Productivity and Economic Growth in Latin America: The Stochastic Production Frontier Approach

Almir Bittencourt

No 175, Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings from Econometric Society

Abstract: This paper looks into the total factor productivity performance and economic growth of Latin America. A stochastic production frontier function was estimated as a translog leading to technical inefficiency in a set of 19 Latin American countries over the period 1961–1990. Using the Malmquist productivity index, productivity growth was decomposed into two components: variation in technology and change in technical efficiency. The application of this technique makes it possible to quantify the contribution of productivity to economic growth in Latin America, to identify sources of technical production inefficiency and to understand the factors determining the performance of the Latin American economies. The most important conclusion of the study is that the total factor productivity performance was the chief cause of the low economic growth observed in Latin America for the period in question

Keywords: Economic growth; stochastic production frontier; total factor productivity. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-08-11
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecm:latm04:175

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