On 15 March 2018, the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia hosted the 28th session of the Research Club
On 15 March 2018, the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia hosted the 28th session of the Research Club. Vice Governor Anita Angelovska-Bezoska gave the opening speech, which was followed by research papers: Firm-level productivity and its sources post-acquisition: quasi-experimental evidence by Filip Jolevski and Analysis of the structural characteristics of the Macedonian economy: productivity determinants by using firm-level database by Biljana Jovanovic.
Jolevski's paper examines empirical evidence of the effect of the change of ownership of a firm or its unit, on the productivity of that firm. Using a balanced microdata panel from the World Bank surveys, Jolevski examines firm productivity before and after the change of ownership. In the research paper, Jolevski does not find any statistically significant evidence that shows that the change of ownership affects the firm productivity. Yet, as emphasized in the paper, Jolevski presented cases where companies that experienced change of ownership had predispositions for high productivity growth. Upgrading the existing professional literature on this topic, he presented several hypotheses among which the hypothesis that the productivity differences may last longer than the period considered in the paper, the hypothesis that the labor market is more flexible than the capital market, which increases labor productivity and the hypothesis that the change of ownership is a phenomenon that occurs in industries and firms that have already had high productivity potential, which is why the change of ownership can not be considered a factor that increases productivity.
In the paper by Biljana Jovanovic, the research is focused on the analysis of productivity using micro database, that is, firm-level data. The sample is composed of the financial statements of about 900 medium and large firms for the period 2013-2016. The first part of the survey calculates the total factor productivity (TFP) and labor productivity indicators. Special attention is paid to the calculation of the TFP indicators, where the results are checked through three alternatives. The descriptive analysis of calculated indicators, as Jovanovic indicated in the session, points to several important conclusions about the dynamics and the structure of productivity. Despite the solid productivity growth pace in 2014 and 2015, in 2016, there was a slowdown in the growth of firm productivity within the selected sample. This trend is also found in the aggregate productivity at the level of economy. Sector-by-sector analysis shows that the slowdown is a reflection of the negative contribution of the construction and manufacturing industry in 2016 - drivers of growth in the previous period.
The second part of the research is aimed to identify determinants that affect productivity. More specifically, as noted in the presentation, through appropriate econometric techniques Jovanovic examined the effect of several factors, such as the company size, indebtedness, the indicator of companies’ financial problems as measured through the interest rate exposure, the indicator of the human capital quality, i.e. the level of education, as well as the involvement in export. The results presented by Jovanovic mainly point to three factors whose influence is statistically significant: the firm size, interest rate exposure and human capital.
Researchers that attended the session discussed the research results presented by Filip Jolevski and Biljana Jovanovic.
The next session of the Research Club will be held in June this year.
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