Productivity-enhancing Activities Research Articles

Factors influencing employee performance and their impact on productivity: A study of commercial banks in Bangladesh

Employees are the most valuable part of every organization in the world, and the success of the organization depends on how well its employees do their jobs. Nowadays, commercial banks in Bangladesh are growing overwhelmingly, so the competition is enhancing one bank to another. Employee performance at the firm level and workplace productivity has not been empirically studied in the context of Bangladesh. The purpose of this study is to find out the variables that affect how well employees at banking institutions in Bangladesh do their jobs. People who worked in private banks in Bangladesh were the focus of this study and the final sample size was 250. The sample size was suitable for quantitative regression analysis. The questionnaire was sent to the e-mail ids of employees, and the questionnaires were adopted from the previous studies. To test the model and hypothesis, SPSS is used to analyze collected data in this study. The regression analysis was duly run with using the SPSS 26.0 version. The study shows that competence, compensation, leadership, and motivation have a big and good effect on how well employees do their jobs in regard to private commercial banks in Bangladesh. So, bank authorities should identify the factors influencing the improvement of the performance of bank employees, and they need to focus on employee productivity-enhancing activities.

A Benefit-Cost Analysis of Increased International Migration of Skilled Labor in Africa and the World

AbstractGreater labor migration can establish more channels for information flows, directly contributing to faster economic growth and improved innovation and work. It can also expand international remittances, which can be invested by recipient households in home countries in education, entrepreneurship, and improved and sustainable agricultural technologies. At the same time, however, increased emigration of medical professionals and technical workers from poor countries can reduce quality of local services, innovation, health status, and productivity. This analysis attempts to quantify the economic benefits and costs of permitting an immediate 10% increase in the bilateral migration of skilled workers (physicians, engineers or science, engineering, technology, and mathematics workers, and other persons with advanced educations) among the nations of the African Continental Free Trade Area and, more broadly, among 25 global regions. Economic benefits include higher migrant incomes abroad, welfare gains in destination countries associated with higher economic efficiency, spillover productivity gains, and an improved ability of the younger and more skilled working force to support the needs of the wider population, resulting in higher national production. Benefits in source countries include productivity enhancements from two sources: (a) greater access to knowledge associated with more bilateral trade and investment and (b) the ability of local households to invest remittances in productivity-enhancing activities. Welfare losses in source nations include static efficiency reductions and a worsened demographic support capability. In Africa, the benefit-cost ratios range from 3.7 to 6.9; in the global analysis, 17 to 38.

Workers' remittances in Central America: where does the money go?

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine two issues about remittances in Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua). First, whether the inflow of remittances impacts income in the long run. Second, what motivates migrants to send remittances? The first issue is analyzed in the context of a permanent income hypothesis, while the second is analyzed in the context of altruism versus self-interest motives.Design/methodology/approachA panel cointegration method is used to establish the long-run relationship between the variables under consideration. Further, this study uses the fully modified ordinary least squares method (FMOLS) to estimate the impact of remittances on income and consumption. The pooled mean group (PMG) estimation is used.FindingsThe test results indicate that remittances into Central American countries do not promote growth in the long run. Central American families may perceive remittances as a permanent income stream and will increase their current consumption. Additionally, the test results indicate that sending remittances of the Central American migrants is mainly driven by altruism. Their primary motive is to support left-behind families at times of economic hardship.Research limitations/implicationsFindings provide an important implication for these Central American countries, as they have potential to boost income by utilizing remittance money in productivity-enhancing activities. This study could also provide valuable information for the governments of labor-exporting countries around the world to encourage and incentivize remittance recipient families to utilize those funds for income-generating activities.Originality/valueIn Central America, this is probably the first attempt in the literature to analyze the impact of remittances in the context of permanent income hypothesis and the motivation of Central American workers to send remittances to their countries of origin.

