Productivity Growth in Dynamic Factor Adjustment for the Japanese Manufacturing Industry

ABSTRACT By utilising a dynamic adjustment-cost framework, this study analyses dynamic productivity growth in the Japanese manufacturing industry. Empirical results show that labour and capital are very slow in converging toward the long-run equilibrium, and that output supply and factor demand elasticities vary greatly, depending on the time horizon considered. The results also show that disequilibrium effects of quasi-fixed factors are positively biased toward productivity growth measured in a static equilibrium model. The bias results largely from negative adjustment costs related to the decreasing investment in the factors. There is an almost steady decrease in returns to scale, causing negative scale effects on productivity growth.