The paper investigates the effects of international trade in goods and capital movement on the productivity distribution and industry-wide productivity when countries are heterogeneous in the quality of their financial institutions. In autarky, firm heterogeneity in their productivities arises in countries with poor financial institutions, while all firms adopt a high-productivity technology in...

We study the response of domestic unemployment rates to shocks in total factor productivity for economies with high capital mobility and low labour mobility. We show that high capital mobility amplifies the impact on the domestic unemployment rate of domestic fluctuations in total factor productivity, shortens the lag of the response to shocks and raises the variability of unemployment. But ave...

Two-digit manufacturing industry-level production functions are used to test efficiency wage propositions. Conclusive tests require functional forms which allow differences in elasticities of substitution between observable human capital, wage premia and other inputs. Results demonstrate that unexplained industry wage premia and higher unemployment rates raise productivity. Wage premia and the ...

Using panel data from a large hospital system, this paper presents estimates of the productivity effects of human capital in a team production environment. Proxying nurses’ general human capital by education and their unit-specific human capital by experience on the nursing unit, we find that greater amounts of both types of human capital significantly improve patient outcomes. Disruptions to t...

This paper constructs China’s capital stock, which is used in conjunction with a labor variable to estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function for the Chinese economy. Two panels of data are used – one for capital formation and one for sources of investment finance. Both national and provincial data are used for these two panels, thus giving a total of four capital-stock series. The Cobb-Dougla...

This paper assesses whether the linkages between R&D, human capital and productivity growth in a panel of EU manufacturing industries over the period 1980-2002 are affected by a critical level of human capital. To employ our data in an efficient manner, the study makes use of a dynamic threshold-based analysis, which determines endogenously the sample splitting procedure. The estimates indicate...

Using panel cointegration techniques, we show a cointegrating relationship exists between capital and productivity in 446 manufacturing industries. Panel DOLS and FMOLS estimates reveal that innovations to productivity increase and Granger cause capital movements.  2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Total factor productivity—a measure of the efficiency with which labor and capital are used—has fallen during the current recession. But, after adjustment for lower utilization of labor and capital, such productivity has risen strongly over the past two years. These growth-accounting measures suggest that efficiency gains have continued during the recession, boding well for long-term economic g...