IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sur/surrec/1306.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mind the Gap: A Comment on Aggregate Productivity and Technology

Author

Listed:
  • M. Ali Choudhary

    (University of Surrey)

  • Vasco J. Gabriel

    (University of Surrey)

Abstract

This paper reconsiders the empirical results of Basu and Fernald (European Economics Review, 2002) which suggests a significant and persistent gap between the aggregate productivity and technology levels for the US private business sector. We we control for capacity utilisation, time-varying markup and use a superior system estimator, the profile of the gap is shown to change considerably.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Ali Choudhary & Vasco J. Gabriel, 2006. "Mind the Gap: A Comment on Aggregate Productivity and Technology," School of Economics Discussion Papers 1306, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    • Handle: RePEc:sur:surrec:1306
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.som.surrey.ac.uk/2006/DP13-06.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Basu, Susanto & Fernald, John G., 2002. "Aggregate productivity and aggregate technology," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 963-991, June.
    2. Craig Burnside & Martin Eichenbaum & Sergio Rebelo, 1995. "Capital Utilization and Returns to Scale," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1995, Volume 10, pages 67-124, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Burnside, Craig, 1996. "Production function regressions, returns to scale, and externalities," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 177-201, April.
    4. Miles S. Kimball & John G. Fernald & Susanto Basu, 2006. "Are Technology Improvements Contractionary?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1418-1448, December.
    5. Domowitz, Ian & Hubbard, R Glenn & Petersen, Bruce C, 1988. "Market Structure and Cyclical Fluctuations in U.S. Manufacturing," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(1), pages 55-66, February.
    6. Caballero, Ricardo J. & Lyons, Richard K., 1992. "External effects in U.S. procyclical productivity," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 209-225, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mumtaz Ahmad & John Fernald & Hashmat Khan, 2019. "Returns to Scale in U.S. Production, Redux," Carleton Economic Papers 19-07, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    2. Miles S. Kimball & John G. Fernald & Susanto Basu, 2006. "Are Technology Improvements Contractionary?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1418-1448, December.
    3. Alexius, Annika & Carlsson, Mikael, 2001. "Measures of Technology and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Sweden and the U.S," Working Paper Series 174, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Robert Inklaar, 2007. "Cyclical Productivity in Europe and the United States: Evaluating the Evidence on Returns to Scale and Input Utilization," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(296), pages 822-841, November.
    5. Basu, Susanto & Fernald, John G. & Shapiro, Matthew D., 2001. "Productivity growth in the 1990s: technology, utilization, or adjustment?," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 117-165, December.
    6. Sharon G. Harrison, 2003. "Returns to Scale and Externalities in the Consumption and Investment Sectors," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 6(4), pages 963-976, October.
    7. Ezra Oberfield, 2013. "Productivity and Misallocation During a Crisis: Evidence from the Chilean Crisis of 1982," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 100-119, January.
    8. Levon Barseghyan & Riccardo DiCecio, 2006. "Heterogeneous firms, productivity and poverty traps," Working Papers 2005-068, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    9. Jim Malley & Anton Muscatelli & Ulrich Woitek, 1999. "Real Business Cycles or Sticky Prices? The Impact of Technology Shocks on US Manufacturing," Working Papers 1999_15, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    10. Susanto Basu & John Fernald, 2001. "Why Is Productivity Procyclical? Why Do We Care?," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 225-302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Annika Alexius & Mikael Carlsson, 2005. "Measures of Technology and the Business Cycle," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 299-307, May.
    12. Balke, Nathan S. & Wynne, Mark A., 2000. "An equilibrium analysis of relative price changes and aggregate inflation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 269-292, April.
    13. Fueki, Takuji & Kawamoto, Takuji, 2009. "Does information technology raise Japan's productivity?," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 325-336, December.
    14. Basu, Susanto & Fernald, John G., 2002. "Aggregate productivity and aggregate technology," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 963-991, June.
    15. Barseghyan, Levon & DiCecio, Riccardo, 2016. "Externalities, endogenous productivity, and poverty traps," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 112-126.
    16. Robert Vigfusson, 2008. "How Does the Border Affect Productivity? Evidence from American and Canadian Manufacturing Industries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(1), pages 49-64, February.
    17. Catherine L. Mann, 1997. "Globalization and Productivity in the United States and Germany," Working Paper Series Working Paper Special (1), Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    18. Wilson, Daniel J., 2000. "Estimating Returns to Scale: Lo, Still No Balance," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 285-314, April.
    19. Susanto Basu, 1998. "Technology and business cycles; how well do standard models explain the facts?," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 42(Jun), pages 207-269.
    20. Gantert, Konstantin, 2022. "The Impact of Active Aggregate Demand on Utilization-Adjusted TFP," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264103, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    productivity; technology; welfare; hours; dynamic-markups;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sur:surrec:1306. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ioannis Lazopoulos (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desuruk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.