Eric J Bartelsman

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | VU · Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

This study investigates the link between productivity and innovations (technological as well as non-technological), taking into account the information and communication technology (ICT) intensity of firms, measured as the proportion of broadband internet connected employees. The analysis is based on official firm-level data on innovation activitie...

This paper builds upon Bartelsman, Lopez-Garcia, and Presidente (2018) and provides empirical evidence on the cyclical features of labour reallocation in a sample of European Union (EU) countries over the Great Recession and the slow recovery. The analysis makes use of cross-country micro-aggregated data on firm dynamics and productivity from relea...

This paper provides technical documentation to a database built up from firm‐level sources titled Micro Moments Database (MMD) that is made available for researchers through Eurostat. The MMD is an internationally harmonized research database of statistical moments collected from linked longitudinal firm‐level data in a large selection of EU nation...

We present the main messages of a European Expert Round Table (ERT) on the unintended side effects (unseens) of the digital transition. Seventeen experts provided 42 propositions from ten different perspectives as input for the ERT. A full-day ERT deliberated communalities and relationships among these unseens and provided suggestions on (i) what t...

This paper provides technical documentation to a database built up from firm-level sources titled Micro moments database(MMD) that is made available for researchers through Eurostat. The MMD is an internationally harmonized research database of statistical moments collected from linked longitudinal firm-level data in a large selection of EU nationa...

We show empirically that high-risk sectors, which contribute strongly to aggregate productivity growth, are relatively small and have relatively low productivity growth in countries with strict employment protection legislation (EPL). To understand these findings, we develop a two-sector matching model where firms endogenously choose between a safe...

This note starts with a retrospective view of the CDM model [Crépon, Bruno, Emmanuel Duguet, and Jacques Mairesse. 1998. “Research, Innovation and Productivity: An Econometric Analysis at the Firm Level.” Economics of Innovation and New Technology 7 (2): 115–158.] as an econometric framework for studying innovation and growth. A narrative interpret...

This paper examines how productivity effects of human capital and innovation vary at different points of the conditional productivity distribution. Our analysis draws upon two large unbalanced panels of 6,634 enterprises in Germany and 14,586 enterprises in the Netherlands over the period 2000-2008, considering 5 manufacturing and services industri...

This article examines how productivity effects of human capital and innovation vary at different points of the conditional productivity distribution. Our analysis draws upon two large unbalanced panels of 6634 enterprises in Germany and 14,841 enterprises in the Netherlands over the period 2000–2008, considering five manufacturing and services indu...

This paper provides technical documentation to a research database of moments collected from linked longitudinal firm-level datasets in a large selection of EU countries. Further, the paper will describe research infrastructure that has been developed, and the technical possibilities for the research community to conduct their own crosscountry firm...

This is the interim technical implementation report of the ESSnet on Linking of Microdata to analyse ICT Impact (ESSLait), as required in the Grant Agreement for an Action with Multiple Beneficiaries, number 50721.2013.001-2013.082. The report consists of a general description of the progress during the first five months of the project as well a...

In this paper, we explore whether information from firm-level data can improve forecasts of aggregate productivity growth. We generate firm-level productivity measures and aggregate them into time-series components that capture within-firm productivity and the productivity contribution of reallocation. We show that these components improve aggregat...

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 i...

This paper examines how productivity effects of human capital and innovation vary at different points of the conditional productivity distribution. Our analysis draws upon two large unbalanced panels of 6,634 enterprises in Germany and 14,586 enterprises in the Netherlands over the period 2000-2008, considering 5 manufacturing and services industri...

No abstract available.

Why is the US more productive than the EU? Many studies have shown that the wider use of information and communication technologies in the US explains much of the difference. Why does the US use these technologies more? This column provides new evidence suggesting the answer may lie in differences in employment protection legislation.

Using a country-industry panel dataset (EUKLEMS) we uncover a robust empirical regularity, namely that high-risk innovative sectors are relatively smaller in countries with strict employment protection legislation (EPL). To understand the mechanism, we develop a two-sector matching model where firms endogenously choose between a safe technology wit...

