This paper explores the contribution of knowledge capital to total factor productivity differences among regions within a regression framework. The dependent variable is total factor productivity, defined as output (in terms of gross value added) per unit of labour and physical capital combined, while the explanatory variable is a patent stock measure of regional knowledge endowments. We provide an econometric derivation of the relationship, which in the presence of unobservable knowledge capital leads to a spatial regression model relationship. This model form is extended to account for technological dependence between regions, which allows us to quantify disembodied knowledge spillover impacts arising from both spatial and technological proximity. A six-year panel of 198 NUTS-2 regions spanning the period from 1997 to 2002 was used to empirically test the model, to measure both direct and indirect effects of knowledge capital on regional total factor productivity, and to assess the relative importance of knowledge spillovers from spatial versus technological proximity. (authors' abstract)

This paper explores the contribution of knowledge capital to total factor productivity differences among regions within a regression framework. We provide an econometric derivation of the relationship and show that the presence of latent/unobservable regional knowledge capital leads to a model relationship that includes both spatial and technological dependence. This model specification accounts for both spatial and technological dependence between regions, which allows us to quantify spillover impacts arising from both types of interaction. Sample data on 198 NUTS-2 regions spanning the period from 1997 to 2002 was used to empirically test the model, to measure both direct and indirect effects of knowledge capital on regional total factor productivity, and to assess the relative importance of knowledge spillovers from spatial versus technological proximity. (authors' abstract)

This dissertation comprises three essays on macroeconomic impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI). The first essay analyses the impact of FDI on the growth rate of total factor productivity of host countries. The essay focuses on 77 low- and middle-income countries and is based on balanced panel data for the period 1980-2008. The system GMM and common correlated effects (CCE) panel data methods are applied to estimate the models. Estimated coefficients show that FDI does not have any significant impact on the growth rate and the levels of TFP. The second essay investigates the relationship between FDI and domestic investment focusing on low- and middle-income countries, and using panel data for the period 1980-2012. It applies common parameter and heterogeneous parameter, static and dynamic, single equation and simultaneous equation panel data econometric techniques to study the relationship. Empirical findings suggest that FDI crowds our domestic investment. Our estimated coefficients also suggest that countries that have weak institutions, less developed financial systems, less human capital, less developed infrastructure, or economies that are more open, are more exposed to foreign competition and experience stronger crowding out from inward FDI. In the third essay, the influence of capital flows on the real exchange rate of recipient countries is analysed. The influence of three important capital flows, viz. foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign aid, and remittances, are assessed on the real exchange rate, using data for 45 middle- and low-income countries for the period 1980–2013. Both heterogeneous and homogeneous panel data methods are applied to estimate the real exchange rate models. The estimated coefficients of these models imply that foreign direct investment (FDI) and remittances do not influence the real exchange rate. Aid tends to depreciate the real exchange rate. Findings also suggest that financial development does not influence the exchange rate impact of aid in our sample countries. The study further finds that while aid tends to increase real exchange rate volatility, FDI and remittances do not have any robust influence on volatility. / February 2017

