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The Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen (LHM) total factor productivity (TFP) indicator has sound theoretical properties, but its decomposition yields indeterminate components of technical change and scale efficiency change that can become infeasible. The current paper decomposes the approximating Bennet indicator, which results in determinate components of technical change, technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and mix efficiency change that are always feasible. The application focuses on the German dairy-processing sector, an important postfarm supply chain actor. We compute 558 growth rates for the period 2011-2020. The results show that the LHMapproximating Bennet indicator decreases by on average 1.14% p.a., with substantial annual fluctuations. The underlying components of output- and input-oriented technical change also fluctuate substantially, and often conflict. Moreover, output- and input-oriented TFP efficiency change fluctuate moderately on average, which is mainly driven by scale efficiency change and mix efficiency change. The components of technical efficiency change remain relatively stable on average. Indeterminateness is a relevant problem when decomposing the original LHM indicator for the current sample: depending on the specification, the proportion of infeasibilities when decomposing the original LHM indicator ranges between 6.09% and 15.95%. Our proposed determinate decomposition is thus a valuable complement. [EconLit Citations: D24, D25, Q13]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We focus on the extent to which polycentric urban regions can substitute for the agglomeration economies provided by large cities. Building on an open‐source software tool that helps identifying polycentric developments in urban regions, we analyse the spatial structure (in terms of size, dispersion and polycentricity) of 94 regions across 34 European countries and link this to their level of total factor productivity. We find that both more polycentric regions and more dispersed regions are associated with lower productivity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital reallocation between firms is procyclical and leads to variations in measured aggregate productivity. In this paper, we ask how much of the cyclical variation in measured productivity is the consequence of capital reallocation. We build a heterogeneous‐firm model to study the effects of exogenous shocks to total factor productivity (TFP) and to the costs of reallocation. These shocks cause an endogenous cyclicality of measured aggregate productivity. Only a model driven by exogenous TFP shocks is able to generate both data‐consistent cyclical movements in reallocation and sizeable variations in measured aggregate productivity. We find that capital reallocation does not play a major role in amplifying aggregate productivity variations over the business cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The view that war benefits potential output has been influential in treatments of US mobilization for the Second World War, where it has been largely premised on the benefits of learning by doing in producing military durables. If the thesis that war benefits aggregate supply is correct, it is indeed within manufacturing that we should most likely see its effects. Total factor productivity within the sector in fact fell at a rate of −1.4 per cent per year between 1941 and 1948, −3.7 per cent a year between 1941 and 1944, and −5.1 per cent a year between 1941 and 1945. The emphasis on learning by doing has obscured the negative effects of the sudden, radical, and temporary changes in the product mix, the behavioural pathologies accompanying the transition to a shortage economy, and the resource shocks inflicted on the country by the Japanese and Germans. From a long‐run perspective, the war can be seen, ironically, as the beginning of the end of US world economic dominance in manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of what explains differences in the wealth of nations is one of the most classic in economics. We propose de facto academic freedom as an explanatory variable. The main idea is that such freedom allows for the development of new useful knowledge through research unconstrained by powerholders in business and politics. Using a new global panel‐data set, encompassing up to 127 countries over the period 1960–2015, we show that there is indeed a positive relationship between de facto academic freedom and both labor and total‐factor productivity growth. However, this effect only appears as long as the quality of the legal system is sufficiently high. We suggest that this is because such institutional quality offers protection that stimulates entrepreneurs to make use of the new knowledge produced in academia in innovative activities, which in turn benefits productivity growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between US state‐level TFP growth and weather is investigated using growth‐accounting techniques. The focus is on examining how that interaction changed between the 1960s and the end of the twentieth century. An empirical approximation to the production frontier constructed using state‐level data and mathematical programming techniques is used to decompose observed state‐level agricultural TFP growth into four components: technical change, weather‐related shifts in the frontier, input/scale effects, and adaptation to the frontier. Technical change and adaptation to the frontier play a significant role in determining average state total factor productivity. Weather‐related effects differ across Climate‐Hub Regions but are of particular importance in the Midwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the framework provided by the Porter hypothesis, we study the impact of environmental regulations and enforcement policies on plant‐level green total factor productivity (TFP) growth and its components related to efficiency change and technical change. The detailed microdata we use are from Sweden and for the pulp and paper industry. This industry is the source of significant amounts of water and air pollution and is one of the most heavily environmentally regulated manufacturing industries. Sweden has a unique decentralized regulatory structure where the manufacturing plants have to comply with plant‐specific regulatory standards stipulated at the national level, as well as decentralized local supervision and enforcement. Our empirical results point to beneficial impacts of the environmental policies on plants' green TFP growth and sustainable production practices. We also find that political economy considerations are important, as the presence of the Green Party and aspects like plant size (with corresponding local and regional economic effects) matter in enforcement of the standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the inverse farm size-productivity relationship in Kenya. The study makes