What Makes a Difference in Achieving Higher Labor Productivity?: The Case of Low-Income Countries in Latin America

Osvaldo Nina

No 04/2005, Development Research Working Paper Series from Institute for Advanced Development Studies

Abstract: This paper uses firm level surveys from Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to estimate the determinants of labor productivity. This study started out with the hypothesis that the adverse external business conditions that firms in poor Latin American countries face, may be an important explication of the generally low levels of productivity. However, the empirical results, based on the survey of more than 1300 businesses, do not confirm this hypothesis. Compared to all the variables that are under the firms control, such as capital intensity, energy use, and worker skills, the external business environment (macroeconomic instability and labor regulations) has very little impact on productivity.

Keywords: Labor productivity; Ecuador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2005-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:adv:wpaper:200504

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