Plant-Level Prices, Productivity Measurement and Industry Dynamics

工厂级价格、生产率衡量和行业动态

• 批准号: 0617816
• 负责人: John Haltiwanger
• 金额: $ 35.82万
• 依托单位: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0617816&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Plant; Level; Prices; Productivity; Measurement

Understanding the link between micro and aggregate productivity dynamics has been a key theme in the recent empirical and theoretical literature. There has been a rapid increase in the development and availability of longitudinal business databases around the world that permit studying industrial dynamics on many rich dimensions. One key limitation of the typical longitudinal business database (e.g., the LRD for the U.S. manufacturing sector) is that the data do not provide information on plant- or firm-level prices. As such, the typical measures of plant-level output, inputs and productivity, using datasets like the LRD, have been based upon deflating nominal revenue of the plant with a sectoral-level deflator. This procedure is appropriate only if there is price homogeneity within the sector. However, the limited evidence that is starting to emerge indicates that there is substantial within sector price heterogeneity. Given such large heterogeneity, productivity measures which rely on sector-level price deflators capture differences in productivity across plants but also differences in prices across plants within sectors. In the last several years, theoretical and empirical researchers have recognized this limitation and have been developing indirect methods to take into account the presence of within sector price heterogeneity. While considerable progress has been made using these indirect methods, this contribution is directly to assess the importance of using plant-level prices of inputs and outputs for measurement, given the access to a longitudinal business database that includes plant-level prices. This database provides a unique laboratory to explore the role of heterogeneity in plant-level prices in outputs and inputs for the measurement, interpretation and analysis of plant dynamics.Broader Impact: Output price heterogeneity within sectors may be due to differences in mark-ups, differences in product quality or differences in demand shocks across plants within sectors. Measurement of output price heterogeneity, along with measures of revenue, permits decomposing movements in the traditional "revenue-based productivity" measures into the component associated with movements in physical productivity and the movements due to relative prices. A whole host of research questions can be addressed using such decompositions. First, it is of interest to know whether the main insights from the existing literature on plant dynamics hold up when physical output and relative price movements are measured separately. Second, it is of interest to explore the sources of plant-level price heterogeneity--in particular, does such price heterogeneity reflect differences in mark-ups, product quality or demand shocks. Third, it is of interest to explore the relative role of physical productivity differences and relative price differences in accounting for the observed plant dynamics. For example, a common finding in the literature is that plants with lower measured productivity are more likely to exit. However, an open question, given the available productivity measures until now, is whether exiting plants indeed have lower productivity or whether they simply charge higher prices. Finally, given the absence of plant-level prices in most datasets, it is of interest to explore to what extent the indirect methods developed in the recent literature are successful in controlling for within sector price heterogeneity. The researchers are in a unique position to answer that question given their access to a longitudinal business database that does have direct measures of prices. In terms of broader impact, the findings and analysis in this study are expected to be helpful to those using datasets without plant-level prices on the research strategies that can and should be used when trying to draw inferences using deflated revenue-based measures of output and productivity. Since there are now longitudinal business datasets for more than 50 countries around the world and virtually all of them do not have plant-level prices, the potential broader impact is substantial.

理解微观和总体生产力动态之间的联系一直是最近的经验和理论文献中的一个关键主题。 世界各地纵向商业数据库的开发和提供迅速增加，这使得可以从许多丰富的方面研究工业动态。 典型的纵向业务数据库的一个关键限制（例如，美国制造业部门的LRD）是数据不提供工厂或公司一级价格的信息。 因此，使用LRD等数据集来衡量工厂层面的产出、投入和生产率的典型措施是基于用部门层面的平减指数来平减工厂的名义收入。 这一程序只有在该部门内存在价格同质性的情况下才是适当的。 然而，开始出现的有限证据表明，部门内价格差异很大。 鉴于这种巨大的异质性，依赖于部门一级价格平减指数的生产率指标不仅可以反映各工厂生产率的差异，还可以反映部门内各工厂价格的差异。 在过去的几年里，理论和实证研究人员已经认识到这一局限性，并一直在开发间接的方法来考虑部门内价格异质性的存在。 虽然使用这些间接方法取得了相当大的进展，但这一贡献是直接评估使用工厂一级投入和产出价格进行计量的重要性，因为可以使用包括工厂一级价格的纵向商业数据库。 该数据库提供了一个独特的实验室，以探索工厂一级价格的异质性在产出和投入中的作用，用于衡量、解释和分析工厂dynamics.Broader影响：部门内产出价格异质性可能是由于加价差异、产品质量差异或部门内工厂间需求冲击差异造成的。 对产出价格异质性的计量，沿着对收入的计量，可以将传统的“基于收入的生产率”计量中的变动分解为与实物生产率变动有关的组成部分和由于相对价格引起的变动。 使用这种分解可以解决大量研究问题。 首先，我们有兴趣知道，当实际产出和相对价格变动分别衡量时，现有文献中关于工厂动态的主要见解是否成立。 第二，有必要探讨工厂一级价格不均匀性的来源，特别是这种价格不均匀性是否反映了加价、产品质量或需求冲击方面的差异。第三，探讨物理生产力差异和相对价格差异在解释所观察到的植物动态方面的相对作用是有意义的。 例如，文献中的一个共同发现是，测量生产率较低的工厂更有可能退出。 然而，一个悬而未决的问题是，考虑到迄今为止可用的生产率指标，现有工厂的生产率是否确实较低，或者它们是否只是收取更高的价格。 最后，由于在大多数数据集的工厂级价格的情况下，它是有趣的，探讨在何种程度上的间接方法，在最近的文献中开发的是成功的控制部门内的价格异质性。 研究人员在回答这个问题时处于一个独特的位置，因为他们可以访问一个纵向的商业数据库，该数据库确实有直接的价格衡量标准。 就更广泛的影响而言，本研究的结果和分析预计将有助于那些使用没有工厂级价格的数据集的研究策略，这些策略可以并且应该在尝试使用基于收入的产出和生产率指标进行推断时使用。 由于目前全球有50多个国家的纵向商业数据集，而且几乎所有国家都没有工厂级价格，因此潜在的更广泛影响是巨大的。