Productivity Gap Research Articles

Understanding the Drivers of the Gender Productivity Gap in the Economics Profession

In this paper, I construct a novel data set from individual curriculum vitae of economists at the top 100 US departments to study gender differences in the drivers of scholarly performance. Using a Shapley decomposition procedure to estimate the contribution of each driver in explaining the variation in mean and inequality of research performance, I find that for women, current placement is a more important driver of performance and inequality in performance compared to men. For men, co-authorship is the most important driver. Overall, my results suggest that networks are the key driver of performance and of inequality in performance. JEL codes: A14, J16, J24

Closing the irrigation water productivity gap to alleviate water shortage in an endorheic basin

Closing the irrigation water productivity (IWP) gap is an effective approach to alleviating water deficits and ensuring food security. However, few studies have attempted to quantify the IWP gap and the potential benefits of closing it. This study adopted the Heihe River Basin, the second-largest inland basin in China, as a typical study area. The aims of this study were to: (1) assess the positive achievements and potential risks triggered by the Heihe Ecological Water Diversion Project (EWDP) according to multi-source and multi-scale measured data; (2) analyze potential approaches to improve the IWP and quantify the potential benefits that can be achieved by closing its IWP gap. The results of this study indicated that the EWDP effectively reallocated surface water resources, replenished groundwater in the lower reaches, and facilitated the recovery of oases and economic development in the downstream regions. However, this project has indirectly led to an imbalance in the groundwater resource between the middle and lower reaches, resulting in decline in groundwater levels and degradation of local vegetation in the midstream regions. In addition, the expansion of cultivated land in the midstream and downstream oases has resulted in the deterioration of farmland environment. The water transfer resulted in a deceleration in the growth of IWP from 2.44 % to 1.15 %, and the existing IWP gap was 1.43 kg/m3 between 1984 and 2017. This study predicted a future increase in the IWP to 2.01 kg/m3 with a reduction in the gap to 0.45 kg/m3 while maintaining food production. The potential for conserving water in the Heihe agricultural region can reach 552 million m3 by reducing the planting area by 10 %, improving irrigation water use efficiency by 20 %, maintaining existing agricultural film inputs, and reducing fertilizer application by 10 %. Following the research recommendations can greatly alleviate the agricultural water shortage and over-extraction of groundwater in the middle reaches and ensure meeting ecological water demand in the lower reaches. This study can act as a reference for sustainable management of an endorheic basin.

Socioeconomic Drivers of Fish Consumption in Qatar

The demand and supply gap in local fish production provides opportunities for investment in fish production and processing that are non-artisanal. Accordingly, this paper uses the Qatar Semi-Annual Survey, a nationally representative repeated cross-sectional dataset, to analyze consumers’ willingness to consume processed fish and the consumption intensity. Given the ordinal nature of the main outcome variable, namely processed fish consumption intensity, we use the ordered probit model with sample selection. The first part of our analytical strategy helps us to examine determinants of processed fish consumption, while the second part establishes factors associated with processed fish consumption intensity. The findings suggest that the majority of the respondents have a low interest in consuming processed fish. Nonetheless, we find that demographic and socioeconomic factors influence the intensity of consuming processed fish in Qatar. Specifically, consuming processed fish sometimes or very often is positively associated with age, living in a household with no children, and labor force participation. In comparison, Qatari households, tertiary education, and living in a middle-income household are factors that are likely to reduce consuming processed fish sometimes or very often. Our findings have important implications for investment in processed fish in Qatar. Specifically, the results help in targeting different consumer segments given a better understanding of factors associated with processed fish and fishery product consumption and the intensity of consumption among consumers in Qatar. The insights drawn from this study are a fundamental precondition for advancing the processed fish and fishery product industry in Qatar, an industry with the potential to generate by-products with benefits, such as energy and animal feed, prolonging fish and fishery product shelf life and convenience for consumers. Moreover, other countries in the region are likely to benefit from the insights drawn from this study.

