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CES-WP-91-9

Commercial Bank Lending Practices And The Development Of Black-Owned Construction Companies

Caren Grown, Timothy Bates

December 01, 1991

Although the construction industry has been a tremendous growth industry for black entrepreneurs in recent years, black-owned construction firms, on average, are less than half the size of those owned by nonminorities. Previous findings suggest that limited access to financial capital, particularly bank loans, has restricted the size of black-owned businesses. Examination of nationwide random samples of construction companies reveals that black firms are treated differently than nonminorities when they borrow from commercial banks: they get smaller loans than nonminorities who have otherwise identical traits. Undercapitalization, in turn, is shown to increase the likelihood of firm discontinuance. Alleviation of undercapitalization problems would help promote the development of black-owned businesses in the construction industry. Journal of Urban Affairs, (1992), pp. 25-41.

View Paper   34 Pages 77824 Bytes

CES-WP-91-8

Multiple Classification Systems For Economic Data: Can A Thousand Flowers Bloom? And Should They?

Robert Mcguckin

December 01, 1991

The principle that the statistical system should provide flexibility-- possibilities for generating multiple groupings of data to satisfy multiple objectives--if it is to satisfy users is universally accepted. Yet in practice, this goal has not been achieved. This paper discusses the feasibility of providing flexibility in the statistical system to accommodate multiple uses of the industrial data now primarily examined within the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. In one sense, the question of feasibility is almost trivial. With today's computer technology, vast amounts of data can be manipulated and stored at very low cost. Reconfigurations of the basic data are very inexpensive compared to the cost of collecting the data. Flexibility in the statistical system implies more than the technical ability to regroup data. It requires that the basic data are sufficiently detailed to support user needs and are processed and maintained in a fashion that makes the use of a variety of aggregation rules possible. For this to happen, statistical agencies must recognize the need for high quality microdata and build this into their planning processes. Agencies need to view their missions from a multiple use perspective and move away from use of a primary reporting and collection vehicle. Although the categories used to report data must be flexible, practical considerations dictate that data collection proceed within a fixed classification system. It is simply too expensive for both respondents and statistical agencies to process survey responses in the absence of standardized forms, data entry programs, etc. I argue for a basic classification centered on commodities--products, services, raw materials and labor inputs--as the focus of data collection. The idea is to make the principle variables of interest--the commodities--the vehicle for the collection and processing of the data. For completeness, the basic classification should include labor usage through some form of occupational classification. In most economic surveys at the Census Bureau, the reporting unit and the classified unit have been the establishment. But there is no need for this to be so. The basic principle to be followed in data collection is that the data should be collected in the most efficient way--efficiency being defined jointly in terms of statistical agency collection costs and respondent burdens. Proceedings of the 1991 Conference on the Classification of Economic Activity, 1991.

View Paper   40 Pages 71680 Bytes

CES-WP-91-10

The Influence Of Location On Productivity: Manufacturing Technology In Rural And Urban Areas

Sheila Martin, Richard Mchugh, S Johnson

December 01, 1991

Policies to counter the growing discrepancy between economic opportunities in rural and urban areas have focused predominantly on expanding manufacturing in rural areas. Fundamental to the design of these strategies are the relative costs of production and productivity of manufacturing in rural and urban areas. This study aims to develop information that can be used to assess the productivity of manufacturing in rural and urban areas. Production functions are estimated in the meat products and household furniture industries to investigate selected aspects of the effect of rural, small urban, and metropolitan location on productivity. The results show that the effect of location on productivity varies with industry, size, and the timing of the entry of the establishment into the industry. While the analysis is specific to two industries, it suggests that development policies targeting manufacturing can be made more effective by focusing on industries and plants with characteristics that predispose them to the locations being supported.

View Paper   36 Pages 211968 Bytes

CES-WP-91-7

Technology Usage in U.S. Manufacturing Industries: New Evidence from the Survey of Manufacturing Technology

Timothy Dunne

October 01, 1991

Using a new dataset on technology usage in U.S. manufacturing plants, this paper describes how technology usage varies by plant and firm characteristics. The paper extends the previous literature in three important ways. First, it examines a wide range of relatively new technologies. Second, the paper uses a much larger and more representative set of firms and establishments than previous studies. Finally, the paper explores the role of firm R&D expenditures in the process of technology adoption. The main findings indicate that larger plants more readily use new technologies, plants owned by firms with high R&D-to-sales ratios adopt technologies more rapidly, and the relationship between plant age and technology usage is relatively weak. RAND Journal of Economics, Volume 25, Number 3 (Autumn 1994), pp. 488-499.

