Unemployment and/or slow economic growth nationally and in poorer regions are two problems which political decision-makers often refer to when they argue for the need to grant different producer subsidies to firms. Moreover, it is often asserted that the problems are due to different market failures. However, it is not certain that market failures exist and political attempts to correct "market-failures" might easily turn into government failures. In the thesis various industrial and regional policy subsidies are examined. The subsidies, which are studied, have become increasingly important in many countries, not least in the EU, over time.The thesis consists of four essays, which examine different aspects of interventionistic policy and political decision making from the perspective of market failure vs. government failure. The purpose of Essay 1 is to study whether Swedish regional policy, which was introduced around 1970, has significantly affected the process of growth of per capita income in Swedish counties. In Essay 2 characteristics of recipient firms are analysed from an interest-group perspective. In Essay 3, the subsidies effect on total factor productivity growth is studied. In the final essay employment effects are examined. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

In this dissertation I study substantially the effects of disembodied technical change on the total factor productivity and inputs demand in U.S. Apparel industry during 1958-1996. A time series input-output data set over the sector employs to estimate an error corrected model of a four-factor transcendental logarithmic cost function. The empirical results indicate technical impact on the total factor productivity at the rate of 9% on average. Technical progress has in addition a biased effect on factor augmenting in the sector.

No description available.

Over that past three decades, power sector reform has been a key pillar of policy agendas in more than half of the countries across the world. This thesis specifically concerns the empirical investigation of the economic performance of the international electricity generation industry. Drawing on the stochastic frontier analysis techniques, the thesis considers the influence of reform as exogenous factors in shifting frontier technology as well as shaping inefficiency function directly -determinants and heteroscedasticity variables. The first essay uses an extensive panel dataset of 91 countries over the period 1980 to 2010 to measure the impact of deregulation on efficiency and total productivity growth using stochastic input distance frontier (SIDF). Three specific issues are addressed in the first essay: (1) the relationship between deregulation and technical efficiency, (2) the extent of the rank correlation of the country intercepts with deregulation via their position on the frontier, (3) the trend of total factor productivity and its components. We establish a positive impact of deregulation on efficiency and some compelling evidence suggesting that the country intercepts equally account for the influence of deregulation aside efficiency. In particular, the technical efficiency index from the first paper reveals that most OECD European countries are consistently efficient. Building on this finding, the second essay investigates the performance in term of cost efficiency for electricity generation in OECD power sector while accounting for the impact of electricity market product regulatory indicators. Empirical models are developed for the cost function as a translog form and analysed using panel data of 25 countries during the period 1980 to 2009. We show that it is necessary to model latent country-specific heterogeneity in addition to time-varying inefficiency. The estimated economies of scale are adjusted to take account of the importance of the quasi-fixed capital input in determining cost behaviour, and adjusted economies of scale are verified for the OECD generation sector. The findings suggest there is a significant impact of electricity market regulatory indicators on cost. Cost complementarity between generation and emissions found to be significant, indicating the possibility of reducing emissions without necessarily reducing electricity generation. Finally, the third essay examines the performance of electric power industry s using consistent state-level electricity generation dataset for the US contiguous states from 1998-2014. We estimate stochastic production frontier for five competing models in order to identify the determinants of technical inefficiency and marginal effects. We find evidence of positive impacts of deregulation on technical efficiency across the models estimated. Our preferred model shows that deregulated states are more efficient in electricity generation than non-deregulated states. The result of the marginal effects shows that deregulation has a positive and monotonic effect on the technical efficiency.

