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Misallocation or Mismeasurement?

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  • Bils, Mark
  • Klenow, Peter J.
  • Ruane, Cian

Abstract

The ratio of revenue to inputs differs greatly across plants within countries such as the U.S. and India. Such gaps may reflect misallocation which lowers aggregate productivity. But differences in measured average products need not reflect differences in true marginal products. We propose a way to estimate the gaps in true marginal products in the presence of measurement error. Our method exploits how revenue growth is less sensitive to input growth when a plant’s average products are overstated by measurement error. For Indian manufacturing from 1985 to 2013, our correction lowers potential gains from reallocation by 20%. For the U.S. the effect is even more dramatic, reducing potential gains by 60% and eliminating 2/3 of a severe downward trend in allocative efficiency over 1978 to 2013.

Suggested Citation

  • Bils, Mark & Klenow, Peter J. & Ruane, Cian, 2021. "Misallocation or Mismeasurement?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(S), pages 39-56.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:moneco:v:124:y:2021:i:s:p:s39-s56
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2021.09.004
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    Cited by:

    1. Davide Luparello, 2023. "Productivity, Inputs Misallocation, and the Financial Crisis," Papers 2306.08760, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2024.
    2. Lee, Munseob & Shin, Yongseok, 2023. "The Plant-Level View of Korea's Growth Miracle and Slowdown," IZA Discussion Papers 16553, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Amitabh Chandra & Carrie H. Colla & Jonathan S. Skinner, 2023. "Productivity Variation and Input Misallocation: Evidence from Hospitals," NBER Working Papers 31569, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Phan Le, 2022. "Capital Misallocation and State Ownership Policy in Vietnam," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 98(S1), pages 52-64, September.
    5. Orozco Vázquez Miguel, 2023. "Misallocation of Resources, Firm Characteristics, and Structural Factors: Evidence from Mexico," Working Papers 2023-11, Banco de México.
    6. Jose Asturias & Jack Rossbach, 2022. "Grouped Variation in Factor Shares: An Application to Misallocation," Working Papers 22-33, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    7. Hang, Jing, 2022. "Capacity utilization and the measurement of misallocation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    8. Goraya, Sampreet Singh, 2023. "How does caste affect entrepreneurship? birth versus worth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 116-133.
    9. van der Geest, Jesse, 2024. "Economic effects of tax avoidance and compliance," Other publications TiSEM aaca33bf-975d-4e21-9b5f-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Choi, Woo Jin & Roh, Woo Jin, 2023. "Service Matters: Capital Misallocation and Sectoral Economic Growth," KDI Journal of Economic Policy, Korea Development Institute (KDI), vol. 45(1), pages 1-32.
    11. Mallick, Debdulal & Maqsood, Nabeel, 2022. "Capital-labor substitution and misallocation," MPRA Paper 115090, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Misallocation; Measurement error; Productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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