Cross-Country Differences in Productivity: The Role of Allocation and Selection

33 Pages Posted: 1 Dec 2009

See all articles by Eric J. Bartelsman

Eric J. Bartelsman

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Tinbergen Institute; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

John Haltiwanger

University of Maryland - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Stefano Scarpetta

OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Abstract

This paper combines different strands of the productivity literature to investigate the effect of idiosyncratic (firm-level) policy distortions on aggregate outcomes. On the one hand, a growing body of empirical research has been relating cross-country differences in key economic outcomes, such as productivity or output per capita, to differences in policies and institutions that shape the business environment. On the other hand, a branch of empirical research has attempted to shed light on the determinants of productivity at the firm-level and the evolution of the distribution of productivity across firms within each industry. In this paper, we exploit a rich source of data with harmonized statistics on firm level variation within industries for a number of countries. Our key empirical finding is that there is substantial variation in the within-industry covariance between size and productivity across countries, but this covariance varies significantly across countries and is affected by the presence of idiosyncratic distortions. We develop a model in which heterogeneous firms face adjustment frictions (overhead labor and quasi-fixed capital) and idiosyncratic distortions. We show that the model can be readily calibrated to match the observed cross-country patterns of the within-industry covariance between productivity and size and thus help to explain the observed differences in aggregate performance.

Keywords: firm heterogeneity, productivity, allocation of resources, distortions

JEL Classification: E02, L11, L16, L2, L25, O4, O57

Suggested Citation

Bartelsman, Eric J. and Haltiwanger, John C. and Scarpetta, Stefano, Cross-Country Differences in Productivity: The Role of Allocation and Selection. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4578, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1515125 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1515125

Eric J. Bartelsman (Contact Author)

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam ( email )

Amsterdam, ND North Holland
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Tinbergen Institute ( email )

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IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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John C. Haltiwanger

University of Maryland - Department of Economics ( email )

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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

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Germany

Stefano Scarpetta

OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs ( email )

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France
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+33 1 45 24 18 59 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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