A década de 1990 foi marcada por importantes transformações de caráter estrutural ocorridas no ambiente econômico e institucional brasileiro que estiveram ligadas tanto ao novo conjunto de políticas macroeconômicas adotado, quanto à implementação de reformas de cunho liberalizante. O objetivo das medidas adotadas era de estabelecer condições para a retomada do crescimento da economia, de forma a que a crise da década anterior fosse superada. Apesar de um grande salto no crescimento não ter sido observado, houve uma relativa recuperação das taxas de crescimento na década de 1990 e no início dos anos posteriores. Com foco nas reformas liberalizantes que foram implementadas, esta dissertação procura investigar a maneira e os meios pelos quais as mudanças verificadas nas principais áreas reformadas geraram impacto sobre o desempenho econômico do país. Para tanto, utiliza-se dois referenciais teóricos: (i) a nova economia institucional, que fornece o substrato para a interpretação do caráter institucional das reformas; e (ii) a teoria de crescimento econômico com base nos modelos de crescimento neoclássicos, que permitem a investigação empírica acerca dos efeitos das reformas sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia. A análise empreendida verificou, primeiramente, que, de acordo com o exercício de decomposição da taxa de crescimento realizado para o período considerado de 1960 a 2005, o elemento cuja variação mais contribuiu para a variação da taxa de crescimento dos anos em questão foi a produtividade total dos fatores descontada da fronteira tecnológica (PTFD). Com base neste resultado, realizou-se a aplicação de um modelo econométrico em que a PTFD foi a variável dependente e os índices de reforma construídos as variáveis explicativas. O resultado final a que se chegou mostrou que apenas a abertura comercial e a reforma do setor financeiro nacional, dentre as quatro áreas reformadas aqui consideradas, estiveram associadas ao comportamento da PTFD no período analisado, especialmente na década de 1990, indicando que um meio pelo qual essas duas reformas geraram impactos sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia parece ter sido a PTFD. / The 1990's were characterized by important structural changes in the economic and institutional Brazilian environment, and these changes were associated to a new macroeconomic policy regime and to the implementation of economic reforms based on a liberal set of rules. The main objective behind the measures that were taken was to establish basic conditions to foster economic growth rate recovery. Although a great increase in the growth rate had not been verified, there was a relative recovery of the economic performance in the 1990's and in the beginning of following years. This thesis focus on the analysis of liberalization reforms implemented in the 1990's, and investigates the ways through which they had affected economic growth in Brazil. In this way, the study was build upon two theoretical bases: (i) the new institutional economics, which gives us the substratum to the interpretation of the institutional nature of reforms; and (ii) the economic growth theory on the bases of neoclassical growth models, which allows the empirical inquiry concerning the impact of the reforms on the rate of economic growth. The undertaken analysis in this research has shown, first of all, that, in accordance to the growth rate decomposition exercise, carried out through the years of 1960's to 2005, the element whose variation rate had most significant contribution to the variation of growth rate was the total factor productivity discounted by the technological frontier (TFPD). Based on this preliminary result, the econometric analysis took into account a model in which TFPD was the dependent variable, and the structural reforms indicators the independent variables. The final result showed that only opening trade and financial reforms, amongst the four reformed areas considered in this study, had been associated to the behavior of TFPD in the analyzed period, especially in the 1990's, indicating that the way through which these two reforms had affected the economic performance seems to have been the TFPD.