A systematic map of evidence on the contribution of forests to poverty alleviation

BackgroundForests provide an essential resource to the livelihoods of an estimated 20% of the global population. The contribution of forest ecosystems and forest-based resources to poverty reduction is increasingly emphasized in international policy discourse and conservation and development investments. However, evidence measuring the effect of forest-based activities on poverty outcomes remains scattered and unclear. Lack of systematic understanding of forest-poverty relationships, in turn, inhibits research, policymaking, and efficient financial resource allocation.MethodsTo identify relevant studies for inclusion in this systematic map we searched six bibliographic databases, 15 organizational websites, eight systematic evidence syntheses (reviews and maps), and solicited information from key informants. Search results were screened for relevance against predefined inclusion criteria at title, abstract, and full text levels, according to a published protocol. Included articles were coded using a predefined framework. Trends in the evidence, knowledge gaps and relatively well-researched sub-topics are reported in a narrative synthesis. Occurrence and extent of existing evidence about links between interventions and outcomes are presented in a visual heatmap. Data are available through the open access Evidence for Nature and People Data Portal (http://www.natureandpeopleevidence.org).ResultsA total of 242 articles were included in the systematic map database. Included articles measured effects of 14 forest-based intervention types on 11 poverty dimensions. The majority of the evidence base (72%) examined links between productivity-enhancement strategies (e.g. forest management, agroforestry, and habitat management) and monetary income and/or social capital outcomes. Other areas with high occurrence of articles include linkages between interventions involving governance, individual rights/empowerment or linked enterprises/livelihood alternatives with impacts on monetary income from direct sale of goods. A key knowledge gap was on the impacts of investment-based interventions (i.e. enhancing produced, human, and social capitals). Another was the impacts of forest-based interventions on financial capital (savings, debt), non-monetary benefits, and health.ConclusionsThe evidence base on forest-based productive activities and poverty alleviation is growing but displays a number of biases in the distribution of articles on key linkages. Priorities for future systematic reviews and evaluations include in-depth examinations into the impacts of rights-based activities (e.g. governance, empowerment) on poverty dimensions; and productivity-enhancing activities on social capital. More comprehensive and robust evidence is needed to better understand the synergies and trade-offs among the different objectives of forest conservation and management and variation in outcomes for different social groups in different social-ecological contexts.

Financial Shocks and Productivity: Pricing Response and the TFPR-TFPQ Bifurcation

Using administrative records on firm-level output prices and quantities, combined with quasi-experimental variation in credit availability, we explore the interconnection between the productivity and pricing effects of financial shocks. We find that these shocks affect firms’ technical productivity growth (TFPQ) in the long-run and induce firms to change their pricing policies. As a result, standard estimates based on revenue-based measures (TFPR), which conflate pricing and productivity effects, generate biased predictions regarding the effects of financial shocks on firms’ real productivity growth. Moreover, we document that these nominal adjustments have real implications. The mechanism operates through a firm’s balance sheet. The ability to adjust prices releases pressure on firms to cut expenditures on productivity-enhancing activities thereby mitigating the effect on future productivity growth.

R&D intensity of investment across Europe before and after the crisis

In this paper we investigate the comovements between the R&D intensity of private investment and GDP growth in different European Union (EU) areas over the period 1999–2014. Our empirical analysis shows that only core countries display a common countercyclical mechanism leading to an increased intensity of R&D over prolonged downturns. The lack of an effective countercyclical pattern of R&D intensity over the evolution of GDP growth in periphery countries makes this area highly vulnerable to persistent recessions, with potentially harmful consequences for long‐term growth. For recent EU members the evidence of acyclicality should be evaluated in the light of the catching‐up process still at work in this area. Our analysis suggests that any successful EU innovation policy should not disregard the potential divergence in R&D performance due to the dispersion of the countercyclical properties of the investment intensity in productivity enhancing activities in the different EU areas.

