IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/95-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Whittling Away At Productivity Dispersion

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas W Dwyer

Abstract

In any time period, in any industry, plant productivity levels differ widely and this dispersion is persistent. This paper explores the sources of this dispersion and their relative magnitudes in the textile industry. Plants that are measured as being more productive but pay higher wages are not necessarily more profitable; wage dispersion can account for approximately 15 percent of productivity dispersion. A plant that is highly productive today may not be as productive tomorrow. I develop a new method for measuring ex-ante dispersion and the percentage of dispersion "explained" by mean reversion. Mean reversion accounts for as much as one half the observed productivity dispersion. A portion of the dispersion, however, appears to reflect real quality differences between plants; plants that are measured as being more productive expand faster and are less likely to exit.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas W Dwyer, 1995. "Whittling Away At Productivity Dispersion," Working Papers 95-5, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:95-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/1995/CES-WP-95-05.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Doms, Mark E, 1996. "Estimating Capital Efficiency Schedules within Production Functions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(1), pages 78-92, January.
    2. Kovenock, Dan & Phillips, Gordon M, 1997. "Capital Structure and Product Market Behavior: An Examination of Plant Exit and Investment Decisions," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(3), pages 767-803.
    3. Mark E Doms, 1993. "Inter Fuel Substitution And Energy Technology Heterogeneity In U.S. Manufacturing," Working Papers 93-5, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. James D Adams, 1994. "Recent Twists of the Wage Structure and Technology Diffusion," Working Papers 94-5, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    5. Baily, Martin Neil & Bartelsman, Eric J & Haltiwanger, John, 1996. "Downsizing and Productivity Growth: Myth or Reality?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 259-278, August.
    6. Edward Kokkelenberg & Sang Nguyen, 1989. "Modeling technical progress and total factor productivity: A plant level example," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 21-42, March.
    7. Robert H Mcguckin & Thomas A Abbott Iii & Paul E Herrick & Leroy Norfolk, 1989. "Measuring The Trade Balance In Advanced Technology Products," Working Papers 89-1, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    8. Wayne B Gray & Ronald J Shadbegian, 1993. "Environmental Regulation And Manufacturing Productivity At The Plant Level," Working Papers 93-6, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    9. Kenneth R. Troske, 1999. "Evidence On The Employer Size-Wage Premium From Worker-Establishment Matched Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 15-26, February.
    10. Timothy Bates & Darrell Williams, 1995. "Preferential Procurement Programs Do Not Necessarily Help Minority-Owned Business," Working Papers 95-1, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. Mark E. Doms & Timothy Dunne, 1998. "Capital Adjustment Patterns in Manufacturing Plants," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 1(2), pages 409-429, April.
    12. Kenneth R Troske, 1992. "The Time-Series Pattern Of Firm Growth In Two Industries," Working Papers 92-10, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    13. Kovenock, Dan & Phillips, Gordon, 1995. "Capital Structure and Product-Market Rivalry: How Do We Reconcile Theory and Evidence?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(2), pages 403-408, May.
    14. Michael Ollinger & Jorge Fernandez-Cornejo, 1994. "Regulation and Firm Size, Foreign-Based Company Market Presence, Merger Choice In The U.S. Pesticide Industry," Working Papers 94-6, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    15. Timothy Dunne & Mark J Roberts, 1993. "The Long-Run Demand for Labor: Estimates From Census Establishment Data," Working Papers 93-13, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    16. Timothy Dunne & Mark J Roberts, 1992. "Costs, Demand, and Imperfect Competition as Determinants of Plant_level Output Prices," Working Papers 92-5, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    17. Timothy Bates, 1990. "Self-Employment Trends Among Mexican Americans," Working Papers 90-9, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    18. Timothy Bates, 1995. "Small Businesses Do Appear To Benefit From State/Local Government Economic Development Assistance," Working Papers 95-2, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    19. James A Schmitz & Thomas J Holmes, 1992. "Managerial Tenure, Business Age And Small Business Dynamics," Working Papers 92-11, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    20. James D Adams & Suzanne Peck, 1994. "A Guide To R&D Data At The Center For Economic Studies U.S. Bureau Of THe Census," Working Papers 94-9, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    21. Ron Jarmin, 1993. "Asymmetric Learning Spillovers," Working Papers 93-7, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    22. Donald Siegel & Frank R Lichtenberg, 1989. "Using Linked Census R&D-Lrd Data To Analyze The Effect Of R&D Investment On Total Factor Productivity Growth," Working Papers 89-2, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    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. Jensen, J Bradford & McGuckin, Robert H, 1997. "Firm Performance and Evolution: Empirical Regularities in the US Microdata," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 6(1), pages 25-47.
    2. Douglas W Dwyer, 1995. "Technology Locks, Creative Destruction And Non-Convergence In Productivity Levels," Working Papers 95-6, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Timothy Dunne & Lucia Foster & John Haltiwanger & Kenneth Troske, 2000. "Wage and Productivity Dispersion in U.S. Manufacturing: The Role of Computer Investment," Working Papers 00-01, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Douglas W Dwyer, 1997. "Productivity Races II: The Issue of Capital Measurement," Working Papers 97-3, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    5. Douglas Dwyer, 1998. "Technology Locks, Creative Destruction, and Non-Convergence in Productivity Levels," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 1(2), pages 430-473, April.
    6. Boyan Jovanovic, 1998. "Michael Gort's Contribution to Economics," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 1(2), pages 327-337, April.
    7. Tengying Weng & Tomislav Vukina & Xiaoyong Zheng, 2015. "The Effects of Productvity and Demand-Specific Factors on Plant Survival and Ownership Change in the U.S. Poultry Industry," Working Papers 15-20, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    8. Timothy Dunne & Lucia Foster & John Haltiwanger & Kenneth R. Troske, 2004. "Wage and Productivity Dispersion in United States Manufacturing: The Role of Computer Investment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 397-430, April.
    9. Douglas W Dwyer, 1997. "Productivity Races I: Are Some Productivuty Measures Better Than Others?," Working Papers 97-2, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    10. Douglas W Dwyer, 1996. "Whittling Away At Productivity Dispersion Futher Notes: Persistent Dispersion or Measurement Error?," Working Papers 96-11, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. repec:cvs:starer:9724 is not listed on IDEAS