Improvement of crop and soil management practices through mulching for enhancement of soil fertility and environmental sustainability: A review

The logarithmic phase of the human population creates high food demand near the future throughout the world. On the flip side, improved crop production requires uninterrupted water irrigation. Therefore, sensible agricultural inputs are needed to overcome these concerns. New technology-based innovative agronomic research steps will boost the contemporary agriculture practices in developed and developing countries. Agricultural cropping systems could follow mulching practices as one of the best crop management practices for its water and nutrient management potential. It is primarily to accomplish healthy economic and environmental bonds. By covering the soil's surface with biodegradable resources such as organic and inorganic materials, mulching improves the physicochemical characteristics of the soil. This approach provides a favorable environment for the development of plant growth and fosters the activities of microbial communities. Additionally, it reduces the growth of weeds, manages erosion, gets rid of pesticide residue, and increases soil fertility. Mulching the soil surface has profound benefits in improving the soil moisture levels due to a reduced evaporation rate. This method is a practical agronomic entrance to reduce water scarcity and raise the chance of water conservation, notably in arid and semiarid regions. It can also boost crop security and production to meet the global food requirements. This review significantly focuses on the current influence and advantages of organic mulches for crop establishment in the agriculture sector, which can close the production gap between achievable and actual yield.

Brazilian female researchers do not publish less despite an academic structure that deepens sex gap.

In the 21st century, we still need to talk about gender inequality in science. Even with the sharp growth of studies on this theme over the last decades, we are still trying to convince our peers that diversity matters and, if embraced, makes better science. Part of this drawback can be related to the need for data to support effective proposals to change the academic scenario. In order to close some of those gaps, we here analyze 1) the profile of Brazilian researchers based on production, impact, and membership to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, 2) participation in the Editorial boards of Brazilian journals dedicated to Entomology, and, 3) the academic scenario of Brazilian Entomology focusing on the sex of the first and last authors in peer-reviewed international publications related to Entomology. We aimed to provide a deeper look on the Brazilian Entomology scenario and to expand the amount of data availability to stimulate and foster a mind-change in the current academic structure. We performed scientometric searches and analysis using different platforms and found that the number and impact of the publications by female researchers, as observed by relative numbers, are not less than that of males. Despite that, female researchers are less represented at the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and editorial boards, reinforcing the lack of women recognition in science. Thus, we observe that some narratives related to the productivity gap can be misleading to a perpetuation of our internal and structural biases. We here expanded data from a previous paper where we scrutinized the Brazilian Entomology scenario and discussed the patches and systems that maintain gender gap in science.

Improving Yield and Water Productivity of Rainfed Summer Maize in Smallholder Farming: A Case Study in Hebei Province, China

Because of the strong competition for a limited resource of water and demand for food production, understanding yield and water productivity (WP) potentials and exploitable gaps in the current production of intensively rainfed maize (Zea mays L.) is essential on the regional scale in China. In this study, we conducted 411 site–year on-farm trials to assess the actual yield and WP of rainfed summer maize and its yield and WP potentials in Hebei Province, China. Each on-farm trial contained detailed information of three different treatments: no fertilizer application (CK), current farmers’ practices (FP, depending on local farmer field fertilization management), and optimum fertilizer application (OPT, depending on soil testing and balanced fertilization). Results revealed that the yield and WP of rainfed summer maize in Hebei Province were 7635 kg ha−1 and 20.7 kg ha−1 mm−1, respectively, and the yield and WP potentials were 12,148 kg ha−1 and 32.0 kg ha−1 mm−1, respectively. Thus, the farmers attained 62.8% of the yield potential and 64.7% of the WP potential. A wide variation was observed in terms of the yield and WP across various types of farming. Compared with high-yield and high-WP (HYHW) farming, in low-yield and low-WP (LYLW) farming, the yield decreased by 24.9% and WP decreased by 44.4%. Nitrogen fertilizer application rate and rain were the most significant factors for yield and WP gaps among farmers, respectively. Other factors, such as solar radiation (tSola), soil available phosphorus content (AP), potassium fertilizer application rate, and grass-referenced evapotranspiration from planting to maturity (ET0), contributed the most to the variations in the yield and WP. Scenario analysis indicated that the optimization of fertilization levels from current to optimal for each farming could increase the yield and WP by 9.7% and 14.8%, respectively; closing gaps between the farming groups and achievement of the standard of HYHW farming by all farmers could increase the yield and WP by 14.8% and 35.5%, respectively; and achieving the yield and WP potentials could increase the yield and WP by 59.1% and 54.8%, respectively. These findings provided farming-based evidence that optimal nutrient management, advanced and climate-adapted agronomy practices, and higher soil fertility are essential for future maize production.

Gender productivity gap: does gender-equal ownership compensate for female entrepreneurs’ lack of prior industry experience?

Gender productivity gap: does gender-equal ownership compensate for female entrepreneurs’ lack of prior industry experience?

