Using historical, ®rm-level data, this study compares the productivity of Japanese and U.S. integrated steel producers. In recent decades Japanese producers have demonstrated higher labor productivity than their U.S. counterparts, due largely to higher investment. Calculations of multifactor productivity suggest that the American ®rms, nevertheless, maintain a small advantage in overall ef®cien...

Underground coal mining is a dangerous industry where the regulatory state may impose tradeoffs between productivity and safety. We recover the marginal tradeoffs using disasters near a mine as shocks that increase future accident costs. We find that in the second year after a disaster, productivity decreases 11% and accident rates decrease 18-80% for mines in the same state, with some evidence...

We develop a multi-sector general equilibrium model in which productivity growth is driven by the production of sector-specific knowledge. In the model, we find that long run differences in total factor productivity growth across sectors are independent of the parameters of the knowledge production function except for one, which we term the fertility of knowledge. Differences in R&D intensity a...

Using micro evidence from manufacturing and services firms located in 55 African countries, this paper shows that better management practice, reflected by international management certification, helps firms to raise productivity. Larger and older firms and firms operating closer to the technological frontier are more likely to possess international management standards certification, as do firm...

This paper examines the costs and bene ̄ts of government control of enterprises in transition, using a large survey of Chinese state enterprises. We ̄nd that tighter government control causes more unpro ̄table production and more surplus employment and thus tends to distort more severely enterprises' economic decisions. However, tighter government control also tends to reduce agency costs by forc...

This paper investigates how ownership changes affect the plant performance, focusing on the cotton spinning industry in early twentieth century Japan, where many plants experienced ownership changes. Through analyses of detailed plant-level data, it is revealed that, after ownership changes, plants tended to focus on low grade and low price products and, at the same time, total factor productiv...

This paper examines productivity growth in the Indonesian manufacturing sector. We use a longitudinal data set to calculate the effects on aggregate manufacturing productivity growth from improvements within establishments, from reallocation of market shares, and from the turnover of plants. The difference between domestic and foreign owned plants is examined together with a calculation of the ...

This paper examines the impact of floods on firms’ capital accumulation, employment growth and productivity by using a difference-indifference approach and considering firms’ asset structure. We find evidence that after a flooding companies in flooded regions show on average higher growth of total assets and employment than firms in areas not affected by flooding. The positive effect prevails f...

We study the effect of outdoor air pollution on the productivity of indoor workers at a pear-packing factory. Increases in fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a pollutant that readily penetrates indoors, leads to significant decreases in productivity, with effects arising at levels below air quality standards. In contrast, pollutants that do not travel indoors, such as ozone, have little, if any, ...

This paper considers an econometric approach to measuring substitutability of three types of energy, i.e. crude oil, electricity and diesel with capital and labour in the manufacturing sector of Greek industry during the period 1970]1990. A general dynamic framework is developed under the assumption that the structure of the production process is weakly separable in capital, labour and energy a...