    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. Ollinger, Michael & Fernandez-Cornejo, Jorge, 1998. "Innovation and Regulation in the Pesticide Industry," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(1), pages 15-27, April.
    2. Sang V Nguyen & Robert H Mcguckin & Arnold P Reznek, 1995. "The Impact Of Ownership Change On Employment, Wages, And Labor Productivity In U.S. Manufacturing 1977-87," Working Papers 95-8, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. De Haas, Ralph & Sterk, Vincent & Van Horen, Neeltje, 2022. "Start-up types and macroeconomic performance in Europe," Bank of England working papers 986, Bank of England.
    4. Ron Jarmin, 1995. "Using Matched Client And Census Data To Evaluate The Performance Of The Manufacturing Extension Partnership," Working Papers 95-7, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    5. Nathan Musick, 1998. "Heroic Plants: Persistently Rapid Job Creators in the Longitudinal Research Database - Their Distinguishing Characteristics and Contribution to Employment Growth," Industrial Organization 9811001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Doms, Mark & Dunne, Timothy & Roberts, Mark J., 1995. "The role of technology use in the survival and growth of manufacturing plants," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 523-542, December.
    7. Robert H Mcguckin, 1993. "The Importance of Establishment Data in Economic Research," Working Papers 93-10, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    8. Salvatore Piccolo & Giancarlo Spagnolo, 2014. "Debt, Managers and Cartels," CSEF Working Papers 365, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    9. Richard Harris & Catherine Robinson, 2005. "Impact of Regional Selective Assistance on sources of productivity growth: Plant-level evidence from UK manufacturing, 1990-98," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(6), pages 751-765.
    10. Antonio Falato, 2006. "Paying to Make a Difference: Executive Compensation and Product Dynamics," 2006 Meeting Papers 690, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    11. Alex Coad & Tom Broekel, 2012. "Firm growth and productivity growth: evidence from a panel VAR," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 1251-1269, April.
    12. Cetorelli, Nicola, 2004. "Real Effects of Bank Competition," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(3), pages 543-558, June.
    13. James R. Brown & Lauren C. Lax & Bruce C. Petersen, 2010. "Financial Market Crises and Natural Resource Production," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 10(1), pages 93-124, March.
    14. Laura Orobia & Gerrit Rooks, 2011. "Risk Taking and Start-up Capital: Exploring Gender differences in Uganda, through an International Comparison," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 3(2), pages 83-93.
    15. Lucia Foster & John C. Haltiwanger & C. J. Krizan, 2001. "Aggregate Productivity Growth: Lessons from Microeconomic Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 303-372, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Amrita Nain & Yan Wang, 2018. "The Product Market Impact of Minority Stake Acquisitions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 825-844, February.
    17. Ferrés, Daniel & Ormazabal, Gaizka & Povel, Paul & Sertsios, Giorgo, 2021. "Capital structure under collusion," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    18. Ms. Deniz O Igan & Ali Mirzaei & Tomoe Moore, 2018. "How Do Regulations of Entry and Credit Access Relate to Industry Competition? International Evidence," IMF Working Papers 2018/084, International Monetary Fund.
    19. Chen, Tsung-Kang & Liao, Hsien-Hsing & Chen, Wei-Lun, 2014. "Production efficiency uncertainty and corporate credit risk: Structural form credit model perspectives," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 266-280.
    20. Dalida Kadyrzhanova & Antonio Falato, 2008. "Optimal CEO Incentives and Industry Dynamics," 2008 Meeting Papers 880, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    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:cen:wpaper:95-5. 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: Dawn Anderson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesgvus.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.