Tag
productivity
10 findings
Labour & employmentFirm Net Return on On-the-Job Soft Skills TrainingTreated workers became 20 percent more productive (10.8 percentage point efficiency gain, p < 0.05) after program completion, while wages increased by only 0.5 percent ($0.50 USD/month). Program costs were $95,000 for 1,087 treated workers, producing a net return to the firm of 73 percent at program completion and 258 percent 8 months post-completion.RCTLabour & employmentIntra-Production Line Soft Skill Productivity SpilloversUntrained workers on treatment lines accrued 8.02 additional person days during treatment (p < 0.05) and experienced efficiency gains of 7.14 percentage points post-treatment (over two-thirds the size of direct treatment effects), leading to an overall line-level efficiency increase of 4.31 percentage points (p < 0.05).RCTFirms & operationsProductivity and Profitability Payoffs of Lean OperationsAdopting lean operational practices raised total factor productivity (TFP) by 17% in the first year (p = 0.061; IV coefficient = 0.477, p < 0.05), reduced quality defects by 43%, cut yarn inventory by 21.7%, and generated $325,000 in net annual profit per plant.RCTFirms & operationsManagement Practice Deficit in Developing CountriesAdopting basic quality measurement and data tracking enabled treatment plants to correct defect root causes quickly, reducing average defects by over 50 percent in the first three months alone.RCTFirms & operationsManagerial Information and Practice Awareness DeficitsPrimary empirical findings indicate that non-adoption of modern manufacturing practices stems directly from lack of awareness; similar information barriers explain the non-adoption of basic accounting in Peru and modern farming methods in Ghana.RCTFirms & operationsPsychosocial Health-Productivity LinkageLongitudinal tracking of individual production line output alongside standardized psychological evaluations to determine the direct economic returns of mitigating loneliness.RCTFirms & operationsQuality Control and Management Practice AdoptionImplementing quality measurement and analysis systems reduced average defect levels by over 50 percent within the first three months, significantly boosting productivity as nearly 20 percent of the labor force was previously occupied with repairing defects.RCTFirms & operationsStandardized Management Scoring and Global Practice Stochastic DominanceDeveloping nations (Brazil, China, India) exhibit significantly lower average management scores, with their entire distribution of management practices stochastically dominated by firms in rich countries.Observational StudyEconomics (general)Trade Protectionism and Inefficient Firm PreservationEconomies with higher trade protectionism display a significantly wider thick tail of low-performing manufacturing firms, as high tariffs protect low-productivity producers from international competitive selection.Observational StudyLabour & employmentWithin-Occupation Task IntensificationNon-routine analytical tasks increased significantly within sectors (+0.139 standard deviations, p < 0.01), driving a significant within-sector reduction in overall routine task intensity (-0.175 standard deviations, p < 0.05).RCT