bootstrap analysis yields further evidence give…
The Use of and Commitment to Goods
2004
In social theory, goods have usually not been included in the social world. However, in the sociology of consumption, they have been seen as mediating social relations and offering opportunities to make social distinctions. It is precisely the symbolic aspect of goods that makes this possible. In helping to make these distinctions, goods are only given a passive role in our lives. They only get to function as markers of social differences, tastes, and so on. However, the use value of goods cannot be reduced to their symbolic aspect. Generally speaking, the use value also has two other aspects which I will call the ‘functionality’ and ‘productivity’ of goods. I am going to argue that becaus…
A bibliometric analysis of international impact of business incubators
2016
This study seeks to observe trends in literature on business incubators. The article presents a bibliometric analysis of 445 studies on business incubators. These works come from the Web of Science database for the period 1985–2015. The study sorts these articles according to the following bibliographic indicators: eminent authors, year of publication, countries with the highest rate of productivity, journal with most published research, language, type of research, and research area. This analysis provides insight into the nature and trends of research on business incubators. The results of the analysis reveal the lack of articles on business incubators and highlight the fragmented nature o…
Can company restructuring create a healthier work environment, promote corporate entrepreneurship, and improve productivity?
2015
Abstract This study explores relationships between best practices in human resource (HR) management and the humanization of production processes. The study analyzes how best practices in HR management affect organizational health, productivity, and competitiveness in 4 workplaces with 480 employees. These workplaces implement a 3-year program of 20 practices in a sector specializing in fresh cut IV gamma products. Results show that these practices yield significant improvements in productivity indicators, risk prevention, corporate entrepreneurship, and work environment.