FACTOR DETERMINANTS OF TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH FOR THE JAPANESE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

This study uses industrial panel data for Japanese manufacturing to estimate the sources of productivity growth by simultaneously considering embodied technical progress, spillover effects, and openness, after controlling for returns to scale, imperfect competition, and capacity utilization. Estimation results show the existence of considerable embodied technical progress and interindustry externalities of capital investments positively affecting productivity growth. Furthermore, embodied technical progress causes research and development (R&D) capital to affect productivity growth insignificantly, suggesting that the impact of R&D is realized only after being embodied into other capitals. From sector-wise estimations, we notice differences in factors affecting productivity growth between the durable and nondurable manufacturing sectors.