Family firms and the labor productivity controversy: A distributional analysis of varying labor productivity gaps

The question of whether family firms have a higher or lower labor productivity than nonfamily firms has led to a stream of inconsistent evidence. We address this polarized debate by arguing that the idiosyncratic workforce characteristics combined with the dual (socioemotional versus financial) wealth concerns of family firms may differ across the labor productivity distribution, which has a varying impact on the labor productivity differences of family firms versus nonfamily firms. Therefore, we use the method of unconditional quantile regression in our empirical testing on a rich data set containing firm-level data from a national survey of nearly 6,400 Chilean businesses, which allows us to account for the heterogeneous behavior of family firms throughout the entire labor productivity distribution rather than to focus on the difference in mean productivities merely. In line with our theoretical arguments, we find that family ownership generates a productivity advantage for firms located in the lower tail of the labor productivity distribution, whereas it exhibits a negative effect on labor productivity in the upper tail compared to their nonfamily counterparts. Our findings are robust to potential endogeneity of family ownership and offer a reconciling perspective on the contrasting labor-related agency and stewardship arguments dominating the labor productivity debate in family firms so far by showing which argument dominates depending on where the firm is located on the labor productivity distribution.

Method for constructing a CAD training course

Objective. In the development of the electronic industry, one of the strategic directions for the development of organizations is personnel training. The costs of training and the implementation of training courses in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic are significant. The purpose of this work is to increase the efficiency of engineers' activities in computer-aided modular design systems based on printed circuit boards (PCB) through the formation of the necessary competencies and recommendations for the designer.Method. The article provides an overview of methods and systems for the formation of CAD content in various industries. It is proposed to create a training system updated in real time, which will improve the skills of engineers and overcome gaps in production The structure of an automated learning system (AOS) is developed. What makes this structure different from others is an ontological model domain and an adaptive model. An adaptive method has been developed for constructing a CAD training course for enterprises in the instrument manufacturing industry, which is distinguished by the use of mechanisms for the interaction of learning models. The individual characteristics of the engineer being trained to form an adaptive learning scenario are taken into account in these learning models. This allows providing the optimal learning trajectory to the student with a reduction in learning time.Result. This research method is used to improve the skills of engineers in the course "Design of modules based on PP" at the X52 shipyard in Vietnam. As the results of the experiments, we can achieve a result that this effective method increases the level of engineering competence by 11.3% and decreases the total training time by 25.4 % compared to +the traditional method. Moreover, this method also reduces the cost of additional training for new engineers.Conclusion. The obtained results demonstrate the need to develop an adaptive training system. Thank to this method, the competency of the software-based modular design engineers will be developed. The adequacy of this method has been previously confirmed by the experimental data and the previous studies.

Determination of the Best Planting Season for the Protected Cultivation of Papaya

Papaya is a tropical crop increasingly cultivated in the greenhouses of subtropical regions such as South East Spain, where the determination of the best planting season is important to ensure a stable fruit production and quality during the year. In this work, we studied plant growth, yield, and fruit quality, comparing spring and autumn planting seasons in ‘Intenzza’ cultivar. The results showed that planting in spring favors plant growth, leading to an earlier entry into production. Total yield and fruit quality were similar in both planting seasons, although the spring cycle provided higher profits due to greater commercial yield and lower discards. Our results confirm that adverse environmental conditions affect the crop in a similar way regardless of the planting season, so different growing cycles are not very useful for filling the production gaps and fighting against seasonality in our region, unless unfavorable climate conditions are avoided inside the greenhouse.

Gender norms, landholdership, and rural land use fee and agricultural income tax in Ethiopia

Area-based land taxes – a form of property tax – exist where rural land markets do not exist or do not function well. Understanding how these taxes affect different groups of landholders, including by men and women, is important since a tax based on the land size is likely to have an outsized effect on smaller landholders. However, survey data allowing for an individual- and household-disaggregated analysis has been scarce. Using newly available data on tax payments and self-reported individual land ownership from the Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey 2018/2019, this paper assessed the gender implications of an area-based rural land use fee and agricultural income tax in Ethiopia. We found that female adult-only households were more likely than dual adult households to be smallholders with less than 0.5 hectare of land, and these smallholders faced the largest per-hectare tax rates. Female-headed- and female adult-only households faced a tax incidence that was 37 % higher than it was for male-headed and dual-adult households. The gender land ownership patterns, norms limiting women’s role in agriculture, household structures, and gender agricultural productivity gaps are likely to result in lower consumption, and consequently, a higher tax burden for women. Finally, we simulated the effect of a hypothetical tax schedule with progressive per-hectare tax rates and exemptions for smallholders, and found that while this would reduce women’s tax burdens, the tax remained to be regressive because of the prevalence of landholdership among poor households. Our study highlights the difficulty of area-based land taxes to be progressive.

