Sources Of Labor Productivity Growth Research Articles

Effects of digital transformation on electricity sector growth and productivity: A study of thirteen industrialized economies

This study examines growth patterns and sources of labour productivity growth and catch-up in the electricity sector. The study uses decomposition analysis to examine 13 industrialized economies from 2000 to 2015, a period of high growth in the sector. The study finds that total factor productivity and digital assets are the most powerful drivers of labour productivity growth and catch-up, while non-ICT assets have only a minor effect. Furthermore, labour quality outpaces R&D as a determinant of productivity. This study has implications for labour and industrial policy in the context of technological transformation and institutional restructuring in the electricity sector.

Internal Sources of Labour Productivity Growth in Russia

In this article, the authors analysed the readiness of Russian regions for the integration of technological innovations. In this context, managerial dichotomy “borrowing/creation of innovations” is of fundamental importance. The right choice of the way to increase productivity in the regions of the country represents a nontrivial task since the wrong solution would lead to significant economic losses. The authors proposed to use the concept of technological boundary to increase objectivity managerial decisions making. “Technological boundary” means the relative productivity of the region corresponding to the average productivity in the United States, the excess of which allows the region to develop new production technologies. The use of the concept of technological frontier and comparison of labour productivity in the Russian regions showed that only two regions in the country could act as drivers for the development of their own new technologies. At the same time, the available data and calculations show that in many regions there are leading companies of different industries with extremely high productivity and ability to act as innovative local drivers within the regions. This circumstance made it possible to formulate a multi-step strategy to accelerate the technological diffusion for Russia.

Structural Change and Growth Prospects in the Turkish Manufacturing Industry

The growth and development literature emphasize two sources of labor productivity growth. First, productivity improvements triggered by physical and human capital accumulation and technological change and second, productivity improvements arising from movements of resources towards high productivity industries, that is structural change. The effect of structural change may be productivity enhancing or may bring a drag on aggregate productivity. Empirical studies highlight growth enhancing structural change for newly industrialized Asian countries while indicates weak or growth reducing structural change for some Latin American and African countries. Moreover, these studies also highlight the importance of movements of resources within the manufacturing sub industries. The process of structural change and economic development of developed countries is well documented but studies about less developed or developing countries is very weak. In this respect this study aims to examine whether the Turkish economy fits into this picture of growth-enhancing or reducing structural change? The conventional shift-share analysis is used in order to analyze the effect of structural change on the productivity of the manufacturing industry and the whole Turkish economy for the period of (2003-2017). The results suggest that on average, the within growth effect dominates labor productivity improvements whereas between growth and covariance effects account for very small parts of productivity growth for all the periods.

Exploring the Sources of Labor Productivity Growth and Convergence among State-Owned Forestry Enterprises in Northeast China

Abstract The state-owned forestry enterprises (SOFEs) are important producers of forest products in China, and their competitiveness depends largely on their labor productivity (LP). This article is the first to investigate the sources of LP growth and the convergence patterns of SOFEs in northeast China. Based on panel data from 87 SOFEs in northeast China from 2006 to 2018, this article has used the Cobb-Douglas production function to analyze the sources of LP growth, using three convergent methods to explore convergence patterns. The results show that there is a positive correlation between LP and an SOFE's ability to compete, and that both total factor productivity and capital-to-labor ratio significantly contribute to LP growth in all SOFEs of northeast China; however, the role of the quantity of labor was negative. On the whole, all SOFEs did not have σ-convergence in LP growth, but an absolute and a conditional β-convergence. Although the LP divergence between SOFEs in northeast China has not been narrowed, there has been a “catch-up effect” in LP growth. These results can help people understand the laws pertaining to LP growth among forest enterprises and also how they may reduce production costs, improving market competitiveness among forest products.