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T21:00:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 andrekitaharaturma2004.pdf.jpg: 11588 bytes, checksum: cbc5e333573c742bd52864288a94667f (MD5) andrekitaharaturma2004.pdf: 562754 bytes, checksum: 6cc4c9638200f54cfb2ba073fa6c64d5 (MD5) andrekitaharaturma2004.pdf.txt: 58696 bytes, checksum: 5701a6ee0c061a04665a66a87e5f88d3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-03-06T00:00:00Z / O presente trabalho utiliza a teoria do crescimento econômico a fim de analisar a relação das taxas de investimento em capital fixo e a evolução da produtividade total dos fatores no Brasil a partir de 1950 ate 2005. A partir de pesquisas bibliográficas abordam-se os estudos de Romer, Arrow, Pires, Solow se apresenta conceitos como o "learning by doing", "spillovers" e decomposição da produtividade a fim de embasar teoricamente o estudo. As pesquisas apontam a importância da variável eficiência sobre a produtividade total dos fatores no caso brasileiro, principalmente durante os anos de incidência de inflação elevada. A metodologia aplicada no trabalho se utiliza dos dados coletados junto ao IPEAdata e Pen World Tables para formação bruta de capital fixo, produto interno bruto e dados populacionais para o cálculo da produtividade total dos fatores seguindo a metodologia proposta por Solow. Utilizam-se os dados calculados para se extrair uma relação matemática entre a produtividade total dos fatores e ao nível de estoque de capital físico. O estudo comprova a relação entre a produtividade e o investimento em capital físico, também fica demonstrada a grande importância da eficiência sobre a produtividade no caso brasileiro. / This work uses the theory of economic development to analyze the relation between capital investment and total factor productivity in the Brazilian economy from 1950 to 2005. Using bibliographic research are found studies of Romer, Arrow, Pires, Solow and present concepts like ìlearning by doingî, ìspilloversî and decomposition of productivity aiming to create some foundation to the study. The research point out the importance of the efficiency over total factor productivity in the Brazilian case, principally over the years of high inflation rates. The applied methodology uses data collected on the IPEAdata database to physical capital formation, gross domestic product, and demographic data to calculate the total factor productivity under Solowës method. The study uses data calculated to extract a mathematical relation between total factor productivity and the level of physical capital. The study shows that in Brazil this relation between investment and productivity do exists and shows also great relevance of efficiency over productivity in the Brazilian case.

The aim of the Diploma´s work was to explain the concept of corporate and regional productivity and possibility of evaluation. Furthermore to analyze the development of value added on the basis of the specific enterprise data and at the regional level. The theoretical part described the concept of productivity and factors of production. Then followed a description of the business concept of productivity, the possibility of evaluation and rating of regional productivity. In the practical part was characterized selected company. Followed economic data needed to calculate productivity at the enterprise level. The productivity was significantly affected by the economic crisis of 2009. Another part of work was devoted to evaluation of regional productivity. In the last section were compared corporate productivity and regional productivity in the years 2005 - 2011. The comparison showed that labor productivity in enterprise is on a lower level than the sector average. Conversely capital productivity was higher in the enterprise. Another finding was significant annual changes in enterprise productivity compared to the relatively stable of sector development.

A década de 1990 foi marcada por importantes transformações de caráter estrutural ocorridas no ambiente econômico e institucional brasileiro que estiveram ligadas tanto ao novo conjunto de políticas macroeconômicas adotado, quanto à implementação de reformas de cunho liberalizante. O objetivo das medidas adotadas era de estabelecer condições para a retomada do crescimento da economia, de forma a que a crise da década anterior fosse superada. Apesar de um grande salto no crescimento não ter sido observado, houve uma relativa recuperação das taxas de crescimento na década de 1990 e no início dos anos posteriores. Com foco nas reformas liberalizantes que foram implementadas, esta dissertação procura investigar a maneira e os meios pelos quais as mudanças verificadas nas principais áreas reformadas geraram impacto sobre o desempenho econômico do país. Para tanto, utiliza-se dois referenciais teóricos: (i) a nova economia institucional, que fornece o substrato para a interpretação do caráter institucional das reformas; e (ii) a teoria de crescimento econômico com base nos modelos de crescimento neoclássicos, que permitem a investigação empírica acerca dos efeitos das reformas sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia. A análise empreendida verificou, primeiramente, que, de acordo com o exercício de decomposição da taxa de