The employment impact of private and public actions for energy efficiency: Evidence from European industries

This paper aims at investigating the main effects on EU employment dynamics related to private and public actions for energy efficiency. The econometric analysis relies on a sector-based panel dataset for 15 EU countries over the time span 1995–2009. The empirical analysis shows that after accounting for the role played by sectoral output growth, investment and innovation activities, sectoral energy efficiency gains display a negative effect on employment growth, in particular in energy intensive industries. On the contrary, we find that public actions towards energy efficiency may produce positive effects on employment dynamics. In particular, the higher incidence of taxation on energy costs, the effort towards energy efficiency gains realized in the public sector industries and the implementation of a comprehensive policy mix for energy efficiency at the country level, are factors positively influencing employment growth. This evidence highlights the complexity of the nexus between energy efficiency and employment dynamics, suggesting that superior employment performances can be achieved when complementarity effects between productivity enhancing activities and energy efficiency actions are realized.

Product Restructuring, Exports, Investment, and Growth Dynamics

This paper estimates a dynamic general equilibrium model of entry, exit, and endogenous productivity growth. Productivity is endogenous both at the industry level (rms enter and exit) and at the rm level (rms invest in productivity-enhancing activities). The focus of the paper is on two activities that make productivity-enhancing investments more attractive, namely, exporting and product-mix choices. A rm that increases its exports and/or its number of products will have higher sales { and this makes investing in productivity more attractive because there are more units (sales) across which the productivity gains can be applied. These insights are taken to rm-level Spanish data. We compute the Markov Perfect Equilibrium using a nested

Uruguayan MSMEs: Determinants of Financial Access and its Impact on Performance Enhancing Activities

Latin American MSMEs differ with respect to their OECD counterparts with respect to the productivity gap between MSMEs and large firms – which is higher in Latin American countries –, as well as to the level of integration in value chains – which is lower – and their informality degree – which is higher (Llisterri & Garcia-Alba, 2008). All three dimensions point towards the need of addressing the necessity of Latin American MSMEs of becoming more integrated into the formal grid of the economy. There is also a clear need of being better able to network with both public and private organizations, so as to improve their access to finance and information. Among Uruguayan MSMEs, around 20% are informal and only 25% are integrated in higher value chains or coordinate their activities with other firms. In this paper we study whether Uruguayan MSMEs’ growth and productivity enhancing activities could be fostered through an adequate regulatory framework and the generation of new channels of accessing financing resources.The objective of our research will be hence threefold. First, we will start by describing the main characteristics of Uruguayan MSMEs. Secondly, we will analyze the determinants of MSMEs’ access to finance. After this, we will construct an index of productivity enhancing activities and study its relation with formality, the firm’s degree of bancarization, entrepreneurship and the firm’s use of information, amongst other factors.

External constraints and endogenous growth: Why didn't some countries benefit from capital flows?

Empirical evidence on the growth benefits of capital inflows is mixed. The growth benefits accruing from capital inflows also appear to be larger for high savings countries. We explain this phenomenon using an OLG model of endogenous growth in open economies with borrowing constraints that can generate both positive and negative growth effects of capital inflows. The amount an economy can borrow is restricted by an endogenous enforcement constraint. In our setting, with physical capital and a pay-as-you-go pensions system, the steady state is unique. However, it can either be constrained or unconstrained. In a constrained economy, opening up to equity and FDI inflows can be bad for growth because it makes the domestic interest rate too low, which endogenously tightens borrowing constraints. Agents decrease savings and investment in productivity-enhancing activities resulting in lower growth. Results are reversed in an unconstrained economy. We also provide a quantitative analysis of these constraints and some policy implications.

Peasant Farming in Emerging Countries: Does Agricultural Financing Really Have an Impact?

