Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Discussion Papers,
Statistics Norway, Research Department

No 869: Productivity dispersion and measurement errors

Thomas von Brasch (), Diana-Cristina Iancu () and Terje Skjerpen ()
Additional contact information
Terje Skjerpen: Statistics Norway

Abstract: We outline a novel procedure to identify the role of measurement errors in explaining the empirical dispersion in productivity across establishments. The starting point of our framework is the typical errors-in-variable model consisting of a measurement equation and a structural equation for the true productivity. The key idea in our identification strategy is to estimate the variance of the measurement errors in order to deduce the variance of the companion true variable. Specifically, we estimate a dynamic panel model where establishment-specific productivity is modelled as a first order autoregressive process augmented with year dummies and establishment-specific unobserved heterogeneity, represented by random effects. Considering 3 Norwegian manufacturing industries, as an example, we find that about 4 per cent of the measured dispersion is caused by measurement errors.

Keywords: Labor productivity; Productivity dispersion; Establishment performance

JEL-codes: C23; C26; J24

14 pages, November 2017

Full text files

329985 PDF-file 

Download statistics

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to L Maasø ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

RePEc:ssb:dispap:869This page generated on 2024-10-30 04:36:31.