scholarly journals Markups, Market Imperfections, and Trade Openness: Evidence from Ghana

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaku Attah Damoah
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
Trade Openness ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Market Imperfections ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Wto Accession ◽  
Level Information ◽  
Monopsony Power ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article investigates the impact of Ghana’s World Trade Organization (WTO) accession on firm-level product and labor market imperfections. The article exploits a rich dataset of firm-level information to estimate markups and the degree of monopsony power enjoyed by manufacturing firms. The results indicate that price-cost margins declined while the degree of monopsony power increased in the wake of WTO accession. These diverging dynamics suggest that firms compress real wages to offset loss of market power in the product market due to increased international competition. This gives rise to an increase in the market imperfection gap, which gradually erodes the pro-competitive gains from trade. The article contributes to the literature by identifying channels through which allocative inefficiencies and misallocation can persist even after trade liberalization.

scholarly journals Firm Level Strategy, Organization Culture and Performance of Food and Beverage Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary B. Awino ◽  
Dominic C. Muteshi ◽  
Reginah K. Kitiabi ◽  
Ganesh P. Pokhariyal
Keyword(s):  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Organization Culture ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The study tested the impact of organization culture on the on the relationship between firm-level strategy and performance of food and beverage manufacturing firms in Kenya. The opinion of the CEO/MDs from 125 firms in this sector was sought by application of a structured questionnaire; the collected data was analysed using hierarchical regression analysis. The paper stated hypothesis that organizational culture has a significant effect on the relationship between firm-level strategy and performance. The results supported the hypothesis. Therefore, firm development of strong organization culture to support firm-level strategy for higher performance is paramount. These findings will contribute to government policy formulation for sector’s expansion and competitiveness and management drives in building a positive organization culture to support firm-level strategy for improved performance.

Services Outsourcing and Productivity Growth

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Marketing Research ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Business Services ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
The Impact

The article studies the impact of outsourcing services on the productivity growth of the Indian manufacturing firms. By the term services we mean different expenses on services incurred by the manufacturing firms, such as, advertising, marketing, research and development, consultancy, auditing, business services, knowledge-based services, technical, legal and other professional services (including information communication and technology services). With further expansion in newer services, a higher demand has come from the Indian manufacturing sector. With intensive usage of services in the manufacturing production process, the performance and the manufacturing can focus on the core competencies with outsourced and cheaper services from expert service provider. For this purpose, the firm-level data have been collected from the annual financial statements of the Centre for Monitoring of the Indian Economy’s Prowess database. The econometric results conclude that services have played a positive role in improving the productivity growth of the aggregate Indian manufacturing firms and at the disaggregated level, especially for industrial groups such as food, beverage and tobacco; textiles, gems and jewellery; transport; machinery; metal, rubber and plastic; leather and footwear; and chemicals, services have played a favourable role in boosting the productivity growth. JEL: D24, L80, L60

The impact of exporting on women's employment

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Begum Dikilitas ◽  
Burcu Fazlioglu ◽  
Basak Dalgic
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Women's Employment ◽  
Employment Rate ◽  
Women’S Employment ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the effect of exports on women's employment rate for Turkish manufacturing firms over a recent period of 2003–2015.Design/methodology/approachThe authors establish treatment models and use propensity score matching (PSM) techniques together with difference-in-difference methodology.FindingsThe results of the study indicate that starting to export increases women’s employment rate for manufacturing firms. Gains in female employment rates are observed for the firms operating in low and medium low technology intensive sectors, low-wage sectors as well as laborlabor-intensive goods exporting sectors.Originality/valueThe authors complement previous literature by utilizing a rich harmonized firm-level dataset that covers a large number of firms and a recent time period. The authors distinguish between several sub-samples of firms according to technology intensity of the sector in which they operate, wage level and factor intensity of exports and investigate whether or not women gain from trade in terms of employment opportunities.

Financialisation, institutions and financing constraints in developing countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 825-866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charilaos Mertzanis
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Financing Constraints ◽  
External Financing ◽  
Access To Finance ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Financial Depth ◽  
Level Information ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The paper uses a consistent firm-level data from the World Banks Enterprise Surveys to explore the impact of financialisation in the economy on firms’ access to finance in 138 developing countries. Access to finance reflects survey-based firms’ perceptions of external financing constraints. Financialisation is proxied by consistent cross-country measures of financial depth. These proxies capture separately the role of bank-based versus market-based financing. Firm-, sector- and country-level information is jointly used for the analysis. Firm-specific characteristics and economic and non-economic national factors are included as controls. The results show that the proxies of financialisation are broadly robust predictors of financing constraints of firms in developing countries. However, the magnitude of the financialisation effect varies between bank-based and market-based channels of financing as well as between low- and high-income countries, and it is influenced by social, institutional and religious factors.

scholarly journals Asymmetric wage adjustment and employment in European firms

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Marotzke ◽  
Robert Anderton ◽  
Ana Bairrao ◽  
Clémence Berson ◽  
Peter Tóth
Keyword(s):  
European Countries ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Nominal Wage ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Level Information ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Wage Adjustment ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWe explore the impact of wage adjustment on employment with a focus on the role of downward nominal wage rigidities. We use a harmonised survey dataset, which covers 25 European countries in the period 2010–2013. These data are particularly useful for this paper given the firm-level information on the change in economic conditions and collective pay agreements. Our findings confirm the presence of wage rigidities in Europe: first, collective pay agreements reduce the probability of downward wage adjustment; second, wage responses to demand developments are asymmetric with a weaker downward response. Estimation results show that a wage reduction significantly lowers the probability of a decrease in employment at the firm level when demand falls and thereby point to a negative effect of downward wage rigidities on employment at the firm level.

