We study the nonparametric identification of gross output production functions under the environment of the commonly employed proxy variable methods. We show that applying these methods to gross output requires additional sources of variation in the demand for flexible inputs (e.g., prices)....

The aim of this paper is to examine the goodness-of-fit of several aggregated production functions including the Cobb-Douglas function, the Mankiw, Romer and Weil model, or Mincer's specification for a set of 30 European countries during the period 2006-2015. The dependent variable was economic...

We examine the channels through which a randomized early childhood intervention in Colombia led to significant gains in cognitive and socio-emotional skills among a sample of disadvantaged children aged 12 to 24 months at baseline. We estimate the determinants of parents' material and time...

While progress has been made in increasing female labor force participation (FLFP) in the last 20 years, large gaps remain. The latest Fund research shows that improving gender diversity can result in larger economic gains than previously thought. Indeed, gender diversity brings benefits all its...

This paper analyzes the role played by regional conditioning factors, namely absorptive capacity and economic freedom, for the working of regional policy in Germany. We construct synthetic composite indicators to measure differences in these factors across German regions and stratify regions by...

This paper measures the metafrontier total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) of 47 regions in Japan for the period 1996–2008, using the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). The two-step output-oriented SFA approach by Huang et al. (J Prod Anal 42:241–254, 2014) is followed but converted into a...