This paper studies the impact of trade liberalization in terms of tariff cuts within the Eastern European enlargement on German and Austrian firm productivity. Unique matching of data from 1994 to 2003 suggests that tariff reductions raise parent firm productivity significantly. A ten percentage point decrease in tariff rates can lead to total factor productivity gains of up to 2 percent. The d...

This paper provides new evidence about the link between firm level total factor productivity (TFP) and stock returns. We estimate firm level TFP and show that it is strongly related to several firm characteristics such as size, the book to market ratio, investment, and hiring rate. Low productivity firms earn a significant premium over high productivity firms in the following year, and this pre...

We endogenize total factor productivity in a neoclassical model with increasing returns to scale. We obtain multiple steady-state equilibria with an arbitrarily small degree of increasing returns to scale. While the most productive …rms operate across all the steady states, in a poverty trap less productive …rms operate as well. This results in lower average …rm productivity and total factor pr...

In the model where the choices of technology by firms endogenously determine productivity differences, we investigate the link between factor endowment and the productivity both in the firm and industry levels. We find among others that firms in capital-abundant countries tend to adopt new advanced technologies more in their production processes, and that opening to international trade will not...

This paper explores the role of public debt and fiscal deficits on factor productivity in an economy with credit market frictions and heterogeneous firms. When credit market conditions are sufficiently weak, low interest rates permit the government to run Ponzi schemes so that permanent primary deficits can be sustained. For small enough deficit ratios, the model has two steady states of which ...

We document a set of time use patterns in both time series and cross sections. To explain these facts, we propose and estimate a model of time allocation that emphasizes the role of home production technology. We find it necessary to consider both labor-augmenting technology and total factor productivity in home production. Based on the estimated model, we study the effects of proportional tax ...

most developing countries have achieved productivity growth in economic sectors like agriculture for more than 30 years. universities and governmental research centers have tried to generate knowledge with direct social and economic effects during these decades. so, productivity and production growth can be attributed to technological changes made possible through investment in agricultural res...

Total Factor Productivity (TFP) is the portion of output not explained by the amount of inputs used in production. The following definition describes the measurement and importance of TFP for growth, fluctuations and development as well as likely future directions of research. Total Factor Productivity (TFP) is the portion of output not explained by the amount of inputs used in production. As s...

We suggest a possible explanation for cross-country differences in total factor productivity. Many technologies used by LDCs are developed in OECD economies, and as such, are designed to make optimal use of the skills of these richer countries' workforces. Due to differences in the supply of skills, some of the tasks performed by skilled workers in richer economies will be carried out by unskil...