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In this paper, we examine how the minimum wage affects firm productivity growth with a representative Chinese manufacturing data. Instrumental variable estimation is employed to deal with the potential endogeneity problem between minimum wage and productivity growth. We find that with a 1% increase in the minimum wage, the productivity growth rate on average decreases by 0.299%. Overall, we find that variations in the minimum wage have a highly heterogeneous effect on productivity growth across regions, time and ownerships. To deal with the continuous increase in the minimum wage, firms will use more capital and intermediate input to replace labor.

Productivity indicators within the Malaysian manufacturing sector for the period of 1970–2001 were compared. Two variation models were generated from the production functions to measure manufacturing sector productivity growth. The first model is an extensive growth theory model and the second is an intensive growth theory model. The extensive theory model had a gap that cast doubt in the results. A statistical analysis was provided to close this gap. The results show a slowdown in the contribution of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth and low growth of labor productivity of the sector. A negative impact of quality of inputs used by the sector was observed in the contribution of TFP, TFP per unit of labor and labor productivity growth in comparison with other productivity indictors of the sector. The study finds that productivity growth of Malaysia's manufacturing sector is input-driven rather than TFP-driven.

Empirical evidence linking exports and productivity growth has been mixed and inconclusive. This study re-examines the direction of the causality between them for Malaysian industries by using the error-correction mechanism and Granger causality models. In a panel of 63 manufacturing industries, for the period of 1981 to 1999, it is found that these industries support the export-led growth and the growth-driven export hypotheses. A further look into the results indicates that there are possibilities of indirect causalities between productivity growth and export through size and capital intensity, as both exports and labor productivity have bidirectional causality with size and capital intensity.

The paper analyzes the size, growth and productivity performance of the unorganized manufacturing sector in India during the 1978–1979 to 2000–2001 period. The study shows evidence of an increase in the size of the sector with a slowdown in the reforms period. Evidence indicates that the rate of growth varies widely across the two-digit industries but the variation in growth rate is smaller during the 1990s. Textiles and machinery goods were the fastest growing segments of India's unorganized manufacturing sector in the reforms period. The partial factor productivity approach shows that labor productivity has improved in 2000–2001 over 1978–1979 while capital productivity reported a decline in the same period. The sector, on the other hand, registered a fall in total factor productivity (TFP) during the reforms period. It is found that technological progress has been the main contributor to the growth in TFP in the prereforms period while technical regress contributed to the decline in TFP in the reforms period. A completely different picture is noticed since the mid-1990s when the sector made significant progress in TFP primarily attributed to technological progress which outweighed the decline in technical efficiency. It is also found that capital intensity is an essential factor augmenting labor productivity levels in the sector, which is important for improving the wages paid to the workers in the sector.

This paper modeled the effect of corruption on growth, using Nigerian data for testing. The productivity growth channel of corruption was explored. Cointegration and error correction methods were employed in the analysis. The national system of innovations and corruption exhibited long run relations with productivity growth and were found to be credible fundamentals. The productivity growth vector was considered to be the only plausible in the long run growth analysis. The parsimonious growth equation showed productivity growth and government expenditure as significant and conformed to a priori expectations. The course of policy to sustainable growth was suggestive.

In this study we examined Japanese firm-level data to test whether increments in intangible assets will leads to differences in productivity growth. Our results show that the marginal contribution of inputs varies a greatly among sectors, industries and depending on firm's size. Therefore, marginal increments in intangibles investments are not always associated with productivity growth suggesting that when intangibles exceed a threshold, additional investments could be inefficient. We conclude that among intangibles, firm-specific organizational capital and advertising are two of the critical factors in determining the productivity growth.

Using panel data for 57 countries over the period of 1995–2012, this paper investigates the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) processes on productivity growth. The IPR processes are decomposed into three stages — innovation process, commercialization process, and protection process. The paper finds that better IPR protection is directly associated with productivity improvements only in developed economies. In addition, the contribution of IPR processes on growth through foreign direct investment (FDI) appears to be quite limited. Only inward FDI in developed countries which creates better innovative capability leads to higher growth. In connection with outward FDI, only the increase in IPR protection and commercialization are proven to improve productivity in the case of developing countries, particularly when the country acts as the investing country.