Measuring World Trade Organization (WTO) Accession Commitments and their Economic Effects

2017 ◽  
Vol 08 (02) ◽  
pp. 1750007
Author(s):  
Vicky Chemutai ◽  
Hubert Escaith
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Gross Domestic Product ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Trade Balance ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Wto Accession ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Trade And Investment

This paper builds an index to measure the depth of accession commitments and estimate the impact of World Trade Organization (WTO) accession. We find that WTO accession has a positive and significant influence on an economy’s trade and investment. The impact of WTO accession on the ratio of trade to gross domestic product is significantly higher than in previous studies on developing countries. Trade in services also tends to increase after accession. Moreover, greater openness does not negatively affect the trade balance of Article XII members. The results on investment, be it domestic or foreign, are also encouraging, but are not fully conclusive.

Trade liberalization and productivity of Indian manufacturing firms

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bishwanath Goldar ◽  
Isha Chawla ◽  
Smruti Ranjan Behera
Keyword(s):  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Econometric Models ◽  
Fixed Effects Model ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of India’s trade liberalization during the late 1990s and 2000s on productivity of manufacturing firms and verify whether the productivity-enhancing impact of reductions in input tariffs was greater than that of output tariff cuts, as found in some earlier studies. Design/methodology/approach Firm-level (company-level) data drawn from Prowess database are used for the estimation of total factor productivity (TFP) at the firm level, done by using the Levinsohn–Petrin methodology. Econometric models are estimated to explain firm-level TFP. The explanatory variables used are output and input tariff rates and quantitative restrictions on imports at the industry level and firm characteristics such as firm size, export intensity and import intensity. Firm-level panel data for 2002-2010 or for a longer period 1998-2010 are used for the estimation of econometric models. Model estimation is done by applying the fixed-effects model and IV-2SLS, 3SLS estimators and EC2SLS estimators. Findings Trade liberalization had a significant positive effect on the productivity of Indian manufacturing firms. The lowering of output tariff had a greater beneficial impact on TFP of Indian manufacturing firms than the lowering of tariff on intermediate inputs. Originality/value Good deal of care has been taken in the measurement of output and inputs for the purpose of TFP measurement. Two alternative frameworks, gross output and value added, are used. This helps in making a better estimate of the impact of trade liberalization on TFP.

scholarly journals Labor Costs and Corporate Investment in Italy

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (38) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Garcia-Macia
Keyword(s):  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Wage Growth ◽  
Private Investment ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Labor Market Reform ◽  
The Impact

The recovery of private investment in Italy has lagged its euro area peers over the past decade. This paper examines the role of elevated labor costs in hindering the recovery. Specifically, labor costs rose faster than labor productivity prior to the global financial crisis and have remained high since, weighing on firms’ profits, capital returns, and thus capacity to invest. Empirical analysis provides evidence for the impact of wages on investment at the sectoral and firm levels. Sectoral wage growth seems unrelated to sectoral productivity growth, but is negatively associated with investment. Firm-level data permit a better identification—by exploiting the interaction between sectoral wage growth (exogenous to the firm) and the lagged labor share of the firm. A 1 percent increase in real wages is estimated to cause a 1/3 percent fall in fixed capital. Profits absorb only ½ of the cost increase, pointing to the role of liquidity constraints. These results highlight the need for labor market reform to reinvigorate investment, and thus labor productivity and job creation.

Analysis of Trade-Growth Nexus

2014 ◽  
pp. 247-271
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Trade Openness ◽  
Growth Effects ◽  
Positive Growth ◽  
Trade Growth ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Global Growth ◽  
Trade And Growth

This chapter delves deeper into the controversial trade-growth debate – controversial because empirical evidence has provided a wide variety of findings, although one of the stylized facts of global growth is that economies which have opened-up for trade have grown very strongly. The focus is China, the regional and international trade-giant, with an objective of analyzing the impact of trade on economic growth. The motivation of this chapter is due to a number of reasons. First, as stated above, while theoretical economists broadly converge to the agreement that trade has positive growth effects (with various conditionalities), empirical findings have been conflicting. Second, these conditions and other important issues surrounding trade openness are important and must be adequacy explored. Third, the Chinese (or Asian economies) data provides the best grounds of experimenting on both trade and growth, especially in the era when they dominate both world trade and growth rates. And finally, this chapter is an application of the extension developed by Rao and Singh (2007) for estimating the impact of trade openness on economic growth of China.

scholarly journals Innovation and Firm-level Labour Productivity: A Comparison of Chinese and Indian Manufacturing Based on Enterprise Surveys

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-481
Author(s):  
Poulomi Bhattacharya ◽  
Badri Narayan Rath
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Labour Productivity ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
China And India ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Enterprise Surveys ◽  
The Impact

This article examines the impact of innovation on labour productivity by using latest World Bank Enterprise Surveys data and compares the results between Chinese and Indian manufacturing sector. The article uses cross-section data based on two surveys that were conducted by the World Bank in 2012 and 2014 for China and India, respectively. By employing simple ordinary least squares (OLS) regression technique, we find that innovation affects the labour productivity positively for Chinese as well as Indian manufacturing firms, but its impact on firm productivity is relatively weak in case of India as compared to China. Second, other factors such as average wage of the workers, education of production workers and training do significantly boost the labour productivity of Chinese manufacturing firms as well as for Indian firms. Third, our results based on firm size also indicate that the impact of innovation activities on labour productivity is higher in case of large firms as compared to medium firms. However, innovation does not affect the labour productivity of small manufacturing firms for both China and India. In terms of policy, it is important for both Chinese and Indian manufacturing firms to keep pursuing innovation activities, in order to spur productivity, which would strengthen firms’ growth.

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