A Produtividade Total dos Fatores da agropecuária brasileira cresceu a uma taxa média de 2,2% ao ano entre 1975 e 2006, entretanto esse crescimento não ocorreu de forma homogênea entre os estados que compõem o país. Enquanto alguns estados além de terem taxas consistentes de crescimento, por vezes acima da média nacional, outros tiveram um trajetória que oscilava entre momentos de crescimento e estagnação. Tendo em vista essas diferenças na trajetória estadual da produtividade, o objetivo do trabalho é compreender a dinâmica do crescimento da PTF agropecuária brasileira e testar a hipótese das convergências sigma e beta - absoluta e condicional - a um nível geográfico interestadual entre os anos censitários de 1975 e 2006. Para atingir tal objetivo foi utilizado um modelo de regressão linear simples, para o teste da convergência sigma, e um modelo de dados em painel para os casos da convergência beta. Os resultados obtidos não identificaram convergência sigma, indicando um aumento da dispersão da produtividade interestadual, mas há evidências de convergência beta, tanto absoluta quanto condicional, sendo que o tempo de meia-vida para convergência variou entre 168 anos, no caso absoluto, e 172 anos, no caso condicional. A partir dos resultados argumenta-se que o longo período temporal necessário para a convergência beta não consegue ser compreendido sem que se leve em consideração o aumento da dispersão do nível da PTF, evidenciada pela não convergência sigma, pela própria dinâmica da produtividade interestadual e por fatores exógenos, como a condução da política agrícola durante o período em análise. / Brazilian farming total factor productivity grew at an average rate of 2.2% per year from 1975 to 2006, however this growth did not occur in a homogeneous way among the states. While some states besides having consistent rates of growth, sometimes above the national average, others had a trajectory that oscillated between moments of growth and stagnation. In view of these differences in the state productivity trajectory, the objective of this work is to understand the dynamics of the growth of Brazilian agricultural TFP and testing the hypothesis of sigma and beta - absolute and conditional - convergences at a geographical interstate level between. To achieve this objective, a simple linear regression model was used for the sigma convergence test and a panel data model for the cases of beta convergence. The results obtained did not identify sigma convergence, indicating an increase in the dispersion of interstate productivity, but there is evidence of beta convergence, both absolute and conditional, and the half-life for convergence varied between 168 years in the absolute case and 172 years, in the conditional case. From the results it is argued that the long time period required for the beta convergence can\'t be understood without taking into account the increased dispersion of the TFP level, evidenced by sigma non convergence, by the interstate productivity dynamics itself and by exogenous factors such as the conduct of agricultural policy during the period under review.

Seminal papers of Solow (1957) and Swan (1956) stimulated debate among economists on the role of technical change in productivity improvements and for that matter economic growth. The consensus is that technological change accounts for a significant proportion of gross national product (GNP) growth in industrialised economies. In the case of Australia, the aggregate productivity performance was poor in the 1970s and 1980s, but picked up very strongly by the 1990s, and was above the OECD average growth level for the first time in its productivity growth history. However, this high productivity growth rate could not be sustained and Australia started to experience a slowdown in productivity growth since 2000. This study empirically measures the performance of productivity in Australia’s economy for the period 1950-2005, using an econometric approach. Time-series data are used to develop econometric models that capture the dynamic interactions between GDP, fixed capital, labour units, human capital, foreign direct investment (FDI) and information and communication technology (ICT). The Johansen (1988) cointegration techniques are used to establish a long-run steady-state relation between or among economic time series. The econometric analysis pays careful attention to the time-series properties of the data by conducting unit root and conintegration tests for the variables in the system. / This study finds that Australia experienced productivity growth in the 1950s, a slow down in the mid 1960s, a very strong productivity growth in the mid 1990s and another slowdown from 2000 onwards. The study finds evidence that human capital, FDI and ICT are very strong determinants of long-run GDP and productivity growth in Australia. The study finds that the three, four and the five factor models are likely to give better measures of productivity performance in Australia as these models recognise human capital, FDI and ICT and include them as separate factors in the production function, This study finds evidence that the previous studies on the Australia’s productivity puzzle have made a very significant omission by not considering human capital, FDI and ICT as additional exogenous variables and by excluding them from the production function for productivity analysis.

The thesis concentrates on measuring the benefits and losses of implementing regional trade agreements. In particular, the thesis analyses trade flow changes, foreign direct investment inflow changes, industrial total factor productivity changes and specific commodity trade flow changes in Australia and China. Four empirical studies are undertaken. Firstly, the thesis introduces the gravity model to estimate the effect of regional trade agreements on trade flow changes, focusing on thirty-nine countries and areas from seven regional trade agreements during 1980-2004. The results show that there are trade creation and trade diversion effects for various memberships. The results further show that China experiences an export creation effect for its APEC membership while Australia has an import diversion effect for its CER membership. When trade between Australia and China is considered, Australia's CER membership impedes its trade with China. However, both Australia and China benefit from attending APEC jointly to enlarge their bilateral trade. Secondly, a modified gravity model is undertaken to test the impact of regional trade agreements on foreign direct investment inflows to Australia and China. It uses the same regional trade agreements to that of the trade flow study for the period of 1980 to 2004 for Australia and 1985 to 2004 for China. The results show that CER members tend to strengthen their bilateral foreign direct investment cooperation after the implementation of CER trade and investment liberalization. Thirdly, the impact of regional trade agreements is examined on industrial total factor productivity growth. The findings show that industries with comparative trading advantages in both Australia and China tend to improve their total factor productivity upon liberalizing trade both bilaterally and multilaterally. However, industries with comparative disadvantages need more protection against severe foreign competition. It uses data from 1974-75 to 2004-05 for the Australian market sector analysis, from 1968-69 to 1990-2000 for the Australian manufacturing industry analysis, and from 1987 to 2003 for the Chinese industry analysis. Finally, the thesis investigates the impact of regional trade agreements on bilateral commodity trade between Australia and China from 1979 to 2004. A similar gravity model to that of the trade flow study is used, introducing an additional GDP per capita variable to capture the effect of increasing consumers' income on their consumption of particular goods and products type based on product and production characteristics. Both the one-digit and some detailed four-digit commodity classifications described in the Standard International Trade Classification are considered. The results show that participation in regional trade agreements is an important factor that affects Australia's major commodity trade with China. The major contribution of this thesis is the investigation of issues on trade flows and foreign direct investment specifically in Australia and China, together with the studies of the effect of regional trade agreements on industrial total factor productivity improvement and specific commodity trade changes. Due to the increasing pursuit of bilateral and regional economic cooperation in Australia and China, the results of this thesis are of particular importance to both countries in their foreign trade and economic strategies.

