Why Do Management Practices Differ across Firms and Countries?
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 1 February 2010
- journal article
- Published by American Economic Association in Journal of Economic Perspectives
- Vol. 24 (1), 203-224
- https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.24.1.203
Abstract
Economists have long puzzled over the astounding differences in productivity between firms and countries. In this paper, we present evidence on a possible explanation for persistent differences in productivity at the firm and the national level—namely, that such differences largely reflect variations in management practices. We have, over the last decade, undertaken a large survey research program to systematically measure management practices across firms, industries, and countries. Our survey approach focuses on aspects of management like systematic performance monitoring, setting appropriate targets, and providing incentives for good performance. We explain how we measure management; identify some basic patterns in our data; then turn to the question of why management practices vary so much across firms and nations. What we find is a combination of imperfectly competitive markets, family ownership of firms, regulations restricting management practices, and informational barriers allow bad management to persist.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Foreign Know-How, Firm Control, and the Income of Developing Countries*The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2009
- Reallocation, Firm Turnover, and Efficiency: Selection on Productivity or Profitability?American Economic Review, 2008
- Technology, Information, and the Decentralization of the FirmThe Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2007
- Market Structure and Productivity: A Concrete ExampleJournal of Political Economy, 2004
- Product Substitutability and Productivity DispersionThe Review of Economics and Statistics, 2004
- Export Versus FDI with Heterogeneous FirmsAmerican Economic Review, 2004
- Managing with Style: The Effect of Managers on Firm PoliciesThe Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2003
- Information Technology, Workplace Organization, and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level EvidenceThe Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2002
- How to Compete: The Impact of Workplace Practices and Information Technology on ProductivityThe Review of Economics and Statistics, 2001
- Why do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output Per Worker than Others?The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1999