Productivity in the pulp and paper industries of the United States and Canada: a nonparametric analysis

1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (12) ◽  
pp. 2353-2361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiing-Shyang Hseu ◽  
Joseph Buongiorno
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Production Function ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pulp And Paper ◽  
Distance Functions ◽  
Theil Index ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Economic Significance ◽  
Pulp And Paper Industries

Partial and total measures of factor productivity are presented for the pulp and paper industries of the United States and Canada, from 1959 to 1987. Total factor productivity was measured with (1) a Tornqvist–Theil index, (2) a nonparametric index with translating hypothesis, and (3) a nonparametric index with distance functions. Method 1 implied a constant return to scale translog production function. Methods 2 and 3 removed any assumption on the functional form of the production function. Furthermore, method 3 allowed for fully disaggregated outputs. Methods 1 and 3 gave similar results within countries: an increase in total factor productivity of 0.7% per year in the United States and of 0.5% per year in Canada. Method 2 gave rates of growth of total factor productivity that were twice as high, but unreliable because of the assumptions of the method. From 1961 to 1984, when comparable data are available, methods 1 and 3 gave growth rates of total factor productivity that were significantly higher, statistically, in the United States than in Canada. Nevertheless, the differences seem to be too small to be of economic significance.

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.

HOME TO MARKET: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CONSUMPTION TO OUTPUT RATIO

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 448-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kellie Forrester
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Growth Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Home Production ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Market Sector ◽  
Output Ratio ◽  
Home Goods

The United States' postwar period has seen an increase in aggregate market hours worked, a decline in home production hours, and an increase in the consumption to output ratio. A multisector growth model that allows for an increase in total factor productivity in the market sector relative to the home sector can account for these phenomena. Households shift hours to the more productive market sector and purchase measured market goods in favor of unmeasured home goods. This channel accounts for a quarter of the increase in the consumption to output ratio observed in the data from 1950 to 2007.

How Did the United States and Germany Overtake Britian? A Sectoral Analysis of Comparative Productivity Levels, 1870–1990

1998 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen N. Broadberry
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Labor Productivity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Sectoral Analysis ◽  
Catching Up ◽  
Conventional Literature ◽  
Relative Productivity

A sectoral analysis of comparative labor productivity levels over the period 1870 to 1990 suggests mechanisms of catching-up and forging ahead that are rather different from those found in the conventional literature. Both Germany and the United States caught up with and overtook Britain in terms of aggregate labor productivity largely by shifting resources out of agriculture and improving their relative productivity position in services rather than by improving their position in manufacturing. Although capital played some role, the changes in comparative labor productivity also reflected changes in comparative total factor productivity, related to technology and organization.

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 The Sources of Growth in a Technologically Progressive Economy: The United States, 1899–1941

2019 ◽  
Vol 129 (622) ◽  
pp. 2267-2294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerben Bakker ◽  
Nicholas Crafts ◽  
Pieter Woltjer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Tfp Growth ◽  
The Usa

Abstract We develop new aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) growth estimates for the USA between 1899 and 1941, and sectoral estimates at the most disaggregated level so far, 38 industries. We include hard-to-measure services, and a refined measure of sectoral labour quality growth. The resulting data set supersedes Kendrick (1961), showing TFP growth lower than previously thought, broadly based across industries, and strongly variant intertemporally. The four ‘great inventions’ that Gordon (2016) highlighted were important but less dominant in TFP growth than their predecessors in the British industrial revolution. The findings also make it unlikely the 1930s had the twentieth century's highest TFP growth.

Sources of the German Productivity Demise: Tracing the Effects of Industry-Level Information and Communication Technology Investment

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo S. Eicher ◽  
Oliver Roehn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
The United States ◽  
German Industry ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Industry Growth ◽  
Industry Level ◽  
Information And Communication

Abstract While the United States experienced two successive labor productivity surges in 1995 and 2000, Germany’s productivity declined dramatically during the same period. We examine the sources of Germany’s productivity demise using the ifo industry growth accounting database that provides detailed industry-level investment information. While much attention has focused on the reduction in German labor hours, our data show that information and communication technology (ICT) investment in Germany was deeply lacking in the mid-1990s as compared with the United States. The transition to the new economy mitigated the German productivity slowdown, but did not reverse it. After 2000, we find that a recovery in Non-ICT investment was offset by a widespread collapse in German total factor productivity. Over half of the German industries (accounting for almost 50 per cent of German output) experienced negative total factor productivity growth. This second major difference between the United States and German industry performance explains Germany’s secular departure from the technological frontier.

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.

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