View Paper   35 Pages 97280 Bytes

CES-WP-91-6

Technical Inefficiency And Productive Decline In The U.S. Interstate Natural Gas Pipeline Industry Under The Natural Gas Policy Act

Robin Sickles, Mary Streitwieser

October 01, 1991

The U.S. natural gas industry has undergone substantial change since the enactment of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978. Although the major focus of the NGPA was to initiate partial and gradual price deregulation of natural gas at the well-head, the interstate transmission industry was profoundly affected by changes in the relative prices of competing fuels and contractual relationships among producers, transporters, distributors, and end-users. This paper assesses the impact of the NGPA on the technical efficiency and productivity of fourteen interstate natural gas transmission firms for the period 1978-1985. We focus on the distortionary effects that resulted in the industry during a period in which changes in regulatory policy could neither anticipate changing market conditions nor rapidly adjust to those changes. Two alternative estimating methodologies, stochastic frontier production analysis and data envelopment analysis, are used to measure the firm-specific and temporal distortionary effects. Concordant findings from these alternative methodologies suggest a pervasive pattern of declining technical efficiency in the industry during the period in which this major regulatory intervention was introduced and implemented. The representative firms experience an average annual decline in efficiency of .55 percent over the sample period. In addition, it appears that the industry suffered a decline in productivity during the sample period, averaging -1.18 percent annually. Journal of Productivity Analysis, Volume 3, pp. 119-133, June 1992.

View Paper   31 Pages 250880 Bytes

CES-WP-91-5

The Structure Of Production Technology Productivity And Aggregation Effects

Phoebus Dhrymes

August 01, 1991

This is a sequel to an earlier paper by the author, Dhrymes (1990). Using the LRD sample, that paper examined the adequacy of the functional form specifications commonly employed in the literature of US Manufacturing production relations. The "universe" of the investigation was the three digit product group; the basic unit of observation was the plant; the sample consisted of all "large" plants, defined by the criterion that they employ 250 or more workers. The study encompassed three digit product groups in industries 35, 36 and 38, over the period 1972-1986, and reached one major conclusion: if one were to judge the adequacy of a given specification by the parametric compatibility of the estimates of the same parameters, as derived from the various implications of each specification, then the three most popular (production function) specifications, Cobb-Douglas, CES and Translog all fell very wide of the mark. The current paper focuses the investigation on two digit industries (but retains the plant as the basic unit of observation), i.e., our sample consists of all "large" manufacturing plants, in each of Industry 35, 36 and 38, over the period 1972-1986. It first replicates the approach of the earlier paper; the results are basically of the same genre, and for that reason are not reported herein. Second, it examines the extent to which increasing returns to scale characterize production at the two digit level; it is established that returns to scale at the mean, in the case of the translog production function are almost identical to those obtained with the Cobb-Douglas function.1 Finally, it examines the robustness and characteristics of measures of productivity, obtained in the context of an econometric formulation and those obtained by the method of what may be thought of as the "Solow Residual" and generally designated as Total Factor Productivity (TFP). The major finding here is that while there are some differences in productivity behavior as established by these two procedures, by far more important is the aggregation sensitivity of productivity measures. Thus, in the context of a pooled sample, introduction of time effects (generally thought to refer to productivity shifts) are of very marginal consequence. On the other hand, the introduction of four digit industry effects is of appreciable consequence, and this phenomenon is universal, i.e., it is present in industry 35, 36 as well as 38. The suggestion that aggregate productivity behavior may be largely, or partly, an aggregation phenomenon is certainly not a part of the established literature. Another persistent phenomenon uncovered is the extent to which productivity measures for individual plants are volatile, while two digit aggregate measures appear to be stable. These findings clearly calls for further investigation. Proceedings, 1990 Annual Research Conference, as "The Structure of Production Technology: Evidence from the LED Sample 1."

