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Cyclical Productivity in Europe and the United States, Evaluating the Evidence on Returns to Scale and Input Utilization

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  • Inklaar, Robert

Abstract

This paper studies procyclical productivity growth at the industry level in the U.S. and in three European countries (France, Germany and the Netherlands). Industry-specific demand-side instruments are used to examine the prevalence of non-constant returns to scale and unmeasured input utilization. For the aggregate U.S. economy, unmeasured input utilization seems to explain procyclical productivity. However, this correction still leaves one in three U.S. industries with procyclical productivity. This failure of the model can also be seen in Europe and is mostly concentrated in services industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Inklaar, Robert, 2006. "Cyclical Productivity in Europe and the United States, Evaluating the Evidence on Returns to Scale and Input Utilization," CEPR Discussion Papers 5501, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5501
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    Cited by:

    1. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2012. "Demand fluctuations and productivity of service industries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 256-258.
    2. John Fernald & Brent Neiman, 2011. "Growth Accounting with Misallocation: Or, Doing Less with More in Singapore," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 29-74, April.
    3. Martin Biewen & Constantin Weiser, 2014. "An empirical test of marginal productivity theory," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(9), pages 996-1020, March.
    4. KIYOTA Kozo, 2010. "Productivity, Markup, Scale Economies, and the Business Cycle: Estimates from firm-level panel data in Japan," Discussion papers 10040, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    5. Eugenia Nazrullaeva, 2008. "Measurement of technological progress in Russia (in Russian)," Quantile, Quantile, issue 5, pages 59-82, September.
    6. Diego A. Comin & Javier Quintana Gonzalez & Tom G. Schmitz & Antonella Trigari, 2020. "A New Measure of Utilization-adjusted TFP Growth for Europe and the United States," NBER Working Papers 28008, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Aguiar-Conraria, Luís & Wen, Yi, 2008. "A Note On Oil Dependence And Economic Instability," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(5), pages 717-723, November.
    8. John Fernald & Brent Neiman, 2006. "Measuring the Miracle: Market Imperfections and Asia's Growth Experience," 2006 Meeting Papers 785, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    9. Biewen, Martin & Weiser, Constantin, 2011. "A New Approach to Testing Marginal Productivity Theory," IZA Discussion Papers 6113, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Valentin Zelenyuk & Claudia Curi & Paolo Guarda & Ana Lozano-Vivas, 2011. "Is foreign-bank efficiency in financial centers driven by home-country characteristics?," CEPA Working Papers Series WP022011, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    11. Aguiar-Conraria, Luís & Wen, Yi, 2012. "OPEC's oil exporting strategy and macroeconomic (in)stability," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 132-136.
    12. Nadav Ben Zeev, 2018. "The Tfp Channel Of Credit Supply Shocks," Working Papers 1802, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    13. Comin, Diego & Quintana Gonzalez, Javier & Schmitz, Tom & Trigari, Antonella, 2020. "Revisiting Productivity Dynamics in Europe: A New Measure of Utilization-Adjusted TFP Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 15402, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Lucas Navarro & Raimundo Soto, 2006. "Procyclical Productivity in Manufacturing," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 43(127), pages 193-220.
    15. John G. Fernald & Robert Inklaar, 2022. "The UK Productivity “Puzzle” in an International Comparative Perspective," Working Paper Series 2022-07, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    16. John G. Fernald & J. Christina Wang, 2016. "Why Has the Cyclicality of Productivity Changed? What Does It Mean?," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 465-496, October.
    17. Claudia Curi & Paolo Guarda & Ana Lozano-Vivas & Valentin Zelenyuk, 2013. "Is foreign-bank efficiency in financial centers driven by home or host country characteristics?," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 367-385, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cyclical productivity; Input utilizations; Returns to scale; Instrumental variables;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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