Premium
CORPORATE PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH: CHAMPIONS, LEADERS, AND LAGGARDS
Author(s) -
GEROSKI PAUL,
KRETSCHMER TOBIAS,
WALTERS CHRIS
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2007.00115.x
Subject(s) - productivity , economics , debt , financial distress , sample (material) , monetary economics , large sample , demographic economics , macroeconomics , financial system , chemistry , statistics , mathematics , chromatography
This paper examines the relative productivity growth performance of a sample of large UK firms between 1986 and 1995. We find that superior productivity growth, however measured, is not persistent—firms with high productivity growth rates relative to (say) the average in 1 yr are as likely as not to display below‐average performance in the following year. Studying the determinants of the length of time for which firms outperform their peers, we find that innovative firms carrying low debt who are relatively free from financial distress are likely to display whatever persistently superior performance we observe in the data. ( JEL D24, O33, O4)