two contributions. First, the relationship is examined over a much wider range of farm sizes than most studies, which is particularly relevant in Africa given the recent rise of medium- and large-scale farms. Second, we test the inverse relationship hypothesis using three different measures of productivity including profits per hectare and total factor productivity, which are arguably more meaningful than standard measures of productivity such as yield or gross output per hectare. We find a U-shaped relationship between farm size and all three measures of farm productivity. The inverse relationship hypothesis holds on farms between zero and 3 hectares. The relationship between farm size and productivity is relatively flat between 3 and 5 hectares. A strong positive relationship between farm size and productivity emerges within the 5 to 70 hectare range of farm sizes. Across virtually all measures of productivity, farms between 20 and 70 hectares are found to be substantially more productive than farms under 5 hectares. When the analysis is confined to fields cultivated to maize (Kenya's main food crop) the productivity advantage of relatively large farms stems at least partially from differences in technical choice related to mechanization, which substantially reduces labor input per hectare, and from input use intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multistage hydraulic fracturing has become a common well completion for horizontal shale gas wells. Some well test data from horizontal shale gas wells have shown pseudo‐steady flow conditions after a period of production. Considering linear flow from reservoir to fracture and linear flow in the fracture, an analytical model is established to calculate the productivity of horizontal shale gas wells under pseudo‐steady flow conditions. The equations in the analytical model are very simple. The production rates calculated by the analytical productivity model are in good agreement with actual gas wells production rates of a well in North American field and 12‐2 well in Fuling shale gas reservoir of China. Sensitivity analysis with the analytical productivity model shows that the different matrix permeability corresponds to the different reasonable fracture conductivity, and the higher the matrix permeability is, the greater the reasonable fracture conductivity. In the process of fracturing for a well, in order to increase production and save fracturing costs, there is no need to generate high‐conductivity fractures, the reasonable fracture conductivity should be determined based on economic evaluations in the real production process. The analytical model provides a practical way to predict production rate for optimization of fracturing design. Multistage hydraulic fracturing has become a common well completion for horizontal shale gas wells. Some well test data from horizontal shale gas wells have shown pseudo‐steady flow conditions after a period of production. Considering linear flow from reservoir to fracture and linear flow in the fracture, an analytical model is established to calculate the productivity of horizontal shale gas wells under pseudo‐steady flow conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual producers exhibit enormous heterogeneity in many dimensions. This paper develops a theory in which the network structure of production—who buys inputs from whom—forms endogenously. Entrepreneurs produce using labor and exactly one intermediate input; the key decision is which other entrepreneur's good to use as an input. Their choices collectively determine the economy's equilibrium input–output structure, generating large differences in size and shaping both individual and aggregate productivity. When the elasticity of output to intermediate inputs in production is high, star suppliers emerge endogenously. This raises aggregate productivity as, in equilibrium, more supply chains are routed through higher‐productivity techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the mining investment boom turned down and became a drag on growth, the question has often been asked: “Where is the growth going to come from?” Commentators started speaking of a growth “handover”: if mining investment was not going to provide our growth, something else needed to. And for a while, particular non‐mining sectors did seem to pick up, to become in turn the new “engine of growth.” However, this article argues that the underlying drivers of growth over the longer term do not depend on external triggers. Instead, they can be found in the “three Ps” – population, participation and productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasingly severe environmental regulations, a pressing issue has been the need for firms to develop efficient strategies to achieve environmental protection and high productivity. Several environmental experts argue that firms can respond to environmental regulations through innovation; however, the question of how to innovate is unanswered in the environmental literature. Therefore, this study focuses on the open innovation strategy approach to respond to environmental regulations and maintain high productivity by incorporating the idea of innovation management. We first divide open innovation strategy into two modes of external technology acquisition: foreign and domestic. Next, we examine these modes' mediation effects on environmental regulations and productivity. In addition, we test the moderating effect of internal R&D on the relationship between external technology acquisition and productivity. Using data on 35 Chinese industrial sectors from 2001 to 2010, the empirical findings show that foreign technology significantly and positively mediates the link between environmental regulations and productivity, while domestic technology does not. Internal R&D investment, as an absorptive capacity, positively moderates the effect of foreign technology; however, it negatively moderates the effect of domestic technology on productivity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is considerable empirical evidence on the productivity-enhancing effects of manufacturing agglomeration, the impacts of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) agglomeration have rarely been examined. We propose a mechanism-based framework to study the precise channels through which KIBS agglomeration contributes to urban productivity. By estimating a model of urban productivity that incorporates agglomeration of manufacturing, KIBS and non-KIBS using city-level data from China, we find that KIBS agglomeration is an important source of aggregate urban productivity. The importance of KIBS agglomeration in city productivity growth is systematically related to a city's level of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates agglomeration effects for classical music production in a wide range of cities for a global sample of composers born between 1750 and 1899. Theory suggests a trade-off between agglomeration economies (peer effects) and diseconomies (peer crowding). I test this hypothesis using historical data on composers and employ a unique instrumental variable - a measure of birth centrality, calculated as the average distance between a composer's birthplace and the birthplace of his peers. I find a strong causal impact of peer group size on the number of important compositions written in a given year. Consistent with theory, the productivity gain eventually decreases and is characterized by an inverted U-shaped relationship. These results are robust to a large series of tests, including checks for quality of peers, city characteristics, various measures of composers' productivity, and across different estimations in which also time-varying birth centrality measures are used as instrumental variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the relationship between export status and productivity in a major service exporter, Spain, during 2001-07. I find that exporters in the services sector are 45 percent more productive than non-exporters. This productivity premium is larger for firms that supply non-internet-related services than for firms that supply internet-related services. The results show that exporters were more productive than non-exporters before beginning to export, and also that exporting increases productivity growth; however, this positive shock vanishes quickly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the location choice of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China, shedding special light on the role of agglomeration of same-nationality firms. We examine how this role differs according to firms' productivity. Furthermore, we compare the location choice of Japanese and Taiwanese MNEs in China, taking into consideration that Taiwanese MNEs experience less uncertainty in investing in China due to Taiwan's linguistic and cultural advantages. When considering firms' productivity, we find that less productive Japanese firms prefer to locate close to larger same-nationality agglomerations while there are no differences in location choices in the case of Taiwanese firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, climate change is likely to increase average daily temperatures and the frequency of heat waves, which can reduce meat and milk production in animals. Methods that livestock producers use to mitigate thermal stress—including modifications to animal management or housing—tend to increase production costs. We use operation-level economic data coupled with finely-scaled climate data to estimate how the local thermal environment affects the technical efficiency of dairies across the United States. We then use this information to estimate the possible decline in milk production in 2030 resulting from climate change-induced heat stress under the simplifying assumptions that the production technology, location of production, and other factors are held constant. For four climate model scenarios, the results indicate modest heat-stress-related production declines by 2030, with the largest declines occurring in the southern states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper asks whether R&D's productivity impacts are conditional on the gap of a plant's productivity from the industry's technological frontier. The results show that a plant's own R&D and a parent firm's R&D have a positive productivity impact. The impact of a plant's own R&D decreases as the gap from the industry's technological frontier grows. Furthermore, the productivity impact of other firms' (geographic) distance-weighted R&D is, on average, positive. However, this impact increases as the gap from the technological frontier grows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the differential impact of human capital, in terms of different levels of schooling, on regional productivity and convergence. The potential existence of geographical spillovers of human capital is also considered by applying spatial panel data techniques. The empirical analysis of Spanish provinces between 1980 and 2007 confirms the positive impact of human capital on regional productivity and convergence, but reveals no evidence of any positive geographical spillovers of human capital. In fact, in some specifications the spatial lag presented by tertiary studies has a negative effect on the variables under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries strive to attract foreign direct investment hoping that knowledge brought by multinationals will spill over to domestic producers. While the literature has cast doubt on the existence of spillovers within industries, it has found evidence of spillovers from multinationals to the supplying sectors. However, the existing studies rely on industry-level proxies rather than information on actual relationships between suppliers and multinationals. This study goes one step further by employing a unique dataset from the Czech Republic where such relationships can be identified. It finds evidence consistent with both high productivity firms having a higher probability of supplying multinationals as well as suppliers learning from their relationships with multinationals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to establish whether geographical proximity between multinational and domestic firms is relevant to the occurrence of FDI spillovers, by considering both horizontal and vertical spillovers. Using data for Portugal, this hypothesis is confirmed. In the case of horizontal externalities, the impact is negative, probably due to the competition effect. Concerning vertical externalities, a positive impact through backward linkages is observed. Additionally, omission of the regional dimension provokes a bias on the estimation of the intra-sectoral effect at the national level. These results raise important implications for the economic policies aiming to attract FDI and promote regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avner Ben-Ner and Derek Jones cast doubt on the notion of a simple causal link between financial participation (FP) and productivity, and consequently on the validity of much of the empirical literature that has sought to quantify this relationship. This paper is an attempt to investigate this proposition. Our empirical reappraisal revealed that the route through which employee share ownership and profit-sharing schemes achieve these gains is quite separate and more involved than either the theory or prior empirical research suggests. This is particularly evident by extending the complementarities thesis beyond purely participatory bundles to embrace firm-specific and organizational variables. Our analysis also addressed recent calls to aid the interpretation of the observed effects of FP by creating a link between the use and operation of FP and its impact on productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we develop a vintage model to gain a better understanding of the semiconductor industry and its role in recent U.S. productivity gains. Unlike previous work, in our model the observed price declines of individual chips are driven by the introduction of better vintages rather than by learning economies. Dominated chips, nonetheless, continue to be produced, for a time, due to sunk investments in chip-specific production equipment. The model lends partial support to Jorgenson's hypothesis that an exogenous increase in Moore's Law could have generated the more rapid price declines, and faster productivity growth, seen after 1995. