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71. The gender gap in firm productivity in Rwanda: Evidence from establishment and household enterprise data

Author:
Ggombe Kasim Munyegera and Akampumuza Precious
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Rwanda is one of the countries with the best strategies for women empowerment and gender equality in Africa and globally. Nonetheless, some inequalities exist especially in education attainment. This study investigates the gender gaps in business performance using nationally representative household survey and establishment census data. Ordinary Least Squares results indicate that female-owned business enterprises employ fewer workers and are less productive than male-owned counterparts. Specifically, turnover and net revenue per worker are 20-22 per cent and 22-25 per cent lower among female-owned enterprises. The results are corroborated by propensity score matching estimates, implying that the estimated gender productivity gap is robust to observed heterogeneity between male- and female-owned enterprises. We investigate the potential mechanisms and find that female owners invest less capital, are less likely to seek and/or obtain credit and devote fewer hours per week to their businesses. Credit products targeting collateral-constrained and female-owned household enterprises could partially close the gender productivity gap.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Business, Economic Policy, and Productivity
Political Geography:
Africa, Rwanda, and Global Focus

72. The Evolution of India’s Industrial Labour Share and its Correlates

Author:
Arjun Jayadev and Amay Narayan
Publication Date:
03-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University
Abstract:
There has been substantial recent interest in the decline of labour shares across countries. For the most part, attention has been focused on developed countries. We examine the evolution of India’s labour share in its formal industrial sector from 1983- 2016. Using two datasets corresponding to sectoral aggregate data and plant-level data respectively, we document a secular decline in the labour share across all sectors from 1983, with a stabilisation at very low levels (around 8 to 10 percent) starting around 2005. We then use the plant-level data to identify correlates that illuminate reasons for the overall decline in the labour share. We find strong evidence to support multiple causes: increased capital intensity, greater informalisation, greater privatisation, and productivity increases in larger firms. As such, we suggest that the declines in labour share experienced are due to a composite set of factors. Conversely, other potential explanations (e.g. regional variation in the labour share) have less explanatory power.
Topic:
Labor Issues, Industry, Data, and Productivity
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

73. Targeting the Wrong Teachers? Linking Measurement with Theory to Evaluate Teacher Incentive Schemes

Author:
Nirav Mehta
Publication Date:
03-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP), Western University
Abstract:
Measurement is crucial to the implementation of output-based incentive schemes. This paper uses models to study the performance of teacher quality estimators that enter teacher incentive schemes. I model an administrator tasked with (i) categorizing teachers with respect to a cutoff, (ii) retaining teachers in a hidden type environment, and (iii) compensating teachers in a hidden action environment. The preferred estimator would be the same in each model and depends on the relationship between teacher quality and class size. I use data from Los Angeles to show that simple fixed effects would almost always outperform more popular empirical Bayes.
Topic:
Economics, Education, Human Capital, and Productivity
Political Geography:
United States

74. Análisis de la Eficiencia de las Empresas Públicas de Paraguay

Author:
Juan B. Cresta Arias
Publication Date:
02-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centro de Análisis y Difusión de la Economía Paraguaya (CADEP)
Abstract:
Este trabajo tiene por objetivo realizar una revisión de la situación de las empresas públicas y sociedades anónimas con participación estatal, sobre todo desde un punto de vista de la productividad y eficiencia,tomando datos del periodo 2008-2015. La investigación se organiza de la siguiente manera: en primer lugar se revisa la importancia de las empresas públicas y sociedades con participación estatal dentro de la economía, su relevancia en la generación de empleo y de las inversiones. Luego, en la tercera sección se presenta un análisis de indicadores económico – financieros seleccionados, basados en información de los estados contables. Debido a que la información de estados contables puede resultar incompleta o parcial para describir la eficiencia de estas empresas, en la cuarta sección se revisa la evolución de la productividad de los factores utilizando una metodología basada en la contabilidad del crecimiento económico. Finalmente, el trabajo plantea las reflexiones finales.
Topic:
Business, Economic Growth, Productivity, Public Management, and Efficiency
Political Geography:
South America and Paraguay

75. The Porter Hypothesis Goes to China: Spatial Development, Environmental Regulation and Productivity

Author:
Pedro Naso, Yi Huang, and Tim Swanson
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
We examine the relationship between environmental regulation and competitiveness in China. Exploiting exogenous changes in national pollution standards for three industries—ammonia, paper and cement—we test whether environmental regulation increases industry productivity. Our results show that the strong version of the Porter hypothesis does not hold, but that regulation might reallocate productivity spatially. We show that regulated industries that are located in newly developing cities see an increase in their productivity as compared to the same industries in other cities. This means that environmental regulation is more likely to drive the spatial distribution of productivity changes than it is to drive the pace and direction of technological change.
Topic:
Development, Environment, Science and Technology, Regulation, Productivity, and Competition
Political Geography:
China and Asia

76. Environmental Regulations and Competitiveness: Evidence based on Chinese firm data

Author:
Ankai Xu
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
This paper provides empirical evidence in support of the Porter hypothesis that tighter environmental regulations can increase productivity under certain circumstances. It builds on a theoretical model in which environmental regulations induce firms to adopt more efficient technologies. Using Chinese firm-level data covering a ten-year period, the empirical study examines the effects of two specific policy instruments - the pollution levy and regulatory standards - on firm productivity. It finds a bell-shaped relationship between pollution levies and the total factor productivity of firms, indicating that an increase in the pollution levy rate can be associated with higher productivity. In addition, the study investigates the effect of pollution emission standards on firm productivity and identifies an initial negative effect which diminishes after a period of two to three years.
Topic:
Environment, Regulation, Innovation, and Productivity
Political Geography:
China and Asia

77. Risk, Financial Development and Firm Dynamics

Author:
Bernardo Morias
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
I document that the average productivity of firms tends to increase, and its variance to decrease, as they age. These two facts combined suggest that managers learn to reduce their mistakes as they operate. I develop a quantitative framework mimicking these dynamics and find that young firms have substantially higher financing costs due to lower and riskier returns. In this scenario, a reduction in the financial development of an economy raises disproportionately the cost of credit of young-productive firms increasing the input misallocation within this subgroup. To test the validity of the theory, I find that the data confirms some novel predictions on a series of firm-level moments. Finally, I show that introducing these two facts allows the model to better explain the relation between financial and economic development.
Topic:
Development, Economic Theory, Risk, Fiscal Policy, Models, and Productivity
Political Geography:
Global Focus

78. Chasing After the Frontier in Agricultural Productivity

Author:
Jules-Daniel Wurlod and Derek Eaton
Publication Date:
11-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
This paper explores international productivity patterns in agriculture. We test whether countries higher productivity growth has been experienced by countries that were initially further from the technological frontier. Based on a panel of 84 countries at various levels of development, we find support for convergence among OECD countries but divergence in our sample at large over the period 1960-2010. We then test whether technological catch-up is conditional on absorptive capacities and domestic investments in R&D. While agricultural research intensity has a significant effect on labor productivity growth, the size of this effect decreases the further the country is from the frontier. We calculate a threshold level for the effectiveness of research intensity: increased R&D contributes to catching up to the frontier for those countries with a distance to the frontier less than 22. We also test for additional factors affecting productivity growth, and find that secondary education plays a strong role in less developed countries, while trade openness appears to have had a positive effect on productivity in middle income countries. On the other hand, there is little evidence of much effect, either positive or negative from IPR protection. Of perhaps greater interest is the apparent impact of economic growth outside of agriculture in driving agricultural productivity improvements.
Topic:
Agriculture, Education, Productivity, Research and Development, and Convergence
Political Geography:
Global Focus