The authors propose a new measure of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in a general equilibrium setting. It measures by how much the efficiency frontier moves outwards given the availability of primary resources, the technology, and the structure of domestic final demand. Prices are...

India and Bangladesh have pursued policies of trade liberalization since the early 1990s. However, owing to the differential speeds of opening up, Bangladesh's bilateral trade deficit with India widened substantially over the years. This aggravated the economic and the political tensions between...

We propose a new way to locate the comparative advantages of two economies linked by international trade. We construct a competitive benchmark based only on the fundamentals of the two economies: endowments, preferences and technologies. The direction of trade is endogenously determined by a...

Neoclassical economists argue that competition promotes efficiency, but Schumpeter argues that it is monopoly rents that help entrepreneurs to invest in R&D. We investigate the overall effect of competition on total factor productivity growth (TFP) growth. We use rent, defined as the factor...

This chapter defines the concepts of this Handbook - performance, productivity, efficiency, and profitability - and discusses the interrelations. The most prominent performance measure, total factor productivity growth, is grounded in activity analysis and related to Debreu's coefficient of...

This paper fruitfully combines two complementary theories: performance measurement and input-output analysis. Our point of departure is the theory of the consumer, who maximizes utility subject to a budget constraint. His well-being can be measured by the change in the consumption bundle, valued...