ESTIMATING PRODUCTIVITY DYNAMICS DURING INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: AN APPLICATION TO CHINESE STATE OWNED ENTERPRISES 1980-1994

We estimate the productivity dynamics of 680 industrial Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) between 1980 and 1994. During this time managerial autonomy over factor markets was introduced. The timing of autonomy varied across SOEs and take-up was an endogenous process: high-productivity SOEs where more likely to take managerial control. We allow for this by adapting an algorithm developed in Olley & Pakes (1996) in order to generate estimates of productivity dynamics that deal with both simultaneity and endogenous selection biases. Apart from offering a methodology to estimate productivity dynamics during endogenous institutional change, we demonstrate that SOEs in China obtained productivity gains from managerial autonomy over factor markets in the years before privatisation.

Reforms and Productivity Dynamics in Chinese State-Owned Enterprises

Institutional change has taken place incrementally since 1978 for State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the Industrial Sector of China. We will provide evidence for the notion that this is largely due to increased domestic competitive pressures and the opportunities arising from the integration of international markets. In this paper we estimate the effect of deep reform (the right to hire and fire labour, buy and sell capital and operate on international markets) on the productivity dynamics of entreprises. Using a unique balanced panel of681 SOEs for the period 1980 to 1994, we find consistent production function estimatesusing an algorithm put forward in Olley and Pakes (1996), which estimates using an simultaneity bias. Futhermore, we allow selection bias by formulating an entry that exposure to deep reform hav lead to higher productivity realisations while remaining under state ownership.

Successful Factor Market Competition Pre-Privatisation? China`s eclectic.com

Can factor market competition, given pertinent incentives, bring about efficiency gains, or is privatisation necessary? We assess the impact of factor market competition on Chinese state-owned enterprises' productivity in a laboratory-like setting. The empirical evidence suggests that substantial efficiency gains are achievable pre-privatisation. Methodologically, we adapt an algorithm developed by Olley and Pakes (1996) which deals with simultaneity and selection bias in production function estimation. This is required since the reform process that introduced factor market competition involved endogenous group selection. While macro-level timing was important, enterprise characteristics, chiefly capital intensity and productivity, played an important role in the sequencing of reforms. Further, reform-induced competitive pressures brought about significant efficiency gains prior to privatisation. Finally, not controlling for selection bias would have resulted in an overestimation of reform-related productivity gains by up to fifty percent.

A typology of consumers based on money attitudes after major recession

Since the Great Recession, not all US consumers have felt the financial benefits of the sustained period of macroeconomic expansion. While some research demonstrates renewed consumer confidence and financial security among households, other studies highlight economic vulnerability and higher levels of distress relative to before the 2007/09 crisis. This study examines empirically the heterogeneity of consumers’ money attitudes in the post-recession economy. Based on a nationally representative sample of US consumers (n=1202), we identify four post-recession consumer types, distinguished by important attitudinal and behavioral differences: “Flourishing Frugal”; “Comfortable Cautious”; “Financial Middle”; and, “Financially Distressed”. While the prior studies offer broad strategic advice, this study indicates that marketers need differentiated strategies to target most effectively and deliver value to different consumer clusters

Sedimentary exhalative venting of bioavailable nitrogen into the early ocean

EES acknowledges financial support from the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, St Andrews. DDG acknowledges the support of NSERC for his Discovery grant (grant number 04834).Ore deposits found in Proterozoic marine sedimentary basins supply much of the world's zinc. Many of the deposits formed contemporaneously with their host sediments when saline brines circulating from deeper in the basin reached the sea floor. Textural, geochemical and isotopic features of these SEDEX (‘sedimentary-exhalative’) deposits and their host sediments indicate that biologically active seeps, vents and brine pools were a feature of many ore-forming systems. In mineralised pockets of mid-Proterozoic basins, these ‘microbial oases’ were productive areas in an otherwise low productivity, anoxic, deep marine realm. Here we hypothesize that these metal-rich brines which circulated through organic matter-rich substrate also carried high levels of fixed nitrogen and stimulated distinct ecosystems at sites of mineralisation, or enhanced productivity more broadly in the basin. We tested this hypothesis with organic carbon and nitrogen analyses of samples of carbonaceous siltstone and shale from the 1.64 Ga Barney Creek Formation of northern Australia. The Barney Creek Formation hosts several SEDEX Zn systems, including one of the world's largest deposits at McArthur River Mine (the HYC deposit). Samples come from the mineralised edge of HYC and from correlated strata in drill cores at varying distances (1-60 km) from the deposit. The data reveal lower ratios of total organic carbon (TOC) to total nitrogen (TN) closer to the ore body. Strong correlations (r2>0.7) between TOC and TN and the absence of excess N in the samples suggest that most N was buried as bound to organic matter. Bioavailable N was thus probably more abundant closer to HYC, consistent with fixed nitrogen input by hydrothermal fluids. If correct, our data may suggest that such a hydrothermal nitrogen point source enabled microbes to develop lower C:N ratios in their biomass. A hydrothermal nitrogen source is also supported by a gradient in δ15N values from = +4‰ proximal to the vent to +7.5‰ in distal sites, which may point towards recycling of ammonium from the underlying Wollogorang Formation (1.73 Ga). This unit has previously been identified as a source of over-mature hydrocarbons to the ore-forming fluid. We speculate that, during the mid-Proterozoic, fixed nitrogen carried by SEDEX hydrothermal brines may have locally offset the lack of aerobic nutrient remineralization that characterized most of the anoxic Precambrian deep ocean and thus stimulated biological productivity in areas where the brines reached the sea floor, and, possibly, more broadly as spent brines mixed into the water column.PostprintPeer reviewe

How policymakers can support EU cohesion in the post-pandemic environment

Support for economic, social, and territorial cohesion has been at the heart of the EU since its inception. However, the Covid-19 pandemic risks deepening inequalities between citizens and territories across the EU. Patricia Wruuck, Julie Delanote, Peter McGoldrick, Emily Sinnott and Debora Revoltella use a unique combination of survey data from businesses and municipalities to identify investment needs and gaps across EU regions. They suggest that a combination of finance, capacity support for project planning, and the implementation and lowering of investment barriers will be key to helping regions catch up following the pandemic

Reforms and productivity dynamics in Chinese state-owned enterprises

Institutional change has taken place gradually since 1978 for State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the Industrial Sector of China. In this paper we estimate the effect of deep reform (the right to hire and fire labour, buy and sell capital and operate on international markets) on the productivity dynamics of enterprises. Using a unique balanced panel of 681 SOEs for the period 1980 to 1994, we find consistent production function estimates using an algorithm put forward in Olley and Pakes (1996), which corrects for simultaneity bias. Furthermore, we allow selection to reform to be endogenous, and correct for this selection bias by formulating an entry rule to reform similar to the Olley and Pakes (1996) exit rule. We show that exposure to deep reform have lead to higher productivity realisations while remaining under state ownership

SME investment report 2019: Developments between 2016 and 2018. ESRI Survey and Statistical Report Series 86 October 2020.

This report provides a statistical review of the data collected in a specific SME investment module on the Department of Finance Credit Demand Survey. The report presents survey data for the year 2018, with reference to 2016 and 2017 for context and comparison