I uppsatsen undersöks den period då den svenska ekonomin uppnår den fulla sysselsättning som sedan blev normen för hela efterkrigstiden. I arbetet genomförs en sammanställning av fackföreningarnas arbetslöshetsstatistik som publicerats i Sociala meddelanden varje månad under perioden 1935-1948. Materialet har därefter bearbetats och utifrån förbundsredovisningen har arbetslöshetsserier skapats för sju av industrins delbranscher. Utifrån bearbetningen sammankopplas arbetslöshetsstatistiken för respektive sektor med de uppgifter om förädlingsvärden, sysselsättning och löner som publicerats i den officiella industristatistiken och som ett resultat av arbetet med svenska historiska nationalräkenskaper. Med hjälp av materialet prövas två hypoteser som kan härledas från den  Nykeynesianska teorin för arbetsmarknaden. Den första hypotesen berör sambandet mellan löneutrymme, löner och arbetslöshet. Enligt teorin måste lönerna växa i takt med den Harrod-neutrala teknologiska utvecklingen; vilken operationaliseras som totalfaktorproduktiviteten dividerad med arbetskostnadens andel av produktionsresultatet, för att arbetslöshet ska förbli oförändrad. Den andra hypotesen avser förhållandet mellan resursutnyttjande(arbetslöshet) och nominell löneinflation. Enligt teorin ska det fall då en ökning av resursutnyttjandet inte medför någon ökad löneinflation tolkas som att arbetsmarknadens funktionssätt förbättrats. De två hypoteserna prövas för respektive delbransch och för industrin som helhet. Resultatet från undersökningen är att lönerna i förhållande till löneutrymmet och sambandet mellan resursutnyttjande och löneinflation för hela industrin båda pekar i den riktning som förväntas under en period då arbetslösheten sjunker mycket kraftigt. För de respektive delbranscherna är mönstret emellertid mer varierat. Slutligen framhålls att den tidigare historieskrivningen över den svenska arbetsmarknadens utveckling bör nedtonas till förmån för en ny kronologi där den process som sammanbinder mellan- och efterkrigstiden ges större utrymme. / In the thesis the period when Sweden became a full employment society is examined. Starting off the study the union’s unemployment figures are collected from the monthly publication “Sociala meddelanden” during the period 1935-1948. Thereafter, starting from the division into different trade unions the material is processed and unemployment figures for seven industry groups are created. From the division into industry subsectors the unemployment figures are subsequently linked to the records of value added, employment and wages that has been published in the official industry statistics and as a result of the efforts to construct Swedish historical national accounts. Two hypotheses that can be derived from the New Keynesian theory of the labor market are then tested against the material. The first hypothesis pertains to the relation between the warranted wage, wages and unemployment. According to the theory wages can only grow in tandem with Harrod-neutral technological growth for unemployment to remain unaffected. The second hypotheses relates to the relationship between the level of resource utilization(unemployment) and nominal wage inflation. According to the theory the case when an upturn in the resource utilization is accompanied by unchanged nominal wages should to be interpreted as an improvement in labor market performance. The two hypotheses are tested for the seven subsectors and for the industry as a whole.    The outcome of the study is that the growth of wages in relation to the warranted wage as well as the relationship between resource utilization and nominal wage inflation point in the direction of an improvement in labor market performance for the industry as a whole during the period when full employment was achieved. For the seven subsectors however, the results are more scattered. In closing I argue that the previous historiography should be deemphasized to the benefit of a chronology that instead stretches the interconnectedness between the inter- and postwar development in order for a richer understanding of the path towards full employment in Sweden to be reached.

