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Understanding the Contributions of Reallocation to Productivity Growth: Lessons from a Comparative Firm-Level Analysis

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  • J. David Brown
  • John S. Earle
Abstract
We analyze comprehensive manufacturing firm data to measure the contribution of interfirm employment reallocation to aggregate productivity growth during the socialist and reform periods in six transition economies. Modifying a standard decomposition technique to better reflect the role of firm entry, we find that reallocation rates and productivity contributions are very low under socialism. After reforms, they rise dramatically, and productivity contributions greatly exceed those observed in market economies. Early in transition, faster reform is associated with larger contributions from reallocation, but later, and on average over the whole transition, this relationship is reversed. Though reallocation rates are larger in faster reforming economies, higher productivity dispersion in slower reformers creates much higher productivity gains for a given volume of reallocation. The results imply that reallocation should be viewed as necessary regular maintenance for a well-functioning economy, and particularly large productivity contributions tend to reflect previous neglect more than current virtue.

Suggested Citation

  • J. David Brown & John S. Earle, 2008. "Understanding the Contributions of Reallocation to Productivity Growth: Lessons from a Comparative Firm-Level Analysis," ESCIRRU Working Papers 9, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwesc:diwesc9
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

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    3. Andres Kuusk & Karsten Staehr & Uku Varblane, 2015. "Sectoral change and labour productivity growth during boom, bust and recovery," Bank of Estonia Working Papers wp2015-2, Bank of Estonia, revised 30 Dec 2015.
    4. Boeri, Tito & Macis, Mario, 2010. "Do unemployment benefits promote or hinder job reallocation?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 109-125, September.
    5. Bassanini, Andrea & Marianna, Pascal, 2009. "Looking Inside the Perpetual-Motion Machine: Job and Worker Flows in OECD Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 4452, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    7. Ilya B. Voskoboynikov, 2020. "Structural Change, Expanding Informality and Labor Productivity Growth in Russia," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(2), pages 394-417, June.
    8. Erixon, Lennart, 2016. "Building a path of equality to economic progress and macroeconomic stability - the economic theory of the Swedish model," Research Papers in Economics 2016:3, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    9. Tyrowicz, Joanna & van der Velde, Lucas, 2018. "Labor reallocation and demographics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 381-412.
    10. Carlo Gianelle, 2014. "Discovering the Regional Small World of Labour Mobility. Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(7), pages 1263-1278, July.
    11. Roberta Montebello & Jude Darmanin, 2021. "Saving behaviour in Malta: Insights from the Household Budgetary Survey," CBM Working Papers WP/04/2021, Central Bank of Malta.
    12. Péter Harasztosi, 2011. "Growth in Hungary 1994-2008: The role of capital, labour, productivity and reallocation," MNB Working Papers 2011/12, Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Central Bank of Hungary).
    13. Andres Kuusk & Karsten Staehr & Uku Varblane, 2017. "Sectoral change and labour productivity growth during boom, bust and recovery in Central and Eastern Europe," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 21-43, February.
    14. Álmos Telegdy, 2016. "Employment adjustment in the global crisis," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 24(4), pages 683-703, October.
    15. Lennart Erixon & Louise Johannesson, 2015. "Is the psychology of high profits detrimental to industrial renewal? Experimental evidence for the theory of transformation pressure," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 475-511, April.
    16. Kilinc, U., 2010. "Price-cost markups and productivity dynamics of entrant plants," Serie Research Memoranda 0011, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    17. Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde, 2014. "Can We Really Explain Worker Flows in Transition Economies?," Working Papers 2014-28, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    18. V. A. Salnikov & A. A. Gnidchenko & D. I. Galimov, 2016. "Industry-level effects from integration between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan through industrial cooperation," Studies on Russian Economic Development, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 101-113, January.
    19. Ilya B. Voskoboynikov, 2023. "Sources of productivity growth in Eastern Europe and Russia before the global financial crisis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 225-241, June.
    20. Békés, Gábor & Halpern, László & Muraközy, Balázs, 2011. "A teremtő rombolás szerepe a vállalati termelékenység alakulásában Magyarországon [The role of creative destruction in the development of corporate productivity in Hungary]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 111-132.
    21. Ilya B. Voskoboynikov, 2020. "Structural Change, Expanding Informality and Labor Productivity Growth in Russia," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(2), pages 394-417, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    productivity; reallocation; industry dynamics; creative destruction; reform; transition; Georgia; Hungary; Lithuania; Romania; Russia; Ukraine;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • P23 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Factor and Product Markets; Industry Studies; Population

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