The Sensitivity of Productivity Growth Measures to Alternative Structural and Behavioral Assumptions: An Application to Electric Utilities 1951–1984
检验了1951-1984年间电力公用事业三种全要素生产率增长估计对放松结构与行为假设的敏感性，发现残差法高估了生产率下降，而考虑规模报酬和短期均衡后估计值显著不同。
This article examines the sensitivity of three alternative multifactor productivity growth estimates for the electric-utility industry during the 1951–1984 period. The results indicate that multifactor productivity growth estimates are quite sensitive to the relaxation of various structural and behavioral assumptions. First, a benchmark measure is constructed along the lines suggested by Solow (1957). This “residual” approach produces estimates that suggest a substantial decline in firm-level productivity growth after the mid-1960s. Prior to obtaining the second and third estimates, empirical tests of the structural and behavioral assumptions underlying a firm's operation are conducted. First, the structural assumption of constant returns to scale is rejected, and the resulting long-run scale-adjusted multifactor productivity growth estimates are found to be consistently less than the residual estimates. Second, the behavioral assumption of long-run equilibrium is rejected. Comparing the long-run scale-adjusted estimates to scale-adjusted short-run multifactor productivity growth estimates reveals substantial differences.