Estimating Lost Output from Allocative Inefficiency, with an Application to Chile and Firing Costs
提出基于未实现生产率增长的新配置效率度量方法，利用智利制造业工厂数据估计投入边际产品与边际成本的差距，发现蓝领和白领劳动力差距较大且随时间扩大，可能与裁员成本增加有关。
We propose a new measure of allocative efficiency based on unrealized increases in aggregate productivity growth. We show that the difference in the value of the marginal product of an input and its marginal cost at any plant—the plant-input gap—is exactly equal to the change in aggregate output that would occur if that plant changed that input's use by one unit. We show how to estimate this gap using plant-level data for 1982 to 1994 from Chilean manufacturing. We find the gaps for blue- and white-collar labor are quite large in absolute value, and these gaps (unlike for materials and electricity) are increasing over time. The timing of the sharpest increases in the labor gaps suggests that they may be related to increases in severance pay. © 2013 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.