This dissertation’s three essays investigate trade and productivity effects on firm behavior based on new heterogeneous-firms trade models in the case of Korea. In the first essay, firms’ decision to export in the case of Korean manufacturing industries is examined, where the change in firms’ productivity before and after exports...
A firm's productivity is composed of two parts: pure technical change and location-specific (agglomeration) externalities. Regional productivity is thus an aggregation of productivity of firms producing similar goods and located in a given region. International trade can affect both components of regional productivity. First, trade openness in a closed economy...
The intent of this study was to survey opinions of
producine managers and industrial engineers concerning
several aspects of productivity. The survey was conducted
by means of a questionnaire. The number of questionnaires
administered was 540. Useful responses were 145 (27%).
In addition to English, there were versions of the...
A unique team productivity raining program was developed and
implemented for Electro-Scientific Industries, Inc. (ESI). This program
was designed to train shop floor workers in teamwork skills and traditional
industrial engineering techniques. In this way, problem-solving
tools are available to the hourly manufacturing worker for use
in improving communications, quality,...
Interfirm comparisons are used internationally to provide productivity
measurement systems. These systems indicate changes in productivity.
The development of interfirm comparisons in Britain,
Australia, and Canada is discussed. Interfirm comparisons have also
been conducted in the United States under the auspices of various
trade associations. However, in the United States...
In this work I integrate some of my recent research developments in the theory and practice of Productivity and Efficiency Analysis of Economic Systems. In particular, I present some new theoretical relationships between various measures of efficiency and productivity, propose new solutions to some aggregation problems in efficiency analysis and...
The objective of this dissertation is to examine multi-product firms' productivity and export behavior. More specifically, this dissertation estimates productivity of firms that produce and sell multiple products, and the role of productivity in such firms' export behavior. In doing so, this dissertation develops a firm-level gravity approach to test...
The objective of this dissertation is to theoretically and empirically examine the role of firm heterogeneity in terms of productivity and skill-intensity in the agglomeration process and the effect of agglomeration on regional economic development.
In the first essay, I analyze the effect of trade liberalization on agglomeration of high-...
Based on the premise that interfirm comparison can be an effective
productivity improvement tool, productivity interfirm comparison (PIC)
methods are examined in this research. The first part is an extensive
literature review regarding the conventional interfirm comparison (IFC)
scheme accepted widely in many countries outside the United States.
Then, the...
Productivity Interfirm Comparison (PIC) is a simple
method used to improve productivity at the firm level,
where a number of firms operate in the same product line so
that performance information on the firms can be compiled
and compared. This results in identifying potential areas
for improvement or exploitation. The...