Regional and Technological Determinants of Company Productivity Growth in the Late 1980s

Abstract

KE S. and BERGMAN E. M. (1995) Regional and technological determinants of company productivity growth in the late 1980s, Reg. Studies 29, 59–71. This paper estimates the impacts on productivity growth of regional factors and technological inputs. Two unique data sets for US textile-apparel and computer-electronics companies are combined with secondary data to estimate a total factor productivity (TFP) growth equation, a neutral technological progress (NTP) equation and an equation of scale economies. The estimates show that regional factors and technological inputs are more significant contributors to TFP and NTP in computer-electronics production than in textile-apparel. Similarly, regional factors and technological inputs have stronger influence on scale economies in computer-electronics than in textile-apparel. Scale economies, as traditionally measured, show a complicated pattern of empirical performance and may not be a straightforward indicator of productivity growth in an era of downsizing and flex...