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Efficiency change, technological change and capital accumulation in Italian regions: a sectoral study

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  • Simone Gitto

Abstract

This paper examines the sources of labour productivity in the Italian regions during the period 1980–2004. Five economic sectors are investigated using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and taking into account productive specialisation and sector inefficiencies. Labour productivity change is decomposed into five components by means of Malmquist productivity indices: intra-sector efficiency change, composition efficiency change, input-biased technical change, magnitude component technical change and capital accumulation. Using bootstrap procedure, the components of labour productivity changes are statistically tested. Efficiency analysis shows that productive specialisation is not a source of inefficiency and efficiency gains can be obtained by sector-specific policies. Thus, it is possible to obtain improvements in efficiency in each sector of activity rather than reallocating resources among sectors. The results of the decomposition by sectors reveal heterogeneous sources of growth. The total economy has shown evidence of non-neutral technical change and, it has been found that agriculture, industry and construction experienced capital using technical change. The analysis of the decomposition of the labour productivity growth is complemented by an analysis of β-convergence.

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  • Simone Gitto, 2017. "Efficiency change, technological change and capital accumulation in Italian regions: a sectoral study," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 191-207, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:irapec:v:31:y:2017:i:2:p:191-207
    DOI: 10.1080/02692171.2016.1240152
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    2. Álvarez, Inmaculada C. & Gude, Alberto & Orea, Luis, 2019. "Effects of inter-industry and spatial spillovers on regional productivity: Evidence from Spanish panel data," Efficiency Series Papers 2019/01, University of Oviedo, Department of Economics, Oviedo Efficiency Group (OEG).

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