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The pulp and paper industry has been the focus of government policies ever since independence. This is the only industry where government plays a multi-dimensional role – not only as the regulator but also as the supplier of raw material and as the buyer. Despite the government's omnipotent role, there is evidence that industry is not very competitive, as it has very high energy and water intensity and poor productivity. A potent factor identified in the literature for the underperformance of the industry or for that matter any economy is the kind of technology used by the firms in the sector. This paper aims to look into the role of government policy in affecting the growth of the industry and what role embodied technology has played in influencing the efficiency of firms in Indian pulp and paper industry.

For the first question, the study uses 66 years of production data of the industry from 1951 to 2016 and tests for the structural break. For the second question, the study uses cross-section plant-level data for the year 2011-2012 of 160 paper manufacturing units to first estimate the stochastic production frontier (stochastic frontier analysis [SFA]) and then uses the output of SFA to find an association between embodied technology gap (TG) and technical efficiency. A methodological problem in earlier literature is the use of the productivity gap as a proxy for embodied TG. The present study uses technical parameters of papermaking – machine deckle and operating speed – to construct an index of TG.

The results show a structural break in the production trend occurring in 1999 with the delicensing in July 1997 as the possible cause. The SFA results show that the average technical inefficiency (TE) of the firms in the sector is 74 per cent with half of the firms having TE higher than 76 per cent. The study, however, does not find any impact of embodied TG on technical efficiency; rather it is the age, size, ownership and location that have an impact on it.

This is an original research, as the author has not come across any study in Indian context or elsewhere using technical parameters to construct TG variable.

Uses a model of technical change embodied in capital equipment to analyse average labour productivity growth. Determinants of productivity growth identified in this analysis are: (1) the rate of labour‐saving technical change; (2) the differential in the rates of change of wages and the rental price of capital; and (3) the rate of growth of industry productive capacity. Finds evidence that each of the identified factors has a positive and statistically significant relationship to average labour productivity growth in a cross‐section of Australian manufacturing industries.

Vintage capital growth models have been at the heart of growth theory in the 1960s. This research line collapsed in the late 1960s with the so-called embodiment controversy and the technical sophisitication of the vintage models. This chapter analyzes the astonishing revival of this literature in the 1990s. In particular, it outlines three methodological breakthroughs explaining this resurgence: a growth accounting revolution, taking advantage of the availability of new time series; an optimal control revolution, allowing to safely study vintage capital optimal growth models; and a vintage human capital revolution, along with the rise of economic demography, accounting for the vintage structure of human capital similarly to physical capital age structuring. The related literature is surveyed.

This chapter deals with aspects of technical change and entrepreneurship which have dominated the economics literature. Since we shall confine our attention to the economic aspects of technical change, our approach is one-sided. This is reinforced by the fact that we discuss only a part of the very large body of literature. The tension between wants and the means to satisfy these is directly influenced by technical change, both from a qualitative and a quantitative point of view. This relationship between scarcity and technical change has been studied in detail since the 1970s, although elements have always been part of economic debate (Heertje, 1977).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of pharmaceutical innovation on the longevity of Australians. The approach utilized involves estimation of difference-in-differences models using longitudinal, disease-level data during the period 1995–2003 to determine whether the diseases that had above-average increases in mean vintage (FDA approval year) of drugs had above-average reductions in mortality. Our findings are that the mean age at death increased more for diseases with larger increases in mean drug vintage. A 5-year increase in mean drug vintage is estimated to increase mean age at death by almost 11 months. The number of years of potential life lost before the ages of 65 and 70 (but not before age 75) was reduced by use of newer drugs. During the period 1995–2003, mean age at death increased by about 2.0 years, from 74.4 to 76.4. The estimates imply that, in the absence of any increase in drug vintage, mean age at death would have increased by only 0.7 years. The increase in drug vintage accounts for about 65% of the total increase in mean age at death. Estimated cost per life-year gained from using newer drugs is $10,585. An estimate by previous investigators of the value of a statistical Australian life-year ($70,618) is 6.7 times as large. We acknowledge potential limitations of this study by discussing several reasons why our estimate of the cost per life-year gained from using newer drugs could be too high or low. The value of this paper's evidence is primarily due to the government's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme: Australia has much better data on drug utilization than most other countries.

