We implement an endogeneous switching-regression model for labour productivity and firms’ decision to use business–to–business (B2B) e–commerce. Our approach allows B2B usage to affect any parameter of the labour productivity equation and to properly take account of strategic complementarities between the input factors and B2B usage. Empirical evidence from 1,394 German firms shows that firms u...

We examine factors determining productivity of firms’ information service activities, using most comprehensive data of information service industries in Japan. We focus on the degree of modularization and resulting outsourcing, economies/diseconomies of scale in software development, and firms’ organizational changes. Outsourcing has persistent negative effects on total factor productivity, sug...

This paper establishes a link between the extent of collective bargaining and the degree of productivity dispersion within an industry. In a unionised oligopoly model we show that for only small differences in productivity levels. a sector-union can design a collective wage contract that covers a wide range of heterogeneous firms. In sectors with higher productivity dispersion, an industry unio...

Firms are increasingly sourcing internal information systems functions from external service providers. However, there is limited empirical evidence of the economic impact of this delivery option and, more specifically, of the productivity gains accruing to firms that have outsourced. Moreover, there is little evidence of the role and contributions of the individual mechanisms by which service ...

Firms are increasingly sourcing internal information systems functions from external service providers. However, there is limited empirical evidence of the economic impact of this delivery option and, more specifically, of the productivity gains accruing to firms that have outsourced. Moreover, there is little evidence of the role and contributions of the individual mechanisms by which service ...

This paper examines the response of U.S. manufacturing industries and plants to changes in trade costs using a unique new dataset on industry-level tariff and transportation rates. Our results lend support to recent heterogeneous-firm models of international trade that predict a reallocation of economic activity towards high-productivity firms as trade costs fall. We find that industries experi...

Competition is a crucial factor in driving economic growth. First, it places pressure on firms to increase their efficiency. Second, it ensures that more productive firms increase their market share at the expense of the less productive. These lower productivity firms may then exit the market, to be replaced by higher productivity firms. Third, in the presence of competition, firms will aim to ...

Chinese processing trade has grown considerably as firms have adopted a wide array of organizational forms to have their products assembled in China for export. To understand the coexistence of processing via foreign investment versus multiple forms of outsourcing, we modify Grossman and Helpman’s (2004) of managerial incentives to account for the economic costs associated with various firms’ i...

Social programs can reduce productivity and growth as they inadvertently generate perverse incentives for workers and firms. The core hypothesis is that these programs segment the labor market, tax formal salaried employment and subsidize informal salaried and non-salaried employment. Larger than optimal self-employment and employment by informal firms lowers aggregate labor productivity. In tu...

The Link between R&D, Innovation and Productivity: Are Micro Firms Different?* We analyze the link between R&D, innovation, and productivity in MSMEs with a special focus on micro firms with fewer than 10 employees; usually constituting the majority of firms in industrialized economies. Using the German KfW SME panel, we examine to what extent micro firms are different from other firms in terms...