IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sls/ipmsls/v17y20085.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Measurement of TFP in Argentina, 1990-2004: A Case of the Tyranny of Numbers, Economic Cycles and Methodology

Author

Listed:
  • Ariel Coremberg

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the main sources of growth in Argentina for the period 1990-2004 in order to identify the dominant growth profile: either extensive, which is associated with factor accumulation and utilisation, or intensive, which is based on productivity gains. The study proposes a methodology for identifying gains in total factor productivity (TFP) net of short-run fluctuations in relative prices and cyclical changes in factor utilisation. When applying this methodology to Argentina in the period 1990-2004, we find that economic growth appears to be extensive during the whole period, biased towards capital accumulation and utilisation during the 1990s and biased towards labour input after the 2002 devaluation. These results raise doubts as to whether the Argentine economy is able to generate long-run productivity gains independent of composition and quality effects and cyclical changes in factors utilisation, gains that are needed to achieve sustainable long-run growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Ariel Coremberg, 2008. "The Measurement of TFP in Argentina, 1990-2004: A Case of the Tyranny of Numbers, Economic Cycles and Methodology," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 17, pages 52-74, Fall.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:17:y:2008:5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/17/IPM-17-coremberg.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Finn Kydland & Carlos E.J.M.Zarazaga, 2002. "Argentina's recovery and excess capital shallowing of the 1990s," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 29(1 Year 20), pages 35-45, June.
    2. Basu, Susanto & Fernald, John G. & Shapiro, Matthew D., 2001. "Productivity growth in the 1990s: technology, utilization, or adjustment?," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 117-165, December.
    3. D. W. Jorgenson & Z. Griliches, 1967. "The Explanation of Productivity Change," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 34(3), pages 249-283.
    4. Hulten, Charles R., 1986. "Productivity change, capacity utilization, and the sources of efficiency growth," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1-2), pages 31-50.
    5. Hofman, Andre A, 2000. "Standardised Capital Stock Estimates in Latin America: A 1950-94 Update," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 24(1), pages 45-86, January.
    6. Diewert, W. E., 1976. "Exact and superlative index numbers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 115-145, May.
    7. Diewert, W Erwin, 1978. "Superlative Index Numbers and Consistency in Aggregation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(4), pages 883-900, July.
    8. Alwyn Young, 1995. "The Tyranny of Numbers: Confronting the Statistical Realities of the East Asian Growth Experience," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 641-680.
    9. Hulten, Charles R. & Wykoff, Frank C., 1981. "The estimation of economic depreciation using vintage asset prices : An application of the Box-Cox power transformation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 367-396, April.
    10. W. Erwin Diewert, 1995. "Price and Volume Measures in the System of National Accounts," NBER Working Papers 5103, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Hofman, André A., 1991. "The role of capital in Latin America: a comparative perspective of six countries for 1950-1989," Series Históricas 9579, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    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. Bert M. Balk, 2010. "An Assumption‐Free Framework For Measuring Productivity Change," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(s1), pages 224-256, June.
    2. Ariel Coremberg, 2017. "Argentina Was Not the Productivity and Economic Growth Champion of Latin America," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 33, pages 77-90, Fall.

    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. Charles R. Hulten, 2000. "Total Factor Productivity: A Short Biography," NBER Working Papers 7471, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Managi, Shunsuke & Opaluch, James J. & Jin, Di & Grigalunas, Thomas A., 2006. "Stochastic frontier analysis of total factor productivity in the offshore oil and gas industry," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 204-215, November.
    3. W. Erwin Diewert, 2003. "Measuring Capital," NBER Working Papers 9526, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Burda, Michael C. & Severgnini, Battista, 2014. "Solow residuals without capital stocks," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 154-171.
    5. Robert C. Feenstra & Marshall B. Reinsdorf, 2007. "Should Exact Index Numbers Have Standard Errors? Theory and Application to Asian Growth," NBER Chapters, in: Hard-to-Measure Goods and Services: Essays in Honor of Zvi Griliches, pages 483-513, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Georganta, Zoe, 1997. "The effect of a free market price mechanism on total factor productivity: The case of the agricultural crop industry in Greece," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1-2), pages 55-71, October.
    7. Decimavilla Herrero, Esther, 2000. "Diferencias de productividad en Europa. Equilibrio a corto y largo plazo," DE - Documentos de Trabajo. Economía. DE 7314, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    8. Rosés, Joan R., 2008. "Proximate causes of economic growth in Spain, 1850-2000," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp08-12, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    9. Dariusz Cezary Kotlewski, 2023. "The soundness of returning to manufacturing through the lens of productivity accounting," Ekonomista, Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne, issue 3, pages 253-274.
    10. Andreas Benedictow & Pål Boug, 2014. "Calculating the real return of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global by alternative measures of the deflator," Discussion Papers 775, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    11. Jukka Jalava, 2002. "Accounting for Growth and Productivity: Finnish Multi-Factor Productivity 1975-99," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 76-86, Autumn.
    12. Susanto Basu & John Fernald, 2001. "Why Is Productivity Procyclical? Why Do We Care?," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 225-302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Jean‐Christophe Bureau & Rolf Färe & Shawna Grosskopf, 1995. "A Comparison Of Three Nonparametric Measures Of Productivity Growth In European And United States Agriculture," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 309-326, September.
    14. Salem, M., 1987. "Productivity and Technical Change in Canadian Food and Beverage Industries: 1961-1982," Working Papers 243864, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
    15. Hulten, Charles R., 2010. "Growth Accounting," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 987-1031, Elsevier.
    16. Ludmila Fadejeva & Aleksejs Melihovs, 2010. "Measuring Total Factor Productivity and Variable Factor Utilization," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(5), pages 63-101, September.
    17. Arby, Muhammad Farooq, 2008. "Some Issues in the National Income Accounts of Pakistan (Rebasing, Quarterly and Provincial Accounts and Growth Accounting)," MPRA Paper 32048, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Iqbal A. Syed & Jan De Haan, 2017. "Age, Time, Vintage, And Price Indexes: Measuring The Depreciation Pattern Of Houses," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 580-600, January.
    19. Nicholas Oulton, 2002. "ICT and Productivity Growth in the United Kingdom," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 18(3), pages 363-379.
    20. W. Erwin Diewert, 1995. "Price and Volume Measures in the System of National Accounts," NBER Working Papers 5103, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    TFP; Measurement; business cycles; Cyclicality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    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:sls:ipmsls:v:17:y:2008:5. 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: CSLS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cslssca.html .

    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.