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Growth accounting in times of turbulence and death: efficiency, technology, capital accumulation and human capital 1929-1950

Enflo, Kerstin LU orcid and Baten, Joerg (2007) In UPF working paper series
Abstract
We employ a non-parametrical approach to growth accounting (Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA) to disentangle the proximate sources of labour productivity growth in 41 nations between 1929 and 1950 by decomposing productivity growth into four components: technological change; efficiency catch-up (movements towards the production frontier), capital accumulation and human capital accumulation. We show that efficiency catch-up generally explains productivity growth, whereas technological change and factor accumulation were limited and distorted by the effects of war. War clearly hampered efficiency. Moreover, an unbalanced ratio of human capital to physical capital (a gap to the technological leader) was crucial for efficiency catching-up.
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author
and
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publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
in
UPF working paper series
issue
1024
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8ad27a15-ebf6-463c-b79b-e4516656c558 (old id 1385506)
alternative location
http://ideas.repec.org/p/upf/upfgen/1024.html
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 13:37:03
date last changed
2025-04-04 15:08:27
@misc{8ad27a15-ebf6-463c-b79b-e4516656c558,
  abstract     = {{We employ a non-parametrical approach to growth accounting (Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA) to disentangle the proximate sources of labour productivity growth in 41 nations between 1929 and 1950 by decomposing productivity growth into four components: technological change; efficiency catch-up (movements towards the production frontier), capital accumulation and human capital accumulation. We show that efficiency catch-up generally explains productivity growth, whereas technological change and factor accumulation were limited and distorted by the effects of war. War clearly hampered efficiency. Moreover, an unbalanced ratio of human capital to physical capital (a gap to the technological leader) was crucial for efficiency catching-up.}},
  author       = {{Enflo, Kerstin and Baten, Joerg}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{1024}},
  series       = {{UPF working paper series}},
  title        = {{Growth accounting in times of turbulence and death: efficiency, technology, capital accumulation and human capital 1929-1950}},
  url          = {{http://ideas.repec.org/p/upf/upfgen/1024.html}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}