Firm-level productivity differences: Insights from the OECD's multiprod project

Productivity plays a central role in shaping the welfare of societies and the competitiveness of countries. Productivity differences, for instance, explain a large share of the differences in income per capita across countries. This article investigates the role of productivity heterogeneity across...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational productivity monitor no. 32; pp. 97 - 115
Main Authors Berlingieri, Giuseppe, Blanchenay, Patrick, Calligaris, Sara, Criscuolo, Chiara
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ottawa Centre for the Study of Living Standards 01.04.2017
Subjects
Competitiveness
Datasets
Dispersion
Economic development
Economic models
Efficiency
firm-level productivity
Heterogeneity
Industrial production
labour productivity
Manufacturing
Markets
oecd
Productivity
Securities markets
Technology adoption
Wages & salaries
United States > US
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Summary:Productivity plays a central role in shaping the welfare of societies and the competitiveness of countries. Productivity differences, for instance, explain a large share of the differences in income per capita across countries. This article investigates the role of productivity heterogeneity across 18 countries over the period 2001-2012. In particular, it analyses the evidence that emerges from the distributed micro-data approach carried out in the OECD MultiProd project. The main outcome of the project is a unique dataset of harmonized cross-country moments that are representative for the population of firms and comparable across countries even at a detailed industry level. We look at the 90-10 percentile ratio of labour productivity and multifactor productivity and show that: i) productivity dispersion is high in both manufacturing and non-financial market services; ii) it has increased over time, especially in services; iii) a substantial part of this dispersion comes from differences among firms within the same sector of activity in each country; iv) this within-sector dispersion remains the most important component of the overall dispersion for the entire period.
ISSN:1492-9759
1492-9767