We use a sample of Italian manufacturing firms to study the relationship between productivity (proxied by Total Factor Productivity) and the intensity of firm participation in heterogeneous foreign markets (proxied by the ratio of exports to total sales, i.e., export intensity). We find that firm productivity is strongly negatively correlated with export intensity to low-income countries and un...

Based on a sample of about 600 state enterprises from 1980 to 1994, this paper investigates the productivity performance of SOEs using Data Envelopment Analysis and a Malmquist index. Our empirical results show that the average technical efficiency was low for these firms. Considerable productivity growth was found, but it was accomplished mainly through technical progress rather than through e...

This paper analyzes the productivity performance of Chinese manufacturing firms from 1995 to 2003 by using a large-scale firm-level dataset from the National Bureau of Statistics, Peoples Republic of China. Over this period, a large number of firms were converted to stock holding companies, and an increasing presence of foreign-owned companies further accelerated structural changes in Chinese i...

One influential criticism of the stock market oriented U.S. financial system is that its excessive focus on short term quarterly earnings forces public firms to behave in a myopic manner. We hypothesize that if capital markets pressure listed firms to be myopic in a way that impacts efficiency, then going private (when myopia is eliminated) should cause U.S. firms to improve their establishment...

The concept of productivity is at the heart of economic theory, management science and operational management of firms and organizations. Despite the theoretical and operational importance of this concept, in recent years, its absolutism has been challenged. Services are often at the heart of this critical debate. Both conceptually and methodologically, services are indeed a major challenge to ...

In this paper different formulae for the decomposition of aggregate productivity levels and changes are applied to a sample of German manufacturing firms that pertain to 11 different industries at a roughly two-digit level observed over the period 1981-1998. Productivity is measured by a nonparametric frontier function approach. The decompositions of productivity allow for an explanation of the...

abstract in the past few years, diversification has turned into a highly controversial issue amongst numerous managers in almost each and every business. it is contended by many that diversification is vitally important and highly effective especially when it comes to evaluating the financial performance. there are several studies about the relationship between diversification and financial per...

Inflows of foreign direct investment generate externalities that spill over to domestic firms and raise their productivity. This article examines the extent of spillover effects of foreign direct investment for firms in the highly disaggregated garment (ISIC 3221) and electronics industries (ISIC 3832) in Indonesia. Both are export-intensive industries, but differ greatly in technological sophi...

Gender Wage-Productivity Differentials and Global Integration in China In the absence of discrimination, there should be no wage-productivity differentials as relative wages should be equal to the relative marginal productivity levels of workers. This paper investigates the role of globalization on the structure and evolution of gender differentials in China by simultaneously estimating demand-...

The aim of this contribution is to study empirically the effect of trade liberalization on productivity growth exploiting a large micro-dataset of more than 20,000 French and Italian food firms, over the 2004-2012 period. This relationship has been studied focusing on import penetration at both industry and upstream sectors level, to investigate the role played by imports in intermediate inputs...