This thesis shows how the relative efficiency of automotive companies can be evaluated and how the changes in productivity of these companies by time can be observed. There are 17 companies in the analysis which are the main automotive manufacturers of Turkish automotive industry. A method called stepwise approach is used to determine the input and output factors. The two input variables used are the company&rsquo / s Payment for Raw Materials and Components and Payment for Wages and Insurances of Employees / the three output variables are Domestic Sales, Exports and Capacity Usage. The panel data that covers the time period between years 2001 and 2005 is obtained from OSD (Automotive Manufacturers Association). The efficiency analysis is performed according to basic Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models which are Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR) models and Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC) models. The software LINGO 10 is used for solving the linear programming models. After finding the overall efficiency, technical efficiency and scale efficiency of each company for each year, the changes in the efficiencies are analyzed by using Malmquist Total Factor Productivity (TFP) Index. The results are illustrated by the help of many tables and graphs for better understanding. When the results in tables and graphs are analyzed, the negative effect of 2001 economic crisis on automotive industry can be observed. Besides, it is seen that the efficiency changes by time show variance from company to company because they produce 7 types of vehicles and there are important differences between them such as production technology, market, demand, etc.

Finance, economic and management literature document the reduced agency problems, increased productivity, and greater financial benefits that accrue to firms that adopt Employee Stock Ownership Plans, (ESOPs). The literature also documents the increased agency problems, decreased employee productivity, and poor operating performance that usually accompany corporate downsizing activity. To date, none of the studies have examined the effect that downsizing decisions have on companies with existing ESOP plans; this dissertation fills that empirical void. In this study, two essays are presented that examine the effect of corporate downsizing on ESOP versus non-ESOP firms. In the first essay, I investigate the short-term wealth effects of the downsizing announcement using event study methodology. I find that there is no significant change in the wealth effects for ESOP firms (they are positive, yet small), whereas non-ESOP firms have significantly negative abnormal returns. There is, however, a significant difference in the abnormal returns of ESOP versus non-ESOP firms, where ESOPs have significantly higher abnormal returns. Finally, with respect to wealth effects, I find that downsizing interacts negatively with managerial ownership and with employee ownership, but there is a positive interaction between the ownership of managers and employees.In the second essay, I examine the long-term employee productivity and financial performance of the downsized firms, as measured by Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and Tobins Q, respectively. I find that neither the percentage of employee ownership nor the level of downsizing has an impact on the productivity of the downsizing ESOP firm. However, the level of downsizing exerts a significantly positive impact on the productivity of non-ESOP firms. With respect to financial performance, the existence of an ESOP plan has a significantly negative influence on the Tobins Q of the downsizing firm. Furthermore, the level of downsizing has a significantly negative impact on non-ESOP firms, whereas the financial performance of ESOP firms appear to be unaffected by the level of downsizing. For Tobins Q, there is evidence of interaction between employee and managerial ownership for ESOP firms. There is also interaction between managerial ownership and downsizing for the TFP and Tobins Q of non-ESOP firms.

This study provides ex ante estimates of multi factor productivity (MFP) growth in the Saskatchewan agricultural sector on a crop by crop basis, using a time series of partial budgets from representative crop planning Guide. The study considers six major crops in Saskatchewan: spring wheat, durum wheat, feed barley, feed peas, large green lentils and canola. MFP growth is compared across crops, soil zones and cropping systems. Over the 1993-2013 period all six crops MFP grew at rates of over 2.56% per year. Feed peas and canola showed the fastest growth rates of 4.68% and 4.01%, respectively. The MFP growth of crops seeded on summer-fallow was slower than crops seeded into stubble using conventional tillage and zero tillage. The best soil zone for durum wheat and lentils, in term of productivity growth, was the Brown Soil zone; while for peas and canola, it is the Dark Brown Soil zone. Spring wheat and barley grown in different soil zones had very similar productivity gains.