The Microeconomics Seminar: Every Wednesday at 12:15 pm (exceptionnaly on Friday).

Time: 12:15 pm – 1:30 pm
Date: 16th of March 2018
Place: Room 3001.

Ethan IlZETZKI (London School of Economics) – “Measuring Productivity Dispersion: Lessons From Counting One-Hundred Million Ballots”

Abstract: We measure output per worker in nearly 8,000 municipalities using ballot counting times in the Italian general election of 2013 and two referenda in 2016. We document large productivity dispersion across provinces in this very uniform and low-skill task that involves no modern technology or physical capital. Vote counting productivity has similar variance as–and is highly correlated with–firm-level productivity. Its correlation is larger with that of labor-intensive and low-skilled firms, consistent with a measure of labor-augmenting (but not skill-augmenting) efficiency. Using a development accounting framework, this measure explains up to half of the firm-level productivity dispersion across Italian provinces and more than half the north-south productivity gap in Italy. We find suggestive evidence that vote counting rates are correlated with measures of work ethic and trust.

Organizers:
Marie-Laure Allain, Pierre Boyer, Laurent Linnemer  &  Morgane Cure (CREST)