 Productivity and resource misallocation in Latin America1)Matias Busso, Lucia Madrigal and Carmen Pages The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, 2013, vol. 13, issue 1, 903-932 Abstract: Total factor productivity (TFP) in Latin America has declined relative to the US since the mid-1970s. This paper applies a comparable methodology to firm-level data of ten Latin American countries to quantify the heterogeneity of firm productivity and the extent to which resource misallocation can explain lower aggregate TFP. In general, productivity heterogeneity and resource misallocation are found to be much larger than in the US. Achieving an efficient allocation of resources could boost manufacturing TFP between 41% and 122% depending on the countries and years considered. We also find that difficulty in access to capital and restrictive labor regulations explain distortions faced by firms. Keywords: distortions, firm heterogeneity, firm productivity, Latin America, misallocation costs, total factor productivity, JEL Classification: D24; O47; L25 (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:bejmac:v:13:y:2013:i:1:p:30:n:3 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics is currently edited by Arpad Abraham and Tiago Cavalcanti More articles in The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics from De Gruyter |
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