Research into the sources of productivity growth has taken many disparate routes, from aggregate theoretical modeling to firm-level empirical explorations. This article provides examples from the literature of evidence against the representative firm assumption. Once heterogeneity of firms and market selection is taken into account, theoretical eff...

In this note we document how constraints in the business environment, as perceived by individual firms, differ both across countries and within each country, across firms. This finding is of key importance given recent theoretical models that suggest idiosyncratic distortions can have large aggregate effects. Not only do such distortions affect the...

Using a country-industry panel dataset (EUKLEMS) we uncover a robust empirical regularity, namely that high-risk innovative sectors are relatively smaller in countries with strict employment protection legislation (EPL). To understand the mechanism, we develop a two-sector matching model where firms endogenously choose between a safe technology wit...

This paper contributes to the productivity literature by using results from firm-level productivity studies to improve forecasts of macro-level productivity growth. The paper employs current research methods on estimating firm-level productivity to build times-series components that capture the joint dynamics of the firm-level productivity and size...

As the step-up in U.S. productivity growth in the mid-1990s became evident, research on productivity surged. Initially, the new work concentrated on estimating the contribution of information technology (IT) to the productivity pickup, with similar results obtained using industry-level or broad macroeconomic time-series data (Jorgenson and Stiroh 2...

This chapter reports the results from a large research project bringing together researchers from twenty-four countries to standardize data definitions and construct comparable statistics on producer dynamics and productivity. It shows that within-firm changes in productivity and net entry are the major sources of labor productivity growth in most...

The process of creative destruction is being documented for a growing number of countries as the required firm-level data are becoming more easily accessible to researchers. Some early attempts have been made to compare results from the individual country studies and to gain insights into the sources of the variation in firm dynamics across countri...

I study the dynamics of oil futures prices in the NYMEX using a large panel dataset that includes global macroeconomic indicators, financial market indices, quantities and prices of energy products. I extract common factors from the panel data series and estimate a Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregression for the maturity structure of oil futures pri...

The report summarises the main results from the ICT impacts project where different sources have been linked at the level of the firm for the purpose of extending the scope of analysis. The report also summarises prior research and set out recommendations for action by Eurostat and NSIs. By using a set of harmonised core ICT metrics it is shown tha...

This paper calculates indices of central bank autonomy (CBA) for 163 central banks as of end-2003, and comparable indices for a subgroup of 68 central banks as of the end of the 1980s. The results confirm strong improvements in both economic and political CBA over the past couple of decades, although more progress is needed to boost political auton...

A growing body of empirical evidence suggests that, even in narrowly defined industries, there is significant heterogeneity in firm productivity and firm size. Moreover, consistent with core theoretical models of the size distribution of firms, the productivity and size distributions are closely related - that is, more productive firms are larger....

This chapter develops a framework for integrating economic statistics from various sources into a unified and internally consistent database. The goal is to present the data in such a way that users can easily change assumptions regarding the way the data are organized and classified, so as to efficiently assess the robustness of their estimates to...

This paper introduces new estimates of recent productivity developments in the United States, using an appropriate theoretical framework for aggregating industry multi-factor productivity (MFP) to sectors and the total economy. Our work sheds light on the sources of the continued strong performance of US productivity since 2000. We find that the ma...

In this paper we assess the role of reallocation of resources -- through shifts in market shares among incumbents as well as through firm entry and exit – to productivity. We are motivated by the evidence in all countries studied of heterogeneity of firms and substantial mobility of factors of production across firms in each market. However, rece...

This paper introduces new estimates of recent productivity developments in the United States, using an appropriate theoretical framework for aggregating industry MFP to sectors and the total economy. Our work sheds light on the sources of the continued strong performance of U.S. productivity since 2000. We find that the major sectoral players in th...

This chapter compares the expenditure estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) with value added estimates derived by adding over industries. It shows that conflicting measurements of deliveries to final demand and value added in a few problem industries explain most of the aggregate statistical discrepancy. This chapter also provides a consistent,...

In this paper, we present cross-country evidence on firm size distribution, firm demographic and post-entry performance for 10 OECD countries. We use harmonized firm-level data drawn from business registers or social security records.These data enable international comparisons and the identification of idiosyncratic country effects. While average f...

