The role of inefficiency in a productivity puzzle: Regional evidence for Great Britain
利用英国168个地区2004-2020年数据，通过随机前沿模型分析技术效率，发现生产率放缓主要源于效率下降，并识别出空间全要素生产率增长的中心、外围、领先和跟随区域。
Abstract From around the 2008 crisis there has been a marked slowdown in UK productivity. This has been referred to as a productivity puzzle as there is no consensus on the key explanations for this slowdown. Using data for all the 168 International Territorial Level 3 areas in Great Britain (2004–2020), we make two empirical contributions to the literature on this puzzle. First, we are the first to analyze this productivity puzzle using a stochastic frontier model to account for technical inefficiency. Second, to aid policymakers we uncover the areas that represent spatial total factor productivity (TFP) growth hubs, spokes, leaders and followers. Of the components of TFP growth (growth rates of technical change, returns to scale and efficiency), we find that Britain's productivity slowdown can be more specifically described as a rise in inefficiency.