View Paper   53 Pages 463872 Bytes

CES-WP-91-4

Decomposing Technical Change

Michael Gort, Byong-Hyong Bahk, Richard Wall

May 01, 1991

A production function is specified with human capital as a separate argument and with embodied technical change proxied by a variable that measures the average vintage of the stock of capital. The coefficients of this production function are estimated with cross section data for roughly 2,150 new manufacturing plants in 41 industries, and for subsets of this sample. The question of interactions between new investment and initial endowments of capital is then examined with data for roughly 1,400 old plants in 15 industries. Southern Economic Journal, Volume 60, Number 1, pp. 220-235.

View Paper   47 Pages 130048 Bytes

CES-WP-91-3

Measuring Total Factor Productivity, Technical Change And The Rate Of Returns To Research And Development

Edward Kokkelenberg, Sang Nguyen

May 01, 1991

Recent research indicates that estimates of the effect of research and development (R&D) on total factor productivity growth are sensitive to different measures of total factor productivity. In this paper, we use establishment level data for the flat glass industry extracted from the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Research Database (LRD) to construct three competing measures of total factor productivity. We then use these measures to estimate the conventional R&D intensity model. Our empirical results support previous finding that the estimated coefficients of the model are sensitive to the measurement of total factor productivity. Also, when using microdata and more detailed modeling, R&D is found to be a significant factor influencing productivity growth. Finally, for the flat glass industry, a specific technical change index capturing the learning-by-doing process appears to be superior to the conventional time trend index. Journal of Productivity Analysis, Number 2, pp. 269-282, (1992).

View Paper   31 Pages 76800 Bytes

CES-WP-91-2

R&D Reactions To High-Technology Import Competition

F Scherer

March 01, 1991

For a seventeen-year panel covering 308 U.S. manufacturing corporations, we analyze firms' R&D spending reactions to changes in high-technology imports. On average, companies reduced their R&D/sales ratios in the short run as imports rose. Individual company reactions were heterogeneous, especially for multinational firms. Short-run reactions were more aggressive (i.e., tending toward R&D/sales ratio increases), the more concentrated the markets were in which the companies operated, the larger the company was, and the more diversified the firm's sales mix was. Reactions were less aggressive when special trade barriers had been erected or patent protection was strong in the impacted industries. Companies with a top executive officer educated in science or engineering were more likely to increase R&D/sales ratios in response to an import shock, all else equal. Over the full 17-year sample period, reactions may have shifted toward greater average aggressiveness. Review of Economics and Statistics. Volume LXXIV, No. 2 (1993), pp. 202-212

View Paper   48 Pages 76800 Bytes

CES-WP-91-1

Published Versus Sample Statistics From The ASM: Implications For The LRD

Steven Davis, John Haltiwanger, Scott Schuh

January 01, 1991

In principle, the Longitudinal Research Database ( LRD ) which links the establishments in the Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM) is ideal for examining the dynamics of firm and aggregate behavior. However, the published ASM aggregates are not simply the appropriately weighted sums of establishment data in the LRD . Instead, the published data equal the sum of LRD-based sample estimates and nonsample estimates. The latter reflect adjustments related to sampling error and the imputation of small-establishment data. Differences between the LRD and the ASM raise questions for users of both data sets. For ASM users, time-series variation in the difference indicates potential problems in consistently and reliably estimating the nonsample portion of the ASM. For LRD users, potential sample selection problems arise due to the systematic exclusion of data from small establishments. Microeconomic studies based on the LRD can yield misleading inferences to the extent that small establishments behave differently. Similarly, new economic aggregates constructed from the LRD can yield incorrect estimates of levels and growth rates. This paper documents cross-sectional and time-series differences between ASM and LRD estimates of levels and growth rates of total employment, and compares them with employment estimates provided by Bureau of Labor Statistics and County Business Patterns data. In addition, this paper explores potential adjustments to economic aggregates constructed from the LRD. In particular, the paper reports the results of adjusting LRD-based estimates of gross job creation and destruction to be consistent with net job changes implied by the published ASM figures. Proceedings of the American Statistical Association Business and Economics Section, (1990).

View Paper   48 Pages 211968 Bytes

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