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Out of four major structural changes affecting the US economy - namely a rising share of skilled workers, skill-biased technological change, decreasing progressiveness of taxation and productivity slowdown - we show that the decline in productivity growth not only is the main driver of the widening wealth disparities observed in the United States of America over the past few decades, but is also the only mechanism that can explain inequalities both within and between skill groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a unique policy designed to maintain employment during the privatization of East German firms after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The policy required new owners of the firms to commit to employment targets, with penalties for non-compliance. Using a dynamic model, we highlight three channels through which employment targets impact firms: distorted employment decisions, increased productivity, and higher exit rates. Our empirical analysis, using a novel dataset and instrumental variable approach, confirms these findings. We estimate a 22% points higher annual employment growth rate, a 14% points higher annual productivity growth, and a 3.6% points higher probability of exit for firms with binding employment targets. Our calibrated model further demonstrates that without these targets, aggregate employment would have been 15% lower after 10 years. Additionally, an alternative policy of productivity investment subsidies proved costly and less effective in the short term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document summarizes a paper by Acemoglu, Autor, and Patterson that investigates the connection between productivity growth and innovation spillovers from upstream suppliers. The authors argue that balanced productivity growth in upstream industries maximizes innovation spillovers and contributes to overall productivity growth. However, the document raises concerns about the timing of the productivity slowdown analyzed in the paper, as it contradicts other data sets that show a productivity speedup during that time. It also questions the quality of the data used and suggests using an alternative data set for more accurate results. The document concludes that further research is needed to fully understand the relationship between unbalanced growth and innovation spillovers. [Extracted from the article]

The article titled "Comment" summarizes and analyzes a research paper that explores the relationship between industry total factor productivity (TFP) growth and the variance of supplier TFP growth. The authors of the comment agree with the original paper's findings that there is a negative relationship between industry TFP growth and the cross-sectional variance of supplier TFP growth. However, they find that when using an adjusted TFP measure, the relationship becomes less significant. The comment also suggests an alternative approach that includes own-industry employment growth as an additional factor, which reduces the coefficient of interest. The authors of the comment conclude that the Neoclassical channel is present in the data, but there are limitations to their analysis. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of OECD Statistics Working Papers is the property of Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Working Papers (Croatian National Bank) is the property of Croatian National Bank and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This document is a discussion among economists about a research paper on total factor productivity (TFP) and its measurement. The researchers used patent data in addition to existing data sets to analyze TFP growth. They found that TFP growth would have been higher in the absence of sectorial imbalances. The discussion also touched on topics such as bottlenecks, vertical integration, the role of large firms, and the divergence between different data sets. The researchers acknowledged the limitations of their model and the need for further research. [Extracted from the article]

How does wealth inequality affect economic growth? Byoungchan Lee answers this question by developing a heterogeneous-agent model and augmenting it with endogenous firm innovation. The novel channel is that rising wealth concentration reduces aggregate demand, which gives firms a disincentive to spend on R&D and therefore leads to slower productivity growth. In this discussion, we first explain the difference in calibration strategy between Lee's approach and the common approach in the literature, and then discuss its quantitative implications for the effect of rising inequality on aggregate consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a framework for studying the e¤ects of higher trade openness on the wage distribution that emphasizes within-industry labor reallocation across firms, strong skill-productivity complementarities in production and heterogenous fixed export costs across firms. Assuming no entry in the industry, an autarkic economy that opens to trade experiences a pervasive rise in wage inequality; a trade liberalization in a trading economy increases inequality at the lower end of the distribution, but may reduce it elsewhere. Assuming free entry, opening to trade could result in pervasively higher inequality or wage polarization. The analysis highlights the importance of new exporters (extensive margin) in shaping the aggregate relative demand for skills, a channel controlled by the distribution of fixed export costs in the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of the condition of domestic iron and steel manufacturing in the U.S. and its operating environment. It discusses the capacity and output of the domestic steel industry, steel prices, steel consumption, exports and imports, and regulatory measures, employment and steel mill productivity. It reports industry efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by developing green steel, funding for research and development, and decarbonization initiatives.

Welspun Corp's wholly owned subsidiary has received multiple export orders of 43 KMT for Pig Iron across South East Asia and Europe [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]