We find financing helps make up for deficiencies in farming experience and the absence of crop insurance, such that farmers that have less experience or do not have crop insurance are more likely to adopt productivity enhancing activities. We also find farmers are less likely to spend on output related items (additional farming acreage), as opposed to productivity enhancing items (such as hybrid seeds or fertilizers) as credit constraints become more severe. These findings provide evidence that financing increases farmers' willingness or ability to adopt productivity enhancing activities. Combined, our findings indicate the effectiveness of agricultural financing policies at achieving improvements in agricultural output and productivity can be enhanced by benchmarks of farmers' financing needs as functions of farmer characteristics such as land size, experience, or absence of crop insurance.

Business Cycles and Investment in Productivity-Enhancing Activities: Evidence from Spanish Firms

This paper tests the opportunity-cost theory on the long-run effects of business cycles using a panel of Spanish firms during the period 1991–2010. Under this theory, the share of productivity-enhancing activities (PEAs), such as R&D investment or on-the-job training, relative to production activities should increase during downturns because of the fall in their relative cost — in terms of forgone output. This would imply that business cycles may have a (positive) long-term impact on firms' productivity growth. In the spirit of Aghion et al. (2008), we allow the impact of the cycle on PEA to vary between firms with different access to external funding. We find that, in accordance with the opportunity-cost approach, the share of R&D investment and training expenditures on total investment outlays follow a countercyclical pattern, which in the case of R&D may be reversed by the presence of credit constraints. However, the share of investment in other non-R&D-related intangible investments is found to be acyclical, which could suggest some kind of substitution across different PEAs over the cycle.

Business Cycles and Investment in Intangibles: Evidence from Spanish Firms

This paper tests the opportunity-cost theory using a panel of Spanish firms during the period 1991-2010. Under this theory, productivity-enhancing activities, such as R&D investment, should increase during downturns because of the fall in their relative cost – in terms of forgone output. This would imply that business cycles may have a (positive) long-term impact on productivity growth. In the spirit of Aghion, et al. (2007) we allow the impact of the cycle on R&D to vary between firms with different access to credit, finding that credit constraints may reverse the countercyclicality of R&D, even if it is optimal for them. We go one step further and explore whether other productivity-enhancing activities, like on-the-job training and the purchase of patents, follow a similar pattern. We find that on-the-job training expenditures are countercyclical and, unlike R&D investment, credit constraints seem not to affect their cyclical behavior. Investments in other intangibles, such as patent purchases, are found to be acyclical, also irrespective of financial constraints, which could suggest some kind of substitution between R&D and patent purchases over the cycle. Finally, complementarities between the different intangible investments and the traditional productive factors (labor and capital) are also investigated via production function estimates, in order to assess potential indirect effects of the cycle on long-run growth.

Business failures, macroeconomic risk and the effect of recessions on long-run growth: A panel cointegration approach

This paper uses panel data on Italian regions to test two competing theories of long-run productivity dynamics: the opportunity-cost model, according to which productivity-enhancing activities have a comparative advantage during recessions; and the risk-aversion model, which predicts a negative relationship between transitory disturbances and productivity growth. Panel ECM estimates suggest that macroeconomic risk factors impinge on business failures on the same direction both in the short and in the long-run, and that the adjustment to the steady-state relationship is quite slow. Thus, our findings lend support to the risk-aversion theory of productivity growth and indicate that bankruptcy risks play a significant role in the propagation of macroeconomic shocks.

