Regulation, Productivity and Growth

Regulation, Productivity and Growth
Author: Giuseppe Nicoletti
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2003
Genre: Antitrust law
ISBN:

Download Regulation, Productivity and Growth Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In this paper, we relate the scope and depth of regulatory reforms to growth outcomes in OECD countries. By means of a new set of quantitative indicators of regulation, we show that the cross-country variation of regulatory settings has increased in recent years, despite extensive liberalisation and privatisation in the OECD area. We then look at the regulation-growth linkage using data that cover a large set of manufacturing and service industries over the past two decades. We focus on multifactor productivity (MFP), which plays a crucial role in GDP growth and accounts for a significant share of its cross-country variance. We find evidence that reforms promoting private governance and competition (where these are viable) tend to boost productivity. Both privatisation and entry liberalisation are estimated to have a positive impact on productivity. In manufacturing the gains are greater the further a given country is from the technology leader, suggesting that regulation limiting ...

Business Regulation and Economic Performance

Business Regulation and Economic Performance
Author: Norman V. Loayza
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2010-01-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821381458

Download Business Regulation and Economic Performance Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The Schumpeterian process of 'creative destruction' is an essential ingredient of a dynamic economy. In many countries around the world, however, this process is weakened by pervasive regulation of product and factor markets. This book documents the regulatory obstacles faced by firms, particularly in developing countries, and assesses their implications for firm renewal and macroeconomic performance. Combining a variety of methodological approaches--analytical and empirical, micro and macroeconomic, single- and cross-country-- the book provides evidence that streamlining the regulatory framework would have a significant social pay-off, particularly in developing countries that are also burdened by weak governance. The book's chapters trace out analytically and empirically the links between microeconomic policies and distortions, on the one hand, and aggregate performance in terms of productivity, growth and volatility, on the other. The volume adds to a novel but increasingly influential literature that seeks to understand macroeconomic phenomena from a microeconomic perspective, and derive the relevant lessons for development policy. Such literature is still fairly scarce in the case of industrial countries, and virtually in its infancy for developing countries.

Regulation and Trade in Development

Regulation and Trade in Development
Author: Sean Michael Dougherty
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

Download Regulation and Trade in Development Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Institutions, and their underlying rules, are essential for economic development, in that they provide a framework for markets to operate. However, different types of regulatory roles and even institutional settings may have very different effects on outcomes at the firm or individual level. This dissertation examines the effect of several types of rules and institutions on productivity and related measures. The first chapter examines the effect of international competition and domestic competitive barriers on firm-level productivity growth in the OECD. A close interaction is observed between import penetration and domestic barriers to entry, conditional on a firm's distance to the technological frontier. The second chapter examines the effects of labor market reform on plants in different Indian states. A positive effect of labor market reform is found on plant-level productivity growth in labor-intensive and volatile industries. The third chapter looks at Indian exporters who took advantage of capital account liberalization to invest abroad, and explores whether they gained through learning-by-doing. After matching these firms with similar firms that did not invest abroad, the chapter finds that productivity was not boosted, though firms did gain in terms of their overall size through market access. The fourth chapter explores how the legal system in different Mexican states has impacted the size of firms through heightened capital intensity. States with higher quality legal institutions are found to have systematically larger and more productive firms.

Does Regulation Kill Jobs?

Does Regulation Kill Jobs?
Author: Cary Coglianese
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2014-01-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0812209249

Download Does Regulation Kill Jobs? Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

As millions of Americans struggle to find work in the wake of the Great Recession, politicians from both parties look to regulation in search of an economic cure. Some claim that burdensome regulations undermine private sector competitiveness and job growth, while others argue that tough new regulations actually create jobs at the same time that they provide other benefits. Does Regulation Kill Jobs? reveals the complex reality of regulation that supports neither partisan view. Leading legal scholars, economists, political scientists, and policy analysts show that individual regulations can at times induce employment shifts across firms, sectors, and regions—but regulation overall is neither a prime job killer nor a key job creator. The challenge for policymakers is to look carefully at individual regulatory proposals to discern any job shifting they may cause and then to make regulatory decisions sensitive to anticipated employment effects. Drawing on their analyses, contributors recommend methods for obtaining better estimates of job impacts when evaluating regulatory costs and benefits. They also assess possible ways of reforming regulatory institutions and processes to take better account of employment effects in policy decision-making. Does Regulation Kills Jobs? tackles what has become a heated partisan issue with exactly the kind of careful analysis policymakers need in order to make better policy decisions, providing insights that will benefit both politicians and citizens who seek economic growth as well as the protection of public health and safety, financial security, environmental sustainability, and other civic goals. Contributors: Matthew D. Adler, Joseph E. Aldy, Christopher Carrigan, Cary Coglianese, E. Donald Elliott, Rolf Färe, Ann Ferris, Adam M. Finkel, Wayne B. Gray, Shawna Grosskopf, Michael A. Livermore, Brian F. Mannix, Jonathan S. Masur, Al McGartland, Richard Morgenstern, Carl A. Pasurka, Jr., William A. Pizer, Eric A. Posner, Lisa A. Robinson, Jason A. Schwartz, Ronald J. Shadbegian, Stuart Shapiro.