crescimento realizado para o período considerado de 1960 a 2005, o elemento cuja variação mais contribuiu para a variação da taxa de crescimento dos anos em questão foi a produtividade total dos fatores descontada da fronteira tecnológica (PTFD). Com base neste resultado, realizou-se a aplicação de um modelo econométrico em que a PTFD foi a variável dependente e os índices de reforma construídos as variáveis explicativas. O resultado final a que se chegou mostrou que apenas a abertura comercial e a reforma do setor financeiro nacional, dentre as quatro áreas reformadas aqui consideradas, estiveram associadas ao comportamento da PTFD no período analisado, especialmente na década de 1990, indicando que um meio pelo qual essas duas reformas geraram impactos sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia parece ter sido a PTFD. / The 1990's were characterized by important structural changes in the economic and institutional Brazilian environment, and these changes were associated to a new macroeconomic policy regime and to the implementation of economic reforms based on a liberal set of rules. The main objective behind the measures that were taken was to establish basic conditions to foster economic growth rate recovery. Although a great increase in the growth rate had not been verified, there was a relative recovery of the economic performance in the 1990's and in the beginning of following years. This thesis focus on the analysis of liberalization reforms implemented in the 1990's, and investigates the ways through which they had affected economic growth in Brazil. In this way, the study was build upon two theoretical bases: (i) the new institutional economics, which gives us the substratum to the interpretation of the institutional nature of reforms; and (ii) the economic growth theory on the bases of neoclassical growth models, which allows the empirical inquiry concerning the impact of the reforms on the rate of economic growth. The undertaken analysis in this research has shown, first of all, that, in accordance to the growth rate decomposition exercise, carried out through the years of 1960's to 2005, the element whose variation rate had most significant contribution to the variation of growth rate was the total factor productivity discounted by the technological frontier (TFPD). Based on this preliminary result, the econometric analysis took into account a model in which TFPD was the dependent variable, and the structural reforms indicators the independent variables. The final result showed that only opening trade and financial reforms, amongst the four reformed areas considered in this study, had been associated to the behavior of TFPD in the analyzed period, especially in the 1990's, indicating that the way through which these two reforms had affected the economic performance seems to have been the TFPD.

Considerando as micorregiões do Censo Agropecuário de 1995-1996 e dos Censos Demográficos de 1991 e 2000, este trabalho estima, primeiramente, uma função de produção Cobb-Douglas. Para tal, controla-se o efeito dos preços regionais sobre o valor da produção. São levados em conta fatores tradicionais (mão-de-obra, terra, insumos químicos e capital) e o capital humano (nível de escolaridade formal e conhecimento de mercado). A estimativa foi obtida através do método de mínimos quadrados em três estágios – MQ3E. O método se justifica pelo modelo econômico proposto ser um sistema de equações (estima-se também a demanda por capital e o custo relativo da utilização deste fator) e pela forte presença de heteroscedasticia na estimação em mínimos quadrados ordinários – MQO. Em seguida, estima-se a Produtividade Total dos Fatores – PTF por estado, verificando-se a contribuição relativa do capital humano. / Using data from the Agricultural Census of 1995-96 and the Demographic Censuses of 1991 and 2000, this dissertation first estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function. The value of production is calculated in order to control the effect of regional prices. Traditional factors (labor, land, fertilizers and capital) and human capital (years of schooling and market knowledge) are used as explanatory variables in the production function. The economic model is a simultaneous equations system that considers both decisions to produce and maximize profits. Results of the proposed economic model are obtained by using the three-stage least squares (3-SLS) method due to presence of heteroskedasticity. Afterwards, total productivity factor (TFP) is estimated to each of the Brazilian states and the relative contribution of human capital is analyzed.