Belangrijke thema’s Het OESO-rapport noemt enkele belangrijke nieuwe thema’s waar beleidsmakers zich over zouden moeten buigen. Ik noem de belangrijkste. Eén is de convergentie tussen de verschillende technologieplatforms. Europa heeft lange tijd achter de VS aangehobbeld, maar nu ziet het er naar uit dat we juist op telecom- en convergentiegebied...

The growth of young, technology-based firms has received considerable attention in the literature given their importance for the generation and creation of economic wealth. Taking a strategic management perspective, we link the entrepreneurial strategy deployed by young, technology-based firms with firm growth. In line with recent research, we cons...

This paper is an exploration in the relative performance and sources of productivity growth of U.S. private businesses across industries and legal structure. In order to assemble the disparate data from various sources to develop a coherent productivity database, we developed a general system to manage data. The paper describes this system and then...

The purpose of this paper is to build consistent, integrated datasets to investigate whether various disaggregated data can shed light on the possible sources of the statistical discrepancy. Our strategy is first to use disaggregated data to estimate consistent sets of input-output models that sum to either GDP or GDI and compare the two in order t...

The purpose of this paper is to build consistent, integrated datasets to investigate whether various disaggregated data can shed light on the possible sources of the statistical discrepancy. Our strategy is first to use disaggregated data to estimate consistent sets of input-output models that sum to either GDP or GDI and compare the two in order t...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether various disaggregated data can shed light on the possible sources of the statistical discrepancy. Our strategy is to use disaggregated data that sum to either GDP or GDI and compare the two in order to see where the discrepancy resides. To compare the two sets of data, we estimate two consistent s...

This paper is an exploration in the relative performance and sources of productivity growth of U.S. private businesses across industries and legal structure. In order to assemble the disparate data from various sources to develop a coherent productivity database, we developed a general system to manage data. The paper describes this system and then...

There is a growing consensus that entrepreneurship in the Schumpeterian sense plays a significant role in generating sustained rates of productivity growth. Empirical evidence for the role is scarce, owing to the difficulty in finding appropriate measures for such entrepreneurship. This note shows new ways to integrate theory and evidence and revie...

The view that the Internet and the information and communication technology (ICT) revolution would deliver a frictionless economy without recessions is, at least for the time being, dead. This book takes stock of the ICT revolution, going well below the surface to ask and answer a few key questions: Did the ICT revolution contribute to the recent d...

This paper presents evidence on firm demographics and firm survival for a group of ten OECD countries. For each country a dataset of sectoral indicators of firm dynamics has been created using information from business registers. The patterns of firm entry, exit, survival and employment growth are described and analysed across countries, sectors, a...

A common legacy of banking crises is a large increase in government debt, as fiscal resources are used to shore up the banking system. Do crisis response strategies that commit more fiscal resources lower the economic costs of crises? Based on evidence from a sample of 40 banking crises we find that the answer is negative. In fact, policies that ar...

The economic performance of some OECD countries over the past decade, most notably the United States, has renewed the interest of analysts and policy makers on economic growth and on how policy can eventually support it. This report sheds some light on this issue by relying on harmonised macro and sectoral data for OECD countries and a unique cross...

A longstanding issue in empirical economics is the behavior of average labor productivity over the business cycle. This paper provides new insights into the cyclicality of aggregate labor productivity by examining the cyclical behavior of productivity at the plant level as well as the role of reallocation across plants over the cycle. We find that...

This note identifies profit shifting in response to cross-country differences in corporate tax rates as a source of productivity mismeasurement. To quantify the magnitude of mismeasurement, the profit-shifting effect is isolated from other possible effects of corporate tax rates changes on real activity shifts. The empirical illustration suggests t...

This paper presents suggestive evidence of income shifting in response to differences in corporate tax rates for a large selection of OECD countries. We use a new method to disentangle the income shifting effects from the effects of tax rates on real activity. Our baseline estimates suggest that a substantial share of the revenues from a unilateral...