SOURCES OF THE DYNAMICS OF LABOR PRODUCTIVITY CHANGES IN AGRICULTURE IN EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES BASED ON ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS FOR AGRICULTURE (EAA)

The purpose of this analysis is to illustrate sources of dynamics of labour productivity factor performance based on the analytical approach adopted. The dynamics of gross value added and employment in agriculture were shaped to the dynamics of labor productivity changes. Derived analytical approach to the sources of dynamics of changes in labour productivity has been illustrated empirically. The empirical analysis was based on EU ROSTAT data. Economic Accounts for Agriculture and Statistics of Agricultural Labor Inputs. The positive impact of both sources of labor productivity growth and gross value added a tendency towards greater stability for the EU -15 countries has been demonstrated, the neutral nature of direct payments for changes in labor productivity was found.

Domestic Electronics Manufacturing: Medical, Military, and Aerospace Equipment and What We Don't Know about High-Tech Productivity

Beginning in the 1990s, Federal Reserve Board staff paid increasing attention to electronics manufacturing in order to advance its understanding of technological innovation, of the role of the domestic industrial sector in global value chains, and of the sources of labor productivity growth.

Is the Convergence Party Over? Labour Productivity and the Technology Gap in Europe

AbstractClosing the technology gap to reduce labour productivity disparities across Europe is crucial for the European cohesion policy. This article explores the sources of labour productivity growth in Europe over the period 1993–2007 in light of the enlargement process. Labour productivity growth has been mostly driven by capital accumulation. New Member States have significantly reduced their inefficiency and their technology gap. Disparities in the levels of labour productivity are still substantial and, to a considerable extent, they can be attributed to technology gap differences. This raises concerns about the process of convergence in labour productivity in Europe and suggests further policies aimed at reducing the technology gap.

Exploring the sources of labour productivity growth and convergence in the Italian regions: some evidence from a production frontier approach

This paper investigates labour productivity growth and regional convergence patterns in Italy over the time span 1982–2000. Starting from some evidence of spatial polarisation within Italian economy, the analysis aims at exploring the sources of this tendency. To this end, an approach based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) production frontiers is employed which allows to decompose labour productivity growth into efficiency change, technological progress and capital deepening, looking then at the relative contribution of each component to regional convergence. Moreover, some measures of human capital and public capital are used as augmentation factors of the conventional inputs. The study leads to the conclusion that polarisation is mainly due to regional differences in efficiency change.

Prosperity and Productivity: A Canada-Australia Comparison

This study compares Canada’s economic performance to Australia. The comparison is performed in terms of: a) living standards and its proximate sources of growth-labour productivity and labour utilization (or hours worked per person) and b) the underlying sources of labour productivity growth. There are marked differences in the structures of the labour market between the two countries, reflected by a more rapid growth in hours at work and labour utilization rate in Canada. However, this rapid growth in hours at work has muted Canada’s labour productivity growth, which increased less rapidly than its Australian counterpart.

Growth Accounting in Items of Turbulence and Death: Efficiency, Technology, Capital Accumulation and Human Capital 1929-1950

We employ a non-parametrical approach to growth accounting (Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA) to disentangle the proximate sources of labour productivity growth in 41 nations between 1929 and 1950 by decomposing productivity growth into four components: technological change; efficiency catch-up (movements towards the production frontier), capital accumulation and human capital accumulation. We show that efficiency catch-up generally explains productivity growth, whereas technological change and factor accumulation were limited and distorted by the effects of war. War clearly hampered efficiency. Moreover, an unbalanced ratio of human capital to physical capital (a gap to the technological leader) was crucial for efficiency catching-up.

China's Pattern of Growth: Moving to Sustainability and Reducing Inequality

AbstractThis paper uses both macro level and sectoral data to study the sources and pattern of China's impressive economic growth over the last 25 years. Extending the growth accounting framework, we show that widening inequality, rural poverty, and resource intensity are to a large extent rooted in China's growth strategy, and resolving them requires a rebalancing of policies. We find that growth of investment in the industrial sector has been the single most important factor driving gross domestic product and overall labor productivity growth since the early 1990s. The shift of labor from low‐productivity agriculture has been limited. The productivity gap between agriculture and the rest of the economy has continued to widen, leading to increased rural‐urban income inequality. Continuing with the current growth pattern would further increase already high investment and saving needs to unsustainable levels, lower urban employment growth, and widen the rural‐urban income gap. However, reducing subsidies to industry and investment, encouraging the development of the services industry, and reducing barriers to labor mobility would result in a more balanced growth and a substantial reduction in the income gap between rural and urban residents.(Edited by Xiaoming Feng)