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Esta dissertaÃÃo à composta por trÃs artigos que visam ao estudo sobre produtividade total dos fatores (PTF). O primeiro capÃtulo trata da produÃÃo agrÃcola latino-americana. Na anÃlise do desempenho econÃmico dos paÃses, utiliza-se a abordagem paramÃtrica da fronteira estocÃstica de produÃÃo. Verifica-se que todos os paÃses apresentaram variaÃÃo da PTF positiva para o perÃodo de 1961 a 2010, ou seja, apresentaram crescimento do produto, assim como progresso tÃcnico positivo. A maior variaÃÃo da PTF corresponde ao Brasil, 55,73%; jà a menor variaÃÃo apresenta-se para Trinidad e Tobago, 42,06%. Contudo, a mudanÃa na eficiÃncia tÃcnica mostrou-se decrescente para quase 50% da totalidade dos paÃses. Tratando-se de eficiÃncia de escala, apenas Argentina, Brasil e Uruguai apresentaram mÃdias positivas para o perÃodo. Em relaÃÃo à mudanÃa na eficiÃncia alocativa, todos os paÃses mostraram-se decrescentes. Jà o segundo capÃtulo estuda a PTF e sua decomposiÃÃo na agropecuÃria brasileira no perÃodo entre os anos de 1970 e 2006, a partir dos dados do Censo AgropecuÃrio, tambÃm por meio do modelo economÃtrico de fronteira estocÃstica de produÃÃo, para assim analisar a contribuiÃÃo da PTF agrÃcola. As fronteiras de produÃÃo estimadas foram utilizadas para calcular as variaÃÃes no Ãndice de produtividade total de Malmquist, decomposto dos Ãndices de variaÃÃo de eficiÃncia e variaÃÃo tecnolÃgica. Os resultados apontaram uma variaÃÃo na PTF agropecuÃria brasileira positiva, tendo o estado do Mato Grosso expressado maior variaÃÃo, seguido por Rio Grande do Norte, Amapà e PiauÃ. Estados importantes para a agropecuÃria brasileira, como Bahia, Minas Gerais e SÃo Paulo, permaneceram com as variaÃÃes na PTF positivas. EspÃrito Santo e Minas Gerais foram os Ãnicos estados que apresentaram variaÃÃo maior que um em relaÃÃo à eficiÃncia tÃcnica, efeito cathing-up. Tratando-se das regiÃes, o Centro-Oeste apresentou maior ganho de produtividade total dos fatores, seguido pelo Nordeste e Norte. No terceiro capÃtulo, as medidas de eficiÃncia tÃcnica foram estudadas na produÃÃo de mangas no semiÃrido brasileiro, especificamente no Vale do SubmÃdio SÃo Francisco. O estudo das variÃveis deu-se tambÃm por meio da estimaÃÃo do modelo economÃtrico paramÃtrico de funÃÃo de produÃÃo estocÃstica. Concluiu-se que apenas sete (7) produtores de setenta e trÃs (73) lotes pesquisados mostraram-se tecnicamente eficientes; dado preocupante, visto que o grau de ineficiÃncia foi de mais de 90%. / This thesis consists of three articles which aimed the study of total factor productivity (TFP). The first one deals with the Latin American agricultural production, and analysis of the economic performance of countries, it is used the parametric approach of stochastic frontier production. It is observed that all country had positive TFP change in the period 1961-2010, which showed product growth as well as positive technical progress. The greatest TFP variation in Brazil is 55,73%, while the smallest change is in Trinidad and Tobago, 42.06%. However, the change in technical efficiency was decreased to nearly 50% of all countries. In the case of scale efficiency, only Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay had positive average for the period. Regarding the change in allocative efficiency, all countries were decreased. The second chapter studies the TFP and its decomposition in Brazilian agriculture from 1970 to 2006, using the Agricultural Census data and also by means of econometric model of stochastic frontier production to analyze the contribution of TFP agriculture. The estimated production boundaries were used to calculate the variation in total productivity Malmquist index, decomposed from varied levels of efficiency and technological change. The results showed a variation in positive Brazilian agriculture TFP, where Mato Grosso state expressed greater variation followed by Rio Grande do Norte, Amapà and PiauÃ. Important states for Brazilian agriculture as Bahia, Minas Gerais and SÃo Paulo remained positive with the changes in TFP. EspÃrito Santo and Minas Gerais were the states that showed variation bigger than one in relation to technical efficiency, cathing-up effect. In the case of the regions, the Midwest showed greater gains in total factor productivity, followed by the Northeast and North. In the third chapter, the technical efficiency measures were studied the production of mangoes in Brazilian semi-arid region, in particular in SubmÃdio SÃo Francisco Valley. The study of the variables has also occurred by the estimation of the econometric model parametrics to chastic production function. It was concluded that only seven (7) producers from seventy-three (73) lots studied demonstrated technically efficient, bad statistic, since the in efficiency degree was over 90%.