This paper reviews research that uses longitudinal microdata to document productivity movements and to examine factors behind productivity growth. The research explores the dispersion of productivity across firms and establishments, the persistence of productivity differentials, the consequences of entry and exit, and the contribution of resource r...

This paper reviews research that uses longitudinal microdata to document productivity movements and to examine factors behind productivity growth. The research explores the dispersion of productivity across firms and establishments, the persistence of productivity differentials, the consequences of entry and exit, and the contribution of resource r...

This paper considers the effect on productivity growth of the wage moderation policy embarked upon in the Netherlands starting in 1982. The paper describes how the effect depends on the macroeconomic importance of the hold-up problem that results from specificity in factor markets. The analysis is based on a vintage model of capital with embodied t...

In recent years, policy makers have learned to appreciate the economic growth potential arising from measures aimed at enhancing dynamic efficiency. Policy makers have yet to learn how to evaluate and compare competing policy measures and how to monitor the effects of policy choices on dynamic efficiency. Which curriculum can policy makers follow t...

This paper presents an analysis of the dynamics of total factor productivity measures for large plants in SICs 35, 36 and 38. Several TFP measures, derived from production functions and Solow type residuals, are computed and their behavior over time is compared, using non-parametric tools. Aggregate TFP, which has grown substantially over the time...

This paper provides technical documentation to accompany the NBER manufacturing productivity (MP) database. The database contains information on 450 4-digit manufacturing industries for the period 1958 through 1991. The data are compiled from various official sources, most notably the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Census of Manufactures. Also p...

A longstanding puzzle of empirical economics is that average labor productivity declines during recessions and increases during booms. This paper provides a framework to assess the empirical importance of competing hypotheses for explaining the observed procyclicality. For each competing hypothesis we derive the implications for cyclical productivi...

The conventional wisdom is that the rising productivity in the U.S. manufacturing sector in the 1980s has been driven by the apparently pervasive downsizing over this period. Aggregate evidence clearly shows falling employment accompanying the rise in productivity. In this paper, we examine the microeconomic evidence using the plant level data from...

This paper presents characteristics of firms that employ advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), explores the pattern of adoption of such technology, and traces the effects of adoption on the evolution of employment and productivity. The study uses linked firm-level data on production, factor inputs and on advanced manufacturing technology. It is...

This paper highlights the bias in returns to scale or price-cost markup coefficients when estimated from the inverse of a production relationship. Coefficients estimated from the inverse are larger than when estimated directly, and the size of the bias increases as the price-cost markup or the scale elasticity of the underlying production function...

In this paper we build upon previous work on external economies in manufacturing [Caballero and Lyons (1989, 1990)] by providing new evidence helpful for discriminating between different types of externalities. We investigate four-digit level input-output relationships and find that, over shorter horizons, the linkage between an industry and its cu...

There is mounting theoretical and empirical evidence on determinants of productivity growth. However, the empirical findings provide policy makers with limited guidance to determine which of the correlates truly matter in determining growth rates and productivity levels. This paper reviews and characterizes the different empirical approaches that e...

The delay in the EU in embracing new technology, relative to the US, is often thought to result from higher entry and expansion costs for mo re innovative firms. Yet, the choice of firms to experiment with new technologies may be more vulnerable to exit than to entry costs, as innovative entrants fail more often and f ail earlier. This paper argues...

Om de overheidsfinanciën houdbaar te houden moet minder worden uitgeven of meer gegroeid. Ontslagbescherming is een belangrijke belemmering voor economische groei omdat het investeringen in risicovolle, innovatieve sectoren minder aantrekkelijk maakt.

This paper considers the effect on productivity growth of the wage moderation policy embarked upon in the Netherlands starting in 1982. The paper describes how the effect depends on the macroeconomic importance of the hold-up problem that results from specificity in factor markets. The analysis is based on a vintage model of capital with embodied t...

We analyze a search engine market from the law and economics perspective and incorporate the choice of quality improving innovations by a search engine platform in a two-sided model of oligopolistic internet search engine market. The modi…cation of a two-sided market model in Armstrong (2006), which we propose, appears to be a convenient tool for t...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1991. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-107). Microfilm. "91-27,811."