Performance Evaluation of Organic and Conventional Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Production in the West Region of Cameroon: An Economic Policy Review

Aims: To describe the socio-economic characteristics of potato producers, compare the performance and identify production challenges of organic and conventional potato production in the West region of Cameroon.
 Study Design and Methodology: The study population refers to the conventional and organic potato producers in the West region of Cameroon. Purposive and snowball sampling technique were used in this study. A total sample size of 200 respondents was identified, 148 conventional farmers and 52 organic farmers. Out of 200 farmers interviewed, 55 from Mifi division (11 organic and 44 conventional) and 145 from Menoua division (41 organic and 104 conventional).
 Results: Results revealed that majority of potato producers in the West region of Cameroon are male, 70.3% conventional farmers and 88.5% organic farmers. Most farmers are married (73% conventional and 78.9% organic farmers) and practiced livestock rearing in addition to potato production. Also, most farmers (59.5% conventional farmers and 59.6% organic farmers) have secondary education as their highest level of formal education. Information on yield revealed a productivity gap and production cost between conventional and organic potato farmers with a positive mean difference of 7,102.877kg and 765,184 frs respectively, significant at 5% level in favour of conventional farmers. Similarly, results showed a gap in revenue and gross margin between the two categories of farmers with a positive mean difference of 1,233,240 frs and 465,475.4 frs respectively, significant at 5% level in favour of conventional farmers. Analysis showed that 50% of conventional farmers interviewed noted rainfall variation as the main challenge faced in production while 80% of organic farmers have low seed quality as the main challenge.
 Conclusion: Conventional potato farmers are better off than organic potato farmers in terms of yield and gross margins, thus bringing to limelight the question concerning the popular push of organic foods consumption as regard potato.

Publish or Procreate: The Effect of Motherhood on Academic Performance (WITHDRAWN)

Women are underrepresented in science and representation deficits are even greater for more senior positions and in STEM fields. The dominant explanation is that male and female scientists, even within the same field, publish at unequal rates. Prior studies on select fields suggest that the gender gap in academic productivity reflects differential effects of childbearing on men and women, as women face tensions between the two greedy institutions of family and academia. We study the full population of STEM academics in Denmark and investigate parenthood penalties on scientific productivity of mothers and fathers, who are active in research after the birth of their first child. We employ an event-study approach on annual research publications, an outcome especially relevant in the science domain, and rely on a unique combination of Danish registers and granular bibliometric data on publications from the database Scopus. We find that, on average, the first childbirth results in an annual penalty of 24 percent on scientific productivity of mothers in STEM fields relative to fathers in the first 5 years after birth. This reflects a drop in annual research publications of mothers relative to their own pre-birth productivity. Hence, unequal impacts of parenthood may be an important driver of gender inequality in Science.

Integrated assessment of mine water pollution influence on water removal efficiency in Udachny Mine

Efficiency of water removal in underground mineral mining is mainly connected with operating cost of electrically driven pumps of water-drainage installations. In this regard, the comprehensive study of a water removal system structure shows that, alongside with electrically driven pumps, watercatchment roadways, pipeline system and mine water reinjection system (if any), it is expedient to add the water drainage system with load–haul–dumpers and hoists for haulage and lifting of thickened silt-and-slime slurry to ground surface. In this case, reduction in concentration of solid particles in mine water and effective dewatering of silt-and-slime slurry may result in higher technical and economic effect in terms of mineral mining cost than is anticipated. This article presents the studies in the field of integrated assessment of impact exerted by solid particles in mine water on water removal performance in Udachny Mine. The efficiency criteria are proposed for the system of water removal from the underground kimberlite mine. It is found that the cost of kimberlite ore mining in Udachny mine is mostly affected by mine water contamination in terms of expenses connected with power consumption and repair of pumping equipment of the main water-drainage installation, as well as due to a profit gap in kimberlite production. The developed mathematical model allows assessment of influence exerted by solid phase in mine water on the efficiency of water removal from Udachny Mine.

