Productivity and Resource Misallocation in Latin America
Abstract
Total factor productivity (TFP) in Latin America has not increased since the mid- 1970s, and in many countries it has declined. Moreover, resource misallocation can lower aggregate TFP. This paper presents evidence based on firm-level data from 10 Latin American countries to quantify the heterogeneity of firm productivity and the degree of resource misallocation within countries. Productivity heterogeneity and resource misallocation are found to be much larger than in the United States. Achieving an efficient allocation of resources could boost manufacturing TFP between 45 percent and 127 percent depending on the countries and years considered.Download Info
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Paper provided by Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department in its series Research Department Publications with number 4753.Length:
Date of creation: Apr 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:idb:wpaper:4753
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Keywords:Find related papers by JEL classification:
- D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
- L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
- O47 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Measurement of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
- O54 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2012-05-15 (All new papers)
- NEP-EFF-2012-05-15 (Efficiency & Productivity)
- NEP-LAM-2012-05-15 (Central & South America)
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