Fixed Cost, Imperfect Competition and Bias in Technology Measurement : Japan and The United States

Kiyohiko G. Nishimura ; Masato Shirai

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

关键词: managerial efficiency;    Japanese and US Industries;    imperfect competition;    fixed cost;    technological progress;   

DOI  :  https://doi.org/10.1787/260256735077

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: OECD iLibrary

【 摘 要 】

In many industries, competition is far from perfect and managerial efficiency (or a fixed cost) varies among firms. However, traditional measurement of technological progress assumes perfect competition and no fixed cost. This paper incorporates these two factors in the technological-progress measurement and investigates the biases caused by their omission. We show that if capital growth exceeds non-capital-input growth and that firms earn a positive pure profit, then traditional measurement underestimates the true technological progress. We apply this methodology to Japanese and US industries, and find that imperfect competition and managerial efficiency are important. However, the magnitude of the bias is not large ...