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The records of superior performance of selected service firms over many years suggest that they may be more productive than others. This article uses the Theory of Swift, Even Flow to explain why that might be true. In the process, this article improves Schmenner's 1986 service process matrix. The redefinition of the axes of this matrix and of the resulting diagonal leads to enhanced understanding of productivity for service operations and helps to explain how some leading service companies have been able to sustain their competitive positions for decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the nature and extent of efficiency and productivity growth in deposit-taking institutions is investigated using nonparametric frontier techniques. Employing Malmquist indices, productivity growth is decomposed into technical efficiency change and technological change for a sample of Australian building societies. The results indicate that most building societies experienced productivity gain in the past several years, and this was largely the result of technological progress rather than efficiency improvements. That productivity growth which did occur due to an increase in efficiency over the period tended to be the result of improvements in scale efficiency, while efficiency gain was most pronounced in building societies with a high ratio of net interest income and non-interest income to total assets, low operating expense ratios, and relatively high expenditures on marketing and promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the place of productivity improvement among competing priorities in local government. A considerable portion of the public sector productivity literature promotes a set of twin propositions regarding the need for productivity information. First, it is assumed that productivity improvement is given top priority by many local government practitioners, pressing service demands and scarce resources having made local officials increasingly aware of its importance. Second, it is assumed that a responsive market therefore awaits productivity information dissemination. The empirical evidence presented herein suggests that both propositions have been overstated. This article describes the results of a survey of local government administrators dealing with their perceived definition of productivity. Methodology adopted is discussed in detail. Even among experts in the field, there is no unanimity regarding the appropriate definition of productivity. These responses suggest that almost two-thirds of the local government administrators surveyed have a grasp of the concept of productivity in more than mere generalities. Priorities of the local government are discussed in the article. Studies of a survey, which expose a general lack of familiarity with serious productivity improvement literature directed toward the public sector, are also mentioned in the article. The article concludes by saying that a stronger emphasis on public recognition should be considered for improving the productivity in local government.

The article focuses on a three-day productivity workshop for 33 public sector executives. While the concern for productivity in the public sector is not new, the intensity of concern has increased steadily during the past ten years. In fact, one observer states that productivity has become "the very hottest new word" among many of the nation's public administrators. The enthusiasm for the concept is facilitated by the fact that at the abstract level everyone is for productivity. One of the biggest problems facing the public productivity movement is the assumption that everyone shares a common definition of the term productivity. The assumption is false. The authors discuss it from perspectives rooted in such diverse subject areas as measurement, labor relations, training and development, management, budget, and finance. The general orientation of economists with a macro-viewpoint is societal. They tend to deal with such macro-issues as national growth, competitiveness on the world market, rising wages, and deteriorating gains in real income.

The article deals with what productivity measurement is, presents a viewpoint on the current status of productivity measurement in federal government in the U.S., and finally examines the likely prospects for the future, including consideration of facilitating and inhibiting factors. Productivity measurements permit governments to identify problem areas and, as corrective actions are taken, to detect the extent to which improvements have occurred. Productivity is most often defined as the ratio of output to input for a particular activity. To apply that definition to any particular government service, however, is a complex task and subject to controversy. Productivity measurement generally has been defined in the public sector as encompassing both efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency indicates the extent to which the government produces a given output with the least possible use of resources. Effectiveness indicates the amount of end product, the real service to the public that the government is providing. Effectiveness encompasses the concept of quality and level of service provided.

The article focuses on city and county productivity programs in the U.S. The author's observations on city and county productivity programs are based primarily, but not entirely, upon a study of programs in eight local governments made between July 1975 and March 1976. Only three of the eight described their efforts as productivity programs; a circumstance that underlines the fact that productivity is a more recent rubric for programs to improve local government performance. Even where programs use "productivity" as a descriptive term, the word covers a wide range of activities designed to improve performance. The eight governments include five large cities, two smaller cities and one large suburban county. With two governments each in the far west, southwest, midwest and northeast, only the southeast is unrepresented. Jurisdictions are divided evenly between those with elected chief executives and those with city manager charters. In Dallas, an informal ad hoc productivity improvement program evolved from the strengthening of the Office of Management Services (OMS) in the early 1970's. The city manager has kept continuing pressure on the operating agencies for performance improvement, using OMS to identify and analyze problems and monitor progress.