The aim of this paper is to introduce an alternative measure that incorporates the concept of a global Malmquist productivity index with a directional distance function. Unlike a conventional geometric mean form of the Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index, this global index is circular and...

This paper serves as another complementary link in a chain of a rather limited number of investigations in the R&D-innovation-productivity relationship within service industries. Innovation has been found to be a major contributor to productivity growth in manufacturing. In this paper, the...

This study examines how firms’ internal and external knowledge sources affect the introduction of new export products with regard to value, number, average unit price and average quantity. Previous studies of this kind suggest that firms’ export performance is influenced by internal...

This paper analyses the role of spatial externalities in explaining the average labour productivity of Swedish manufacturing firms. The empirical findings support MAR and Porter externalities as well as general urbanization economies, but not Jacobs externalities. In addition, the matching...

This empirical research note documents the relationship between composition of a firm's workforce (with a special focus on age and gender) and its performance with respect to innovative activities (outlays and employment in research and development (R&D)) for a large representative sample of...

Using a unique plant-level dataset we examine green productivity growth in Sweden’s heavily regulated pulp and paper industry, which has historically been a significant contributor to air and water pollution. Our exercise is interesting as Sweden has a unique regulatory structure where plants...

In this paper we analyze how firms’ knowledge absorption capacity – given the knowledge environment – affects the development, adoption and introduction of new export products among Swedish manufacturing firms. Our model formulation builds on theoretical arguments which imply that firms...

Iceland, one of the smallest European economies, was hit severely by the 2008-financial crisis. This paper uses a firm-level Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data set to consider the economy in the period preceding the collapse of its financial system. We examine the linkage between the crisis...

This paper presents alternative specifications of the production functions of a large panel of Swedish firms for the period 1992-2000. The period can be characterized as a transition when long-run productivity growth in the Swedish economy improved from being among the weakest to one of the...

This paper presents the parametric estimation of the rates of technical change and total factor productivity (TFP) growth of 7,462 Korean manufacturing firms for the period 1987 to 2007. Two alternative formulations of technical change measured by the time trend and the general index approaches...