Returns to Scale, Productivity, Measurement, and Trends in US Manufacturing Misallocation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ruzic, Dimitrije; Ho, Sui-Jade
• 署名单位: INSEAD Business School
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01121
• 发表日期: 2023-09
• 页码: 1287-1303
• 关键词: aggregate productivity; labor share; decline; TRADE; reallocation; allocation; MARKET; inputs; FIRMS; rise

摘要

Aggregate productivity suffers when workers and machines are not matched with their most productive uses. This paper builds a model that features industry-specific markups, industry-specific returns to scale, and establishment-specific distortions and uses it to measure the extent of this misallocation in the economy. Applying the model to restricted U.S. Census microdata on the manufacturing sector suggests that misallocation declined by 13% between 1982 and 2007. The finding of declining misallocation starkly contrasts with the 29% increase implied by the widely used assumptions that all establishments charge the same markup and have constant returns to scale.