TAYLOR'S RULE WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF RULE-BASED-OPINAL POLICY DISCUSSIONS: AN APPLICATION SPECIFIC TO THE CBRT

Bu çalışmada kurala dayalı ve ihtiyari para politikası tartışmalarından hareketle 2006-2021 dönemi baz alınarak, Türkiye’de Taylor Kuralı dahilinde para politikasının enflasyon açığı, üretim açığı ve kur açığı değişkenleri ile ilişkisi belirlenmeye çalışılmıştır. Söz konusu değişkenlerden sapmalar yaşandığında kısa vadeli faiz oranlarının nasıl seyir izlediği ARDL Sınır testi modeli ile incelenmiştir. İki modele dayanan analizin ilk modelinde Geleneksel Taylor Kuralı, ikinci modelinde ise döviz kurunun da dahil edildiği Genişletilmiş Taylor Kuralı incelenmiş; ilk model için faiz oranları ile üretim açığı arasında anlamı bir ilişki saptanmazken, enflasyon açığı ile faiz oraları arasında negatif bir ilişki bulgulanmıştır. Bu bulgu TCMB’nin politika faizinde fiyat istikrarını göz etmediği şeklindedir. Döviz kurunun da analize dahil edildiği ikinci modelde ise politika faizi ile üretim açığı arasında pozitif ve istatistiki açıdan anlamlı bir ilişki; politika faizi kur açığı arasında negatif ve istatistiki açıdan anlamlı bir ilişki bulgulanmıştır. TCMB’nin politika faizini belirlerken, üretim ve kur değişkenlerini dikkate aldığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Blockchain for requirements traceability: A qualitative approach

AbstractBlockchain technology has emerged as a “disruptive innovation” that has received significant attention in academic and organizational settings. However, most of the existing research is focused on technical issues of blockchain systems, overlooking the organizational perspective. This study adopted a grounded theory to unveil the blockchain implementation process in organizations from the lens of blockchain experts. The results revealed three main categories: key activities, success factors, and challenges related to blockchain implementation in organizations, the latter being identified as the core category, along with 17 other concepts. Findings suggested that the majority of blockchain projects stop at the pilot stage and outlined organizational resistance to change as the core challenge. According to the experts, the following factors contribute to the organizational resistance to change: innovation–production gap, conservative management, and centralized mentality. The study aims to contribute to the existing blockchain literature by providing a holistic and domain‐agnostic view of the blockchain implementation process in organizational settings. This can potentially encourage the development and implementation of blockchain solutions and guide practitioners who are interested in leveraging the inherent benefits of this technology. In addition, the results are used to improve a blockchain‐enabled requirements traceability framework proposed in our previous paper.

Urban Non-urban Agglomeration Divide: Is There a Gap in Productivity and Wages?

This paper investigates the productivity–wage relation using a novel and integrated employer-employee database covering the entire population of non-financial firms’ plants in one of the most developed regions in Europe, i.e., the Italian Lombardy region. We suggest that although a growing literature shows that locating in urban areas yields substantial productivity gains due to agglomeration economies, the interaction between productivity and wages is ultimately the key to ascertaining the true advantage of the high densely populated areas. By adopting an empirical specification that allows us to explore interaction effects between localization and the sector of activity at the establishment level, we find that agglomeration economies play a significant but conditional role in affecting productivity and wage differentials while also controlling for firm-specific factors (in particular, job-related characteristics) and selection effects. The estimated impacts are heterogeneous across sectors, depending on their technological features. The effect of locating in High-density urban areas on the productive-wage gap is significantly positive only in highly knowledge-intensive services sectors; for firms supplying less technologically sophisticated services and for manufacturing plants, the impact is either not significant or negative. Locating in Rural areas generally exerts a downward (or not significant) impact on the productivity-wage gap.

Gender pay and productivity in UK universities: Evidence from research-intensive Business Schools

Women academics earn less than men, even after controlling for a range of productivity-related covariates. However, the latter usually do not include direct measures of research productivity. This paper uses data from the Higher Education Statistical Authority (HESA) confirming the existence of unconditional and conditional gender wage gaps. Data separately collected for the recent 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) shows men are more research productive but that after controlling for academic grade there is no gender productivity gap. For both wage and productivity gaps, there are barriers for women to achieve the research productivity needed to be promoted, and reducing these would go a long way to eliminating such gaps.

Is Earnings Management Related to Labor Productivity Gap? Evidence from the USA

Using a standard partial adjustment model and US firms, we study the relationship between managers’ failure to achieve target labor productivity and their tendency to manage earnings. To overcome the endogeneity problem, we employ an instrumental variable technique based on negative investment growth and find that managers, experiencing a labor productivity gap, tend to manage earnings by manipulating discretionary accruals and real operating activities. Additional analysis suggests that elements of personal value maximization biases drive the estimated effect of the labor productivity gap. Our results are robust considering variation and alternative measures of statistical sensitivity. The positive association between the labor productivity gap and earnings management is also consistent with the opportunistic financial reporting hypothesis and impression management theory.

Mitigating the detrimental effects of COVID-19 pandemic on scientific production

Mitigating the detrimental effects of COVID-19 pandemic on scientific production