R&D Investments, Exporting, and the Evolution of Firm Productivity

A large empirical literature has documented that firm-level differences in productivity, size, ownership status, and other characteristics are crucial to understanding differences in firms’ decisions to export. The evidence strongly supports the self-selection of more productive firms into export markets, but there has been more mixed evidence on the subsequent feedback effects of exporting on the future path of firm productivity. Several recent papers have introduced a new dimension into this export-productivity relationship: firm-level investments in productivity-enhancing activities such as R&D. James A. Costantini and Marc J. Melitz (2007), Alla Lileeva and Daniel Trefler (2007), and Paula Bustos (2006) explore the linkages between investments in innovation, productivity, and the decision to export in the context of the liberalization of trade regimes. Aw, Roberts, and Tor Winston (2007) have also found a significant role for firm R&D investments in explaining Taiwanese firm export patterns, as well as interaction effects between firm R&D and export choices in explaining productivity change. In this paper we summarize some empirical results from our research project to develop an estimable structural model of the joint exportinvestment decision. In the theoretical model, firms invest in R&D and physical capital, which can affect the path of future productivity for the firm. R&D investment, through its effect on future productivity, increases the profits from exporting, and participation in the export market raises the return to R&D investments. The theoretical model yields equations for the policy functions for R&D investment, physical investment, and the exporting decision, as well as the evolution of firm-level profitability, that can be estimated with micro datasets containing R&D Investments, Exporting, and the Evolution of Firm Productivity

The effect of government grants on plant level productivity

We investigate whether government subsidies stimulate productivity growth, using a unique plant level data set from Ireland. We find that only grants that support productivity enhancing activities increase total factor productivity. Financially constrained plants benefit most from such grants.

Determining Relationships Among the Adoption Parameters of Computers and Internet in Agriculture: An Application of Probit Model

The main reason for carrying out this study was to determine possible relationships among several adoption parameters of computer use, internet usage and internet access in agriculture. The key options for determining relationships (apart from non-parametric correlation techniques) are canonical correlation analysis, probit models and logit models. Canonical correlation analysis is generally seen as a weaker statistical technique than probit or logit models. The number of categorical variables in the data set made it difficult to fit logit models. So, the left probit models are the preferred techniques for testing the research question. To address the research question survey data was collected. Producers were asked to rank, in turn, how important computers and internet usage were to their business. These rankings could then be tested against other variables collected in order to determine whether it was the cost reduction or the productivity enhancing activities that were significant in explaining the rankings.

Growing Old Together: Firm Survival and Employee Turnover

Labor market outcomes such as turnover and earnings are correlated with employer characteristics, even after controlling for observable differences in worker characteristics. We argue that this systematic relationship constitutes strong evidence in favor of models where workers choose how much to invest in future productivity. Because employer characteristics are correlated with firm survival, returns to these investments vary across firm types. We describe a dynamic general equilibrium model where workers employed in firms more likely to survive choose to devote more time to productivity enhancing activities, and therefore have a steeper earnings-tenure profile. Our model also predicts that quit rates should be lower in firms more likely to survive, and should tend to fall during slow times, while job destruction rates should rise. These predictions, we argue, are borne out by the existing empirical evidence.

Growing Old Together: Firm Survival and Employee Turnover

Labor market outcomes such as turnover and earnings are correlated with employer characteristics, even after controlling for observable differences in worker characteristics. We argue that this systematic relationship constitutes strong evidence in favor of models where workers choose how much to invest in future productivity. Because employer characteristics are correlated with firm survival, returns to these investments vary across firm types. We describe a dynamic general equilibrium model where workers employed in firms more likely to survive choose to devote more time to productivity enhancing activities, and therefore have a steeper earnings-tenure profile. Our model also predicts that quit rates should be lower in firms more likely to survive, and should tend to fall during slow times, while job destruction rates should rise. These predictions, we argue, are borne out by the existing empirical evidence.

Growing Old Together: Firm Survival and Employee Turnover

Abstract Labor market outcomes such as turnover and earnings are correlated with employer characteristics, even after controlling for observable differences in worker characteristics. We argue that this systematic relationship constitutes strong evidence in favor of models where workers choose how much to invest in future productivity. Because employer characteristics are correlated with firm survival, returns to these investments vary across firm types. We describe a dynamic general equilibrium model where workers employed in firms more likely to survive choose to devote more time to productivity-enhancing activities, and therefore have a steeper earnings-tenure profile. Our model also predicts that quit rates should be lower in firms more likely to survive, and should tend to fall during slow times, while job destruction rates should rise. These predictions, we argue, are borne out by the existing empirical evidence.