Productivity growth and price trends in the North American sawmilling industries: an inter-regional comparison

1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Abt ◽  
Jamie Brunet ◽  
Brian C. Murray ◽  
Don G. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
North American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Regional Comparison ◽  
The North ◽  
Price Trends ◽  
Term Labor

This paper applies nonparametric superlative index techniques to measure productivity growth in the sawmilling industries of the United States and Canada. Six geographic regions are examined: British Columbia (Coast and Interior), Ontario, Quebec, U.S. South, and U.S. West. The results indicate significant adjustment of resources both within and across regional industries over time. Over the long-term, labor has been the input that has experienced the highest growth in productivity: 3–4% per annum in the commodity-oriented regions. This result likely reflects the significant increases in capital stock throughout most of the North American industry. From 1980 to 1988 there have been significant differences in the annualized growth rates in total factor productivity across regions: U.S. West (3.3%), B.C. Interior (2.7%), Quebec (1.9%), U.S. South (1.4%), B.C. Coast (1.3%), and Ontario (1.1%). However, growth in total factor productivity over the 24-year period from 1965 to 1988 is relatively uniform across most regions (1.2% per annum).

scholarly journals The Procyclical Behavior of Total Factor Productivity in the United States, 1890–2004

2010 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander J. Field
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Real Business Cycle ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Tfp Growth ◽  
Capital Services ◽  
Labor Hoarding ◽  
Statistical Artifact

Between 1890 and 2004 total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the United States has been strongly procyclical, while labor productivity growth has been mildly so. This article argues that these results are not simply a statistical artifact, as Mathew Shapiro and others have argued. Procyclicality resulted principally from demand shocks interacting with capital services which are relatively invariant over the cycle. This account contrasts with explanations emphasizing labor hoarding as well as those offered by the real business cycle (RBC) program, in which TFP shocks (deviations from trend) are themselves the cause of cycles.

The Political Impact of Free Trade on Mexico

1992 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
North American ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The United States ◽  
The North ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Populorum Progressio

the rule of free trade, taken by itself, is no longer able to govern international relations … Freedom of trade is fair only if it is subject to the demands of social justice.Pope Paul VIPopulorum ProgressioCurrent Debates over North American free trade focus almost exclusively on economic issues. Advocates claim that a trilateral agreement will provide impetus for sustained, long-term economic growth in Canada, Mexico, and the United States — and that it will provide a regional counterweight to the European Community (EC) and to Japan. Critics in the United States claim that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will encourage the export of US investment and employment to Mexico. Canadians fear accelerated debilitation of vulnerable sectors of the national economy, from natural gas to automobile parts. Skeptics in Mexico predict that NAFTA will perpetuate low wages for the Mexican working class and transform the entire country into a massive maquiladora.

scholarly journals Productivity Growth in the Florida Fresh Winter Vegetable Industry

1984 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy G. Taylor ◽  
Gary H. Wilkowske
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Prime Factor ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vegetable Crops ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Competitive Position ◽  
Production Areas

AbstractResults indicate that productivity growth has been a prime factor in Florida's ability to retain a competitive position in the United States domestic fresh winter vegetable market. Total factor productivity indexes and productivity growth rates are estimated for the production of four major vegetable crops in one or more of four production areas in Florida. Florida producers have exhibited substantial productivity growth over the 1969-70 to 1981-82 period.

scholarly journals On productivity and technology diffusion in Nigeria

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 848-867
Author(s):  
NA Ndiyo
Keyword(s):  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Technology Diffusion ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Knowledge Diffusion ◽  
Developing Economy ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Term Trend ◽  
Long Term Trend

This study analyses the long-term trend in knowledge diffusion and productivity growth in Nigeria using a translog specification. The results indicate the need for technological upgrading and imply that policies designed to promote technological development should address the complementarities between different factors of production. The article, thus, provides some support for the argument that total factor productivity (TFP) is technological knowledge and can impact significantly on productivity in a developing economy

scholarly journals Unproductive by choice: substitution and the slowdown in aggregate productivity growth in the United States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zach Flynn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Growth Rate ◽  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aggregate Productivity ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Factor Demand ◽  
Factors Of Production

I propose a new decomposition of aggregate total factor productivity. I model productivity as an index of unmeasured factors of production, and decompose the conditional factor demand for this index. With this model of productivity, changes in the price of labor or capital cause substitution to or from productivity. I study whether such changes explain the slowdown in US productivity growth from 2005 to 2016. I find that the declining growth rate of the effective price of labor and capital encouraged substitution away from productivity. If labor and capital prices had remained constant, productivity growth would be accelerating.

Mafias on the Move

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Varese
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Market Expansion ◽  
The North ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
At Will

Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As this book explains, the truth is more complicated. The author has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. The book spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, the book charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. The book explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. A pioneering chapter on China examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. This book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.

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