Climbing the technology ladder too fast? : an international comparison of productivity in South and East-Asian manufacturing, 1963-1993

This paper provides a star comparison of manufacturing productivity levels in China, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan with the US as the reference country for the period 1963-1993. South Korea and Taiwan showed prolonged catch up in labour productivity with the US, whereas the other countries had long periods of relative stagnation. This is reflected in relative performance of seven detailed manufacturing branches. Physical capital per hour worked in the Asian countries is still well below the US level and there are abundant opportunities for further capital intensification. Relative total factor productivity levels in South-Korean and Taiwanese manufacturing are much lower than in the US in all manufacturing branches. The same is true for India and Indonesia compared to South Korea and Taiwan. Hence, late industrializers do not automatically benefit from the increasing global pool of technologies.

Climbing the Technology Ladder Too Fast? An International Comparison of Productivity in South and East- Asian Manufacturing, 1963-1993

productivity levels; South & East Asia

Productivity differentials in the U.S. and EU distributive trade sector: statistical myth or reality

In this paper we asses whether productivity growth differentials between the U.S. and Europe in the distributive trade sector are real or mainly a statistical myth. New estimates of retail trade productivity are constructed, taking into account purchase prices of goods sold. We also adjust U.S. wholesale productivity growth for the upward bias due to the use of constant-quality prices of ICT-goods sales. We find that multifactor productivity growth in the U.S. has been higher than in Europe after 1995, but that this lead is smaller than suggested by national accounts based estimates. This finding is robust for various productivity measurement models.

Electron-hole spectra created by adsorption on metals from density-functional theory

Non-adiabaticity in adsorption on metal surfaces gives rise to a number of measurable effects, such as chemicurrents and exo-electron emission. Here we present a quantitative theory of chemicurrents on the basis of ground-state density-functional theory (DFT) calculations of the effective electronic potential and the Kohn-Sham band structure. Excitation probabilities are calculated both for electron-hole pairs and for electrons and holes separately from first-order time-dependent perturbation theory. This is accomplished by evaluating the matrix elements (between Kohn-Sham states) of the rate of change of the effective electronic potential between subsequent (static) DFT calculations. Our approach is related to the theory of electronic friction, but allows for direct access to the excitation spectra. The method is applied to adsorption of atomic hydrogen isotopes on the Al(111) surface. The results are compatible with the available experimental data (for noble metal surfaces); in particular, the observed isotope effect in H versus D adsorption is described by the present theory. Moreover, the results are in qualitative agreement with computationally elaborate calculations of the full dynamics within time-dependent density-functional theory, with the notable exception of effects due to the spin dynamics. Being a perturbational approach, the method proposed here is simple enough to be applied to a wide class of adsorbates and surfaces, while at the same time allowing us to extract system-specific information.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B, http://prb.aps.org/, v2: some major improvements, plus correction of minor error

Mind the gap! International comparisons of productivity in services and goods production

In this paper, we make a comparison of industry output, inputs and productivity growth and levels between seven advanced economies (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, UK and U.S.). Our industry-level growth accounts go up to 2003, and make use of input data on labour quantity (hours) and quality (schooling levels), and distinguish between six different types of capital assets (including three ICT assets). The comparison of levels relies on multilateral, industry-specific purchasing power parities (PPPs) for output and inputs, within a consistent input-output framework for the year 1997. Our results show that differences in productivity growth and levels can mainly be traced to market services, not to goods-producing industries. Some of the strong productivity growth in market services in Anglo-Saxon countries may be related to relatively low productivity levels compared to the U.S. In contrast, services productivity levels in continental European countries were on par with the U.S. in 1997, but growth in Europe was much weaker since then. In terms of factor input use, the U.S. is very different from all other countries, mostly because of its more intensive use of ICT capital.