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Articles 1 - 9 of 9
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Are Large Informal Firms More Productive Than The Small Informal Firms? Evidence From Firm-Level Surveys In Africa, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Are Large Informal Firms More Productive Than The Small Informal Firms? Evidence From Firm-Level Surveys In Africa, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam
Mohammad Amin
Using data for over 500 informal or unregistered firms in seven countries in Africa, this study explores how labor productivity varies between small and large informal firms. We find robust evidence that small informal firms have higher labor productivity than large informal firms. Thus, even though poor performance of informal firms is typically attributed to their small size vis-à-vis registered or formal sector firms, incremental increases in the size of informal firms does not necessarily imply a narrowing of the formal-informal firm productivity gap.
Elasticity Of Substitution And The Stagnation Of Italian Productivity, Enrico Saltari, Daniela Federici
Elasticity Of Substitution And The Stagnation Of Italian Productivity, Enrico Saltari, Daniela Federici
Enrico Saltari
The aim of this paper is to investigate the roots of the stagnation in the Italian total factor productivity (TFP). The analysis focuses on the specific pattern of technical progress in determining the dynamics of the TFP. This analysis cannot be done with Cobb-Douglas technology, but requires the employment of a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function that allows distinguishing between the direction and the bias of technical progress. We employ a CES specification embodying both labor- and capital-augmenting technical change, with a σ less than 1. We obtain three main results. (1) There seems to have been a …
The Impact Of Ict And Business Services On The Italian Economy, Enrico Saltari, Daniela Federici, Clifford R. Wymer
The Impact Of Ict And Business Services On The Italian Economy, Enrico Saltari, Daniela Federici, Clifford R. Wymer
Enrico Saltari
This paper studies the role played by ICT in affecting the efficiency of business services (BS) industry, using a structural disequilibrium model of the Italian economy. The Italian BS sector presents a peculiar dynamics (compared to other EU countries) in that, after initially improving its efficiency by adopting ICT, from the early 90s it stagnated. Our estimates suggest that this anomaly can be traced back to a structural deficiency in absorbing new technologies. Our contribution adds to the explanations of the slowdown of the Italian productivity.
Real Exchange Rate Adjustment In And Out Of The Eurozone, Martin Berka, Mick Devereux, Charles Engel
Real Exchange Rate Adjustment In And Out Of The Eurozone, Martin Berka, Mick Devereux, Charles Engel
Martin Berka
No abstract provided.
Internal Trade And Aggregate Productivity, Trevor Tombe, Jennifer Winter
Internal Trade And Aggregate Productivity, Trevor Tombe, Jennifer Winter
Trevor Tombe
The positive link between international trade and productivity is well established. However, research on magnitude and consequences of internal trade barriers, which inhibit the efficient geographic distribution of production within a country, is limited. Unique Canadian data provides an ideal opportunity to measure the magnitude - and impact on productivity - of barriers to internal trade. Using a flexible, micro-founded approach, we measure internal trade barriers between Canadian provinces. We find between-province trade costs average 30%, rising to nearly 50% in poor regions, net of distance effects. We then adapt a new-trade model to estimate the productivity impact of these …
Regional Industrial Structure And Agglomeration Economies: An Analysis Of Productivity In Three Manufacturing Industries, Joshua Drucker, Edward Feser
Regional Industrial Structure And Agglomeration Economies: An Analysis Of Productivity In Three Manufacturing Industries, Joshua Drucker, Edward Feser
Edward J Feser
We investigate whether a more concentrated regional industrial structure – the dominance of a few large firms in a given industry in a region – limits agglomeration economies and ultimately diminishes the economic performance of firms in that industry, especially small ones. In an application to three industries using establishment-level production functions and a combination of confidential and publicly available data sources, we find a consistently negative and substantial direct productivity effect associated with regional industrial structure concentration and only mixed and relatively weak evidence that agglomeration economies are a mediating factor in that effect.
Imports And Tfp At The Firm Level: The Role Of Absorptive Capacity, Olivier Cadot, Patricia Augier, Marion Dovis
Imports And Tfp At The Firm Level: The Role Of Absorptive Capacity, Olivier Cadot, Patricia Augier, Marion Dovis
Olivier Cadot
This paper estimates the effect of the decision to import intermediate goods and capital equipment on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) at the firm level on a panel of Spanish firms (1991-2002). We use two alternative approaches. In the first, we estimate TFP and apply a diff-in-diff estimator with a control group constructed by propensity-score matching. In the second, direct method, we estimate TFP with imported inputs as a state variable in one stage. Both approaches show that the effect of a firm’s decision to source intermediates and capital equipment abroad on its TFP depends critically on its capacity to absorb …
Effects Of Investment On Macroeconomic Variables In The Sudanese Economy, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed
Effects Of Investment On Macroeconomic Variables In The Sudanese Economy, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed
Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed
Most developing and underdeveloped countries beside Sudan suffer from the low levels of income in addition to the low savings that are result from the lack of sophisticated savings channels. Hence, the investment depends on the individual's abilities on self savings, where the investment is considered as major motivating vehicle for economic activity due to its direct correlation with the capital accumulation process that increases the productivity capacity for the national economy and creating job opportunities and achieving economic development. Subsequently, the importance of the investment comes from effective role that can be practiced on the national product. The present …
Scale Effects And Labor Productivity, Jürgen Antony
Scale Effects And Labor Productivity, Jürgen Antony
Jürgen Antony
The topic of this thesis is the impact of scale effects onto labor productivity and its implications. Chapter one gives an overview of the economic literature on scale effects. It starts with reviewing early economic writings; summarizes the literature of the new trade theory, the new economic geography and the new growth theory and looks upon scale effects in the economics of integration. Last but not least it motivates the chapters to come. Chapter two deals with wage inequality between different types of labor in models of endogenous growth with scale effects in the growth rate of an economy or …