Why Do Management Practices Differ across Firms and Countries?

Nicholas Bloom and John van Reenen

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2010, vol. 24, issue 1, 203-24

Abstract: Economists have long puzzled over the astounding differences in productivity between firms and countries. In this paper, we present evidence on a possible explanation for persistent differences in productivity at the firm and the national level -- namely, that such differences largely reflect variations in management practices. We have, over the last decade, undertaken a large survey research program to systematically measure management practices across firms, industries, and countries. Our survey approach focuses on aspects of management like systematic performance monitoring, setting appropriate targets, and providing incentives for good performance. We explain how we measure management; identify some basic patterns in our data; then turn to the question of why management practices vary so much across firms and nations. What we find is a combination of imperfectly competitive markets, family ownership of firms, regulations restricting management practices, and informational barriers allow bad management to persist.

JEL-codes: F23 L25 M10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.24.1.203
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (761)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.24.1.203 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Why do Management Practices Differ Across Firms and Countries? (2010)
Working Paper: Why do management practices differ across firms and countries? (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:jecper:v:24:y:2010:i:1:p:203-24

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Perspectives is currently edited by Enrico Moretti

More articles in Journal of Economic Perspectives from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().