Boosting Productivity Via Innovation and Adoption of New Technologies

Boosting Productivity Via Innovation and Adoption of New Technologies
Author: Thierry Tressel
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 31
Release: 2004
Genre: Industrial productivity
ISBN:

Download Boosting Productivity Via Innovation and Adoption of New Technologies Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Scarpetta and Tressel present empirical evidence on the determinants of industry-level multifactor productivity growth. They focus on "traditional factors," including the process of technological catch up, human capital, and research and development (R & D), as well as institutional factors affecting labor adjustment costs. Their analysis is based on harmonized data for 17 manufacturing industries in 18 industrial economies over the past two decades. The disaggregated analysis reveals that the process of technological convergence takes place mainly in low-tech industries, while in high-tech industries, country leaders tend to pull ahead of the others. The link between R & D activity and productivity also depends on technological characteristics of the industries: while there is no evidence of R & D boosting productivity in low-tech industries, the effect is strong in high-tech industries, but the technology leaders tend to enjoy higher returns on R & D expenditure compared with followers. There is also evidence in the data that high labor adjustment costs (proxied by the strictness of employment protection legislation) can have a strong negative impact on productivity. In particular, when institutional settings do not allow wages or internal training to offset high hiring and firing costs, the latter reduce incentives for innovation and adoption of new technologies, and lead to lower productivity performance. Albeit drawn from the experience of industrial countries, this result may have relevant implications for many developing economies characterized by low relative wage flexibility and high labor adjustment costs. This paper--a joint product of the Social Protection Team, Human Development Network, World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund--is part of a larger effort to understand what drives productivity growth.

Regulation and Multi-factor Productivity Growth

Regulation and Multi-factor Productivity Growth
Author: Aram Hong
Publisher:
Total Pages: 47
Release: 2009
Genre:
ISBN:

Download Regulation and Multi-factor Productivity Growth Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This study investigates the effect of regulatory policy on multi-factor productivity (MFP) growth, which is widely accepted as a measure of "technical change" in the economy. A regression analysis conducted on a panel of 19 OECD countries across seven non-manufacturing industries over the period 1990-2003 finds that, controlling for many types of regulation, entry regulation in the air transport industry and market structure in the telecommunications industry negatively related to MFP growth. Conversely, public ownership in the postal industry and vertical integration in the natural gas industry had a positive relationship with MFP growth. Most other regulatory policies have insignificant effects, although I identify certain patterns by relaxing the threshold for significance a little. Therefore, even though in general the indirect and negative effect of regulation on MFP growth may outweigh the benefits of regulation, policymakers should consider deregulation on a case by case basis, carefully considering the industry's characteristics and performance, as opposed to a blanket deregulation across industries.

Financial Systems and Economic Growth

Financial Systems and Economic Growth
Author: Peter L. Rousseau
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2017-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107141095

Download Financial Systems and Economic Growth Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This volume presents essays that take a historical look at aspects of the finance-growth nexus.

Facing Up to Low Productivity Growth

Facing Up to Low Productivity Growth
Author: Adam S. Posen
Publisher: Peterson Institute for International Economics
Total Pages: 499
Release: 2019-02-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0881327328

Download Facing Up to Low Productivity Growth Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Labor productivity growth in the United States and other advanced countries has slowed dramatically since the mid-2000s, a major factor in their economic stagnation and political turmoil. Economists have been debating the causes of the slowdown and possible remedies for some years. Unaddressed in this discussion is what happens if the slowdown is not reversed. In this volume, a dozen renowned scholars analyze the impact of sustained lower productivity growth on public finances, social protection, trade, capital flows, wages, inequality, and, ultimately, politics in the advanced industrial world. They conclude that slow productivity growth could lead to unpredictable and possibly dangerous new problems, aggravating inequality and increasing concentration of market power. Facing Up to Low Productivity Growth also proposes ways that countries can cope with these consequences.