The vintage model of capital accumulation predicts that technical progress depends on the installation of new capital equipment. In this chapter it is found that investment raises labor productivity in the G7 countries and Australia. This finding implies that the decline in investment during the global financial crisis will have a long lasting detrimental effect on labor productivity and hence wages.

This study investigates the dynamic production structure of the Japanese manufacturing industry by using the adjustment cost approach. The study is to shed some light on the unique dynamic structure of the Japanese manufacturing industry. The study attempts to help design and predict industrial policies that are implemented to enhance domestic investments by the Japanese government.

This study obtains a system of dynamic factor demand and output supply equations by applying the dual approach to the intertemporal value function as represented by the Hamilton–Jacobi equation. By using industrial panel data for 1973–2012 of the Japanese manufacturing industry, the study estimates the system of the behavioral equations and corresponding elasticities. The study uses hypothesis tests and dynamic elasticities to investigate the dynamic structure of the Japanese manufacturing industry.

Estimation results show that labor and capital are quasi-fixed variables that adjust about 0.2 percent annually to the long-run optimum levels. Estimated adjustment rates are very slow as often presumed about the Japanese manufacturing industry, which uses lifetime employment practice and slow decision-making process in investment decisions. The results also show that output supply and factor demand elasticities vary greatly depending on time horizon. Factor demand increases when its own price increases in the short run, suggesting that factor adjustment is mostly determined factor prices in the past due to sluggish factor adjustment. However, factor demand becomes a normal downward-sloping curve in the long run as factor adjustment gets completed.

Japanese manufacturing firms hire employees through lifetime contract to exploit the benefits of dynamic learning-by-doing and execute investments carefully considering all the possible impacts. Under the strategy, adjustment costs for changing workers and capital stock are minimized. Dynamic adjustment model is expected to shed some light on the unique dynamic structure of the Japanese manufacturing industry. However, researches regarding the dynamic factor adjustment of the Japanese manufacturing industry are hard to find. This study is expected to fill the research vacuum.

Productivity measurement is a required management tool in evaluating and monitoring the performance of a business operation. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the state‐of‐the‐art research on productivity measurement. The paper comprises two major sections. First, to develop some consensus about the techniques that can be employed, the theory of productivity measurement is examined and evaluated from several perspectives. Second, based on the availability of diverse techniques for measuring productivity, we analyze innovative case and field studies that demonstrate the techniques an organization can employ to measure performance adequately.

To apply the Tawhidi epistemology in the automobile industry as the paradigm of the Islamic socio‐scientific order in terms of its inherent knowledge‐centered worldview.

The concepts of unity and unification of knowledge in a system‐wide sense are analytically developed in the framework of shuratic process or equivalently as the interactive, integrative and evolutionary process‐oriented methodology (IIE).

The analytical conceptualization is derived in the light of Qur'anic rules (ahkam) and recommended that policies, programs and instruments would jointly promote the development of mutual profitability and address the social milieu as well.

Tawhidi unification methodology of extensive participation and linkage can be applied widely.

Certain policy recommendations in the light of the shari'ah precepts of this case study can be made.

A comparison of international construction labour productivity (CLP) is carried out by the conventional use of exchange rates to convert national construction output to a common base currency. Such measurement is always distorted by price-level differences between countries and therefore the purpose of this paper is to adopt a purchasing power parities (PPPs) approach, which eliminates price-level differences, as an alternative means of comparing CLP.

PPP construction expenditure data from the World Bank’s International Comparison Programme 2011 and employment statistics maintained by the International Labour Organization are used to generate the CLP of 93 matching economies. A one-way analysis of variance is conducted to evaluate the relationship between the development status and the CLPs.

The CLPs of developed economies are higher than developing economies in both PPPs (real) and exchange rate (nominal) measurements. The real CLPs are always higher than nominal CLP in high-income, upper-middle-income, lower-middle-income and low-income economies. Both real and nominal CLPs converge along with the economic growth.

The average figures used in the study may not always be the most representative statistics. The CLPs determined provide an initial approximation for comparison between different economies to gain further insights into the best practices and policies for the more successful economies. Future research is recommended to uncover the underlying factors of CLPs congruence.

The convergence of real and nominal CLPs when economies transit from a developing to developed status indicates that the construction product has transformed from a commonly understood non-internationally traded product to an internationally traded product.