IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/2770.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Downsizing and productivity gains in the public and private sectors of Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Rama, Martin
  • Newman, Constance

Abstract

Public sector restructuring, including labor downsizing, has been one of the main areas of policy activism in developing countries, and transition economies. But little is known about its actual effects. The authors use panel data on Colombian enterprises spanning more than one decade, to assess the impact on several productivity indicators. The results suggest that the productivity gains from downsizing, are larger in state-owned enterprises than in private enterprises. While the increase in value added per worker is similar in both cases, state-owned enterprises experience an increase in total value added, and in value added per unit of capital, whereas both indicators decline in private enterprises. The difference, which could simply reflect the larger extent of initial inefficiency in state-owned enterprises, does not appear to depend on the degree of competition in product markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Rama, Martin & Newman, Constance, 2002. "Downsizing and productivity gains in the public and private sectors of Colombia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2770, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2770
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2002/02/27/000094946_02020704044475/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Disney & Jonathan Haskel & Ylva Heden, 2003. "Restructuring and productivity growth in uk manufacturing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(489), pages 666-694, July.
    2. Rama, Martin, 1999. "Public Sector Downsizing: An Introduction," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    3. Ann P. Bartel & Ann E. Harrison, 2005. "Ownership Versus Environment: Disentangling the Sources of Public-Sector Inefficiency," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 135-147, February.
    4. Baily, Martin Neil & Bartelsman, Eric J & Haltiwanger, John, 1996. "Downsizing and Productivity Growth: Myth or Reality?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 259-278, August.
    5. Haltiwanger, John & Singh, Manisha, 1999. "Cross-Country Evidence on Public Sector Retrenchment," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(1), pages 23-66, January.
    6. Steven J. Davis & John C. Haltiwanger & Scott Schuh, 1998. "Job Creation and Destruction," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262540932, April.
    7. Espahbodi, Reza & John, Teresa A & Vasudevan, Gopala, 2000. "The Effects of Downsizing on Operating Performance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 107-126, September.
    8. Carrasquilla, Alberto, 1996. "The changing role of the public sector: The Colombian case," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 167-181.
    9. Ruppert, Elizabeth, 1999. "The Algerian Retrenchment System: A Financial and Economic Evaluation," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(1), pages 155-183, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:idb:brikps:66858 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Guido Friebel & Gerard McCullough & Laura Padilla Angulo, 2014. "Patterns of Restructuring The US Class 1 Railroads from 1984 to 2004," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 48(1), pages 115-135, January.
    3. Saxena, Richa, 2006. "Methods for the Study of Downsizing: A Review," IIMA Working Papers WP2006-12-01, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.

    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. Dong, Xiao-yuan & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2009. "Labor restructuring in China: Toward a functioning labor market," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 287-305, June.
    2. Milan Vodopivec, 2004. "Income Support for the Unemployed : Issues and Options," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14922.
    3. C.J. Krizan & John Haltiwanger & Lucia Foster, 2002. "The Link Between Aggregate and Micro Productivity Growth: Evidence from Retail Trade," Working Papers 02-18, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Baldwin, John R. Gu, Wulong, 2006. "Competition, Firm Turnover and Productivity Growth," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2006042e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    5. Vodopivec, Milan & Raju, Dhushyanth, 2002. "Income support systems for the unemployed : issues and options," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 25529, The World Bank.
    6. Amitabh Chandra & Amy Finkelstein & Adam Sacarny & Chad Syverson, 2016. "Health Care Exceptionalism? Performance and Allocation in the US Health Care Sector," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(8), pages 2110-2144, August.
    7. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger, 1998. "Measuring Gross Worker and Job Flows," NBER Chapters, in: Labor Statistics Measurement Issues, pages 77-122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. de Backer, Koen & Sleuwaegen, Leo, 2003. "Foreign ownership and productivity dynamics," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 177-183, May.
    9. José Allouche & Patrice Laroche & Florent Noël, 2008. "Restructurations et performances de l’entreprise:une méta-analyse," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 11(2), pages 105-146, June.
    10. Wheeler, Christopher H., 2007. "Job Flows And Productivity Dynamics: Evidence From U.S. Manufacturing," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 175-201, April.
    11. Baird, Matthew & Chari, A.V. & Nataraj, Shanthi & Rothenberg, Alexander & Telhaj, Shqiponja & Winters, L. Alan, 2019. "The public sector and the misallocation of labor: evidence from a policy experiment in India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102605, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Simon Bruhn & Thomas Grebel & Lionel Nesta, 2023. "The fallacy in productivity decomposition," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 797-835, July.
    13. Jens J. Krüger, 2008. "Productivity And Structural Change: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 330-363, April.
    14. Andreas Pyka & Uwe Cantner & Alfred Greiner & Thomas Kuhn (ed.), 2009. "Recent Advances in Neo-Schumpeterian Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12982.
    15. Nadine Levratto & Aziza Garsaa & Luc Tessier, 2013. "La Corse est-elle soluble dans le modèle méditerranéen ? Une analyse à partir d’une régression quantile sur données d’entreprises en panel entre 2004 et 2010. Is the Corsican economy a part of the Med," EconomiX Working Papers 2013-20, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    16. Alex Coad & Tom Broekel, 2012. "Firm growth and productivity growth: evidence from a panel VAR," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 1251-1269, April.
    17. Alan Harding & Måns Söderbom & Francis Teal, 2004. "Survival and Success among African Manufacturing Firms," Development and Comp Systems 0409046, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Martin Rama, 2002. "Globalization and Workers in Developing Countries," Economics Study Area Working Papers 41, East-West Center, Economics Study Area.
    19. World Bank, 2002. "Pacific Islands - Regional Economic Report : Embarking on a Global Voyage - Trade Liberalization and Complementary Reforms in the Pacific," World Bank Publications - Reports 15362, The World Bank Group.
    20. Carlos Carreira & Paulino Teixeira, 2008. "Internal and external restructuring over the cycle: a firm-based analysis of gross flows and productivity growth in Portugal," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 211-220, June.

    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:wbk:wbrwps:2770. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.