IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejmac/vtopics.6y2006i1n7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using Investment Data to Assess the Importance of Price Mismeasurement

Author

Listed:
  • Comin Diego A

    (NYU)

Abstract

This paper presents a new approach to assess the role of price mismeasurement in the productivity slowdown. I invert the firm’s investment decision to identify the embodied and disembodied components of productivity growth. With a Cobb-Douglas production function, output price mismeasurement only should affect the latter. Contrary to the mismeasurement hypothesis, I find that in the Post-War period, disembodied productivity grew faster in the hard-to-measure than in the non-manufacturing easy-to-measure sectors, and that disembodied productivity slowed down less in the hard-to-measure than in the easy-to-measure sectors since the 70’s. These results hold a fortiori when capital and labor are complements.

Suggested Citation

  • Comin Diego A, 2006. "Using Investment Data to Assess the Importance of Price Mismeasurement," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-42, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejmac:v:topics.6:y:2006:i:1:n:7
    DOI: 10.2202/1534-5998.1396
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1534-5998.1396
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1534-5998.1396?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Productivity, R&D, and the Data Constraint," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 347-374, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Zvi Griliches, 1992. "Output Measurement in the Service Sectors," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gril92-1.
    3. Martin Neil Baily & Robert J. Gordon, 1988. "The Productivity Slowdown, Measurement Issues, and the Explosion of Computer Power," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(2), pages 347-432.
    4. G. Christian Ehemann & Brent R. Moulton, 2001. "Balancing the GDP Account," BEA Papers 0014, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    5. James Bessen, 2002. "Technology Adoption Costs and Productivity Growth: The Transition to Information Technology," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(2), pages 443-469, April.
    6. Zvi Griliches, 1992. "Introduction to "Output Measurement in the Service Sectors"," NBER Chapters, in: Output Measurement in the Service Sectors, pages 1-22, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bresnahan, Timothy F, 1986. "Measuring the Spillovers from Technical Advance: Mainframe Computers inFinancial Services," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 742-755, September.
    8. Brent R. Moulton, 2001. "The Expanding Role of Hedonic Methods in the Official Statistics of the United States," BEA Papers 0018, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    9. Bruce W. Hamilton, 2001. "Using Engel's Law to Estimate CPI Bias," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 619-630, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Diego Comin & Mark Gertler, 2006. "Medium-Term Business Cycles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 523-551, June.
    2. Bruno Tissot & Les Skoczylas, 2005. "Revisiting recent productivity developments across OECD countries," BIS Working Papers 182, Bank for International Settlements.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Comin Diego A, 2006. "Using Investment Data to Assess the Importance of Price Mismeasurement," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-42, April.
    2. Faïz Gallouj & Maria Savona, 2009. "Innovation in services: a review of the debate and a research agenda," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 149-172, April.
    3. Oulton, Nicholas, 2004. "A statistical framework for the analysis of productivity and sustainable development," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19963, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Robert Gordon, 1995. "Problems in the Measurement and Performance of Service-Sector Productivity in the United States," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Palle Andersen & Jacqueline Dwyer & David Gruen (ed.),Productivity and Growth, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    5. Alexandru-Ioan Stan, 2018. "Computational speed and high-frequency trading profitability: an ecological perspective," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 28(3), pages 381-395, August.
    6. Clemens Struck & Adnan Velic, 2017. "To Augment Or Not To Augment? A Conjecture On Asymmetric Technical Change," Trinity Economics Papers tep0117, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    7. Barry P. Bosworth & Jack E. Triplett, 2007. "The Early 21st Century U.S. Productivity Expansion is Still in Services," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 14, pages 3-19, Spring.
    8. repec:dgr:rugggd:199945 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Ark, Bart van & Broersma, Lourens & Jong, Gjalt de, 1999. "Innovation in services : overview of data sources and analytical structures," GGDC Research Memorandum 199944, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    10. Stephen D. Oliner & Daniel E. Sichel, 1994. "Computers and Output Growth Revisited: How Big Is the Puzzle?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 25(2), pages 273-334.
    11. Fred V. Carstensen & William F. Lott & Stan McMillen, 2003. "The Economic Impact of Connecticut's Information Technology Industry," CCEA Studies 2003-02, University of Connecticut, Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis.
    12. Ian Goldin & Pantelis Koutroumpis & François Lafond & Julian Winkler, 2024. "Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 196-268, March.
    13. Broersma, Lourens & McGuckin, Robert, 1999. "The Impact of Computers on Productivity in the Trade Sector: Explorations with Dutch Microdata," GGDC Research Memorandum 199945, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    14. Zúniga-González, Carlos Alberto, 2012. "Current expenditure impact on the municipality management productivity of Nicaragua, 2007-2011," Working Papers 140548, National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, León (Unan-León), Researching Center for Applied Economics (RCAE).
    15. Maroto-Sánchez, Andrés & Cuadrado-Roura, Juan R., 2009. "Is growth of services an obstacle to productivity growth? A comparative analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 254-265, December.
    16. Sultan, Muyed, 2008. "The Tertiary Sector Is Going to Dominate the World Economy; Should We Worry?," MPRA Paper 14681, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. repec:dgr:rugggd:199944 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Dinah Maclean, 1997. "Lagging Productivity Growth in the Service Sector: Mismeasurement, Mismanagement or Misinformation?," Staff Working Papers 97-6, Bank of Canada.
    19. Patrick Musso, 2006. "Capital Obsolescence, Growth Accounting and Total Factor Productivity," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 97(5), pages 217-233.
    20. Ky‐hyang Yuhn & Seung R. Park, 2010. "Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Productivity Growth: An Examination of the Brynjolfsson–Hitt Proposition," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 87-108, March.
    21. Claire Giordano, 2023. "Revisiting the real exchange rate misalignment‐economic growth nexus via the across‐sector misallocation channel," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1329-1384, September.
    22. Tarun Jain & Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay & Nishith Prakash & Raghav Rakesh, 2022. "Science education and labor market outcomes in a developing economy," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(2), pages 741-763, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    investment; price mismeasurement; productivity slowdown; total factor productivity; embodied and disembodied productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C6 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling
    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bejmac:v:topics.6:y:2006:i:1:n:7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.