A Microeconomic Approach to the Measurement of Economic Performance

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Catherine J. Morrison

   Pages 1-25

3. The Traditional Measurement of Productivity Growth: Theoretical Issues

   • Catherine J. Morrison

   Pages 27-51

4. The Measurement and Interpretation of Capacity Utilization

   • Catherine J. Morrison

   Pages 53-77

5. Interactions Among Measures of Productivity Growth, Returns to Scale and Capacity Utilization

   • Catherine J. Morrison

   Pages 79-103

6. Empirical Implementation of Productivity Growth Measures and Adjustments

   • Catherine J. Morrison

   Pages 105-129

7. Data Construction for Estimation and Measurement

   • Catherine J. Morrison

   Pages 131-157

8. Issues of Econometric Implementation

   • Catherine J. Morrison

   Pages 159-183

9. Empirical Evidence on Productivity Growth and Capacity Utilization

   • Catherine J. Morrison

   Pages 185-212

10. Other Factors Affecting Productivity Growth: Some Recent Developments

    • Catherine J. Morrison

    Pages 213-236

11. Pulling it Together

    • Catherine J. Morrison

    Pages 237-262

12. Back Matter

    Pages 263-296

    PDF

This text is designed to provide a comprehensive guide to students, researchers, or consultants who wish to carry out and to interpret analyses of economic performance, with an emphasis on productivity growth. The text includes an overview of standard productivity growth measurement techniques and adaptations, and data construc­ tion procedures. It goes further, however, by expanding the tradition­ al growth accounting (index number) framework to allow consider­ ation of how different aspects of firm behavior underlying productivity growth are interrelated, how they can be measured con­ sistently in a parametric model, and how they permit a well-defined decomposition of standard productivity growth measures. These ideas are developed by considering in detail a number of underlying theoretical results and econometric issues. The impacts of various production characteristics on productivity growth trends are also evaluated by overviewing selected methodological extensions and em­ pirical evidence. More specifically, in the methodological extensions, emphasis is placed on incorporation of cost and demand characteristics, such as fixity and adjustment costs, returns to scale, and the existence of market power, into analyses of productivity growth. These character­ istics, generally disregarded in such analyses, can have very important impacts on production structure and firm behavior, and thus on economic performance. They also provide the conceptual basis for vii viii PREFACE measures that are often used independently as indicators of economic performance, such as investment, capacity utilization, and profit measures.

• econometrics
• growth
• microeconomics
• production
• productivity

• Department of Economics, Tufts University, Medford, USA

  Catherine J. Morrison

Policies and ethics