Suchergebnisse

Despite increasing interest in the relationship between trade and macroeconomic performance in development economics, very limited studies have been conducted on the causal links between exports and productivity growth in Asian economies. This paper examines empirically the interplay between exports and productivity growth for eight East Asian economies in a multivariate framework by applying bound tests and modified Wald tests. The results indicate that causality is bi-directional in the case of Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, while unidirectional from productivity to exports for Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. These findings provide little support for the conventional export-led growth hypothesis.

Applying a Stochastic Production Frontier to sector-level data within manufacturing sector in India, this paper examines Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth during 1979-80 to 1997-98. The analysis focuses on the trend of technical progress (TP) and Technical Efficiency Change (TEC). The empirical result suggests that the TFP growth in a large number of industries have improved during 1997-98 compared to 1980-81. TFP growth is mainly driven by TP not by TEC in case of Indian economy since the coefficient of TEC is negative. In the light of empirical results, the policy implication is that the priority to boost economic growth should be in the enhancement of productivity based catching-up capability. In this direction, an efficiency oriented action plan aimed to improve productivity efficiency of manufacturing sectors is required to be implemented for removing the fiscal and financial constraints faced by the enterprises which are located in industrially backward areas.

Applying a stochastic production frontier we examine the extent to which industrial countries' R&D contributes to East Asian economies' total factor productivity (TFP) growth in manufacturing sectors, via foreign trade as the channel for technological spillovers, based on a sample of nine manufacturing sectors for eight East Asian economies from 1973 to 1998. Our findings provide evidence that foreign R&D spillovers through imports are the main determinant of these economies' TFP growth, with output elasticity standing at an average of 0.09, consistent with many earlier studies. Both technological progress and efficiency gains are found to be key factors for sustainable economic growth in this region.