期刊名称：Euro Area Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Statistics
印刷版ISSN：1830-3420
电子版ISSN：1830-3439
出版年度：2014
出版社：European Central Bank
摘要：Between 2003 and 2008 productivity patterns diverged between the fast growing, newestmembers of the European Union and the slower paced, elder ones – as would be expected.However, there are also striking divergences within the latter group, with productivity inSouthern Europe going into reverse. This paper analyzes which factors - whether countrylevelor firm-specific ones - contributed more to the emergence of a three-speed Europe. Theanalysis combines firm-level data with country-level inputs. Among the newest members ofthe European Union, country characteristics including the stock of inward foreign directinvestment, the availability of credit, and the quality of the business environment and theskills of the workforce prove to be the most important drivers. Firm specific characteristicsare shown to matter as well, notably that small firms and firms which are part of internationalgroups realize more productivity gains than larger domestic competitors. Among the moreadvanced member countries, firm-level characteristics are most important, with larger firmsand firms with international affiliation demonstrating faster productivity gains. Countryspecific factors, such as the quality of the business environment, the size of outward FDI andthe skills of the workforce, do matter as well. These explanations of diverging productivitypatterns suggest that European Union nations can realize significant benefits from low costpolicy interventions such as improving business regulations and encouraging firms’internationalization.
关键词：productivity; regulation; firm performance; foreign direct investment; global;value chains; firm characteristics; Doing Business; European Union
