We use the nonparametric programming approach to estimate technical efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) growth of sawmill industries in the U.S. and Canada between 1963 and 2001. The results show that Canadian sawmill industry is more efficient than the U.S. counterpart during the whole study period. The weighted annual productivity growth of sawmill industry is 2.5% for the U.S. and...

This paper assesses total factor productivity (TFP) growth in India, examines the sources of productivity growth, including public and private investment, and estimates the rates of return to public investments in agriculture. The results show that significant TFP growth in the Indian crops sector was produced by investments -primarily in research -but also in extension, markets, and irrigation...

This paper aims to analyze environmental Total Factor Productivity (TFP) change. Indeed, innovative TFP measures are introduced through convex and non production processes. Hence, the impacts of input output quality change on productivity variation underscored. In addition, general decomposition new ratio- difference-based is proposed. Finally, an empirical example provided illustrate these pro...

The factors that explain differences in the economic productivity of urban areas have remained difficult to measure and identify unambiguously. Here we show that a synthesis of the classical representation of economic activity in a city in terms of a production function, together with a scaling perspective that accounts for the systematic effects of population size, leads to a new expression fo...

We explore the effects of planning regulation on the UK retail sector between 1997 and 2003 using microdata from the UK census. We document a shift to smaller shops following a 1996 regulatory change that increased the costs of opening large stores. Our analysis suggests that total factor productivity (TFP) of multi-store retail chains fell after the introduction of the reform due to the reduct...

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...

I n the modern competitive world, Research and Development (R&D) and its overflowing technologies are the main basis of innovation, which in turn, can be determined as an important source of economic growth. Investing in research activities can help firms with different technological levels, especially high-tech industries to improve their productivity. This paper aims to analyze the...

Since the early 1960s, the Hong Kong Telephone Company (HKTC)—the dominant firm in Hong Kong’s local telephone market—has undergone several regulatory reforms. The company has been subject to price control, rate-of-return regulation and price-cap regulation. This paper estimates the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of HKTC. The empirical results show that the estimated TFP growth of HKTC ...

Resource misallocation can lower aggregate total factor productivity (TFP). We use micro data on manufacturing establishments to try to quantify the extent of this misallocation in China and India in recent years. Viewing the data through the prism of the Melitz model of monopolistically competitive firms, we estimate sizable gaps in marginal products of labor and capital across plants within n...

Article history: Received 29 August 2011 Received in revised form 20 September 2012 Accepted 11 December 2012 Available online 20 December 2012 Using the firm-level census data, this paper re-estimated the total factor productivity (TFP) of firms in China's iron and steel industry and examined its potential determinants over the period 1998–2007. To deal with the “endogenous input” problem, we ...