In recent years, several randomized controlled experiments as well as experiments that are not randomized have been conducted to assess the impacts of management training intervention on the productivity and other aspects of business performance of firms. Yet the role played by management improvement vis-à-vis that of technology transfer or borrowing in industrial development remains unclear. This paper attempts to narrow this gap by developing a heuristic model and reviewing experimental studies of management training and case studies of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in cluster-based industrial development. The paper argues among other things that the improvement of management provides the basis for successful technology transfer.

This paper analyzes the dependence pattern of net debts inflows on the sovereign debts rating and the fiscal balance, on accounting for the productivity growth rate. The cross-section evidence on a sample of 149 economies for the period from 1990 to 2019 uncovers that a higher sovereign debts rating, a lower fiscal balance or a higher productivity growth is associated with more net debts inflows. Thus, the debts flows are underlined by the store of wealth accumulation across economies. Moreover, there exists a nonlinearity on the pattern of debts flows, for which the fiscal balance determines the impact of sovereign debts rating on the net debts inflows. The results are robust for panel data regression as well as case study of three economies including Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Understanding how and why economies structurally transform as they grow is crucial for making sound national policy decisions. Typically, analysts who study this issue focus on sectoral shares of gross domestic product and employment. This paper extends those studies to include exports, including exports of services. It also considers mining, in addition to agriculture and manufacturing, and recognizes that some of the products of these four sectors are nontradable. The section on theory presents a general equilibrium model that provides hypotheses about structural change in different types of economies as they grow. These are then tested econometrically with annual data for the period 1991–2014 for a sample of 117 countries. The results point to the futility of adopting protective policies aimed at slowing deagriculturalization and subsequent deindustrialization in terms of sectoral shares, since those trends inevitably will accompany economic growth. Fortuitously, governments now have more efficient and equitable ways of supporting adjustments needed by people who choose or are forced to leave declining industries.

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the effects of trade liberalization on productivity performance of the Australian passenger motor vehicle industry, which has experienced significant liberalization over the years. Our analysis indicates that trade liberalization had a negative impact on productivity growth, at least in the immediate post-liberalization period. Empirical results suggest that economies of scale and tariff protection improve productivity, while industry assistance (such as the local content and duty drawback schemes and production subsidies) retards productivity. Policy implications of these findings are that there are dividends in terms of improved productivity by encouraging economies of scale, providing tariff protection and lowering industry assistance.

Innovation has been redefined as the implementation of a new product, process or organization. Adoption from a developed economy is considered innovation. The mirror image is that productivity growth accounts not only for technical change, but also efficiency change. The latter component is more important to developing economies. R&D pertains more to technical change and competition and free trade to efficiency change. Empirical studies confirm that R&D is more potent in developed economies and that competition and free trade spur development.

The development of science and technology (ST) and information and communication (IC) has positively affected countries socioeconomically. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of social investment in IC and ST on the output growth of enterprises in different industries. The study focuses on enterprises in 77 Tier-2 industries in Vietnam and is divided into three samples: industry and construction, services, and overall data for the period 2008–2019. The chosen estimator is the panel generalized method of moments (GMM). The results were checked for robustness via comparison with the panel least squares (LS) method. The results confirm that business capital and labor are still the two basic inputs that determine the output value of enterprises. However, social investment in IC and ST also plays a significant role. Different roles of explanatory factors for output value were also found between enterprises in two economic sectors: the industry and construction sector, and the service sector. Enterprises in industry and construction benefit more from society’s investment in IC and ST than enterprises in the service sector.

Using panel data for 57 countries over the period of 1995–2012, this chapter investigates the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) processes on productivity growth. The IPR processes are decomposed into three stages — innovation process, commercialization process, and protection process. The chapter finds that better IPR protection is directly associated with productivity improvements only in developed economies. In addition, the contribution of IPR processes on growth through foreign direct investment (FDI) appears to be quite limited. Only inward FDI in developed countries which creates better innovative capability leads to higher growth. In connection with outward FDI, only the increase in IPR protection and commercialization are proven to improve productivity in the case of developing countries, particularly when the country acts as the investing country.