Understanding productivity dynamics: A task taxonomy approach

Fevereiro 2018

As job markets have been polarizing, firms have been changing their labor inputs. By using matched employer–employee data for Portugal, we examine whether labor market polarization has occurred within or across firms and how labor input upgrades have contributed to overall productivity growth. We develop a firm taxonomy based on worker's occupational data. Firms can be focused on one task – Abstract, Manual or Routine – on a combination of tasks, or none. Results show that Abstract firms are the most productive and their share has increased over time. Manual firms, the least productive, have had a stable share throughout the period. Routine firms have seen their share decline over time. The dynamic decomposition of the estimated productivity reveals that productivity growth is propelled by increased market shares of the most productive incumbents and exiting of the least productive, especially for Abstract firms. Notwithstanding these productivity growth drivers, they fail to avert the productivity stagnation observed in Portugal between 2004 and 2009 due to the overall decline in productivity of incumbent firms, especially Routine. We discuss the policy implications of our results which are relevant to other European economies also lagging behind in terms of knowledge and innovation capabilities.

Autores da comunidade :

• 

  T

  Tiago Miguel Pinheiro Fonseca

  ist154811

  Afiliações e fontes

  IST > CEGIST

  Centro de Estudos de Gestão do IST

• 

  F

  Francisco Lima

  ist14367

  Afiliações e fontes

  IST > CEGIST

  Centro de Estudos de Gestão do IST

  IST > DEG

  Departamento de Engenharia e Gestão

  De: orcid

  ID: 73097379

VoR - Versão publicada

Elsevier

Research Policy

289

304

47

1

0048-7333

10.1016/j.respol.2017.11.004

economics-and-business - Economia e Gestão

eng - Inglês