Determinants of human capital formation and economic growth of African countries

Rapid economic growth and improving living standards have benefited almost all regions of the world since the industrial revolution. Africa stands out as one regional exception. While several factors such as civil wars and rampant corruption have been associated with poor economic performance of the African region in the international community, the main focus of this research is to explore the role that human capital should play in improving the region's economic productivity. The study identifies the two-way links between human resource development produced by formal schooling and economic growth, measured in per capita terms, and between investment in physical capital and growth. It then estimates this three-equation structural system by two stage least squares (2SLS). The study concludes that the sources of labor productivity growth in the medium term in African nations are high investment in physical capital and in human capital. This is consistent with the hypothesis that both human and physical capital investments are necessary if Africa is to attain industrial development. The hypothesis that per capita growth is a determinant in turn of investment in education is consistent with the ordinary least squares and 2SLS estimates, implying a two-way causal flow. Also confirmed is the hypothesis that human resource development is a determinant of investment in physical capital, which contributes significantly to per capita growth in the next round.

Energy, capital and technological change in Colombia: a comparative analysis with the United States

John Moroney, in his article Energy, Capital and Technological Change in the United States (1991), specifies and estimates aggregated production functions designed to identify the roles of capitallabor substitution, energylabor substitution and technological change as sources of labor productivity growth. My work is based on the paper of John Moroney mentioned above, and has the objective of making an analysis similar to that made by Moroney but in the Colombian context. The goal of this work is to identify the impact on labor productivity of energy, capital and technological change, using appropriated CobbDouglas models. The paper also presents a comparative analysis of two cases.

Growth in a dual economy

Growth and structural transformation of the manufacturing sector in developing countries are sometimes considered to be the result of the expansion of the “modern” (large-scale) sector relative to the “traditional” (small-scale) sector. Examining the sources of labor productivity growth in Mexican manufacturing, however, does not provide support for such a conclusion. Although we find that labor productivity levels vary almost in direct relation to establishment size, labor productivity growth shows no systematic variation by size class. In fact, small establishments have had the same rate of labor productivity growth as larger ones, partly because of the “exit-effect” (i.e. the exiting of low-productivity, small plants). Moreover, most of the variation in labor productivity across plant class sizes is found to be due to differences in capital intensity. The variation in total factor productivity (TFP) levels across size classes tends to be small.

Energy, capital and technological change in the United States

During the years 1950–1973, energy and capital were jointly substituted for labor, and real GNP per hour increased at 2.5% annually. Following the energy price shocks of 1973–1974 and 1979–1981, both capital utilization and energy per worker hour fell abruptly. Likewise, the growth in real GNP per hour declined to 1.2%. This paper specifies and estimates aggregate production functions designed to identify the roles of capital-labor substitution, energy-labor substitution, and technological change as sources of labor productivity growth. Declining energy intensity was an important partial cause of the slowdown in productivity growth.

Patterns of productivity growth in South Korean manufacturing industries, 1963–1979

In this paper we estimate sources of labor productivity growth in 25 Korean manufacturing industries between 1963 and 1979. We find that less than half of the 11 percent annual increase in overall manufacturing labor productivity can be attributed to capital deepening, and that the importance of this factor and total factor productivity advance varied sharply across industries. Heavy industries accumulated capital per worker at a faster pace, and realized total factor productivity growth at a much slower rate, than others did. This contrast may be related to the extensive capital subsidies provided to the former as part of an import-substitution program. Also, the rapid total factor productivity growth in labor-intensive manufacturing industries was accompanied by rapid growth in average firm size, supporting the argument that the shift from craft to modern production techniques has been a major source of productivity growth.