Growth accounting in items of turbulence and death: efficiency, technology, capital accumulation and human capital 1929-1950

Kerstin Enflo and Joerg Baten

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: We employ a non-parametrical approach to growth accounting (Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA) to disentangle the proximate sources of labour productivity growth in 41 nations between 1929 and 1950 by decomposing productivity growth into four components: technological change; efficiency catch-up (movements towards the production frontier), capital accumulation and human capital accumulation. We show that efficiency catch-up generally explains productivity growth, whereas technological change and factor accumulation were limited and distorted by the effects of war. War clearly hampered efficiency. Moreover, an unbalanced ratio of human capital to physical capital (a gap to the technological leader) was crucial for efficiency catching-up.

Keywords: DEA; growth accounting; productivity; interwar period (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N10 N40 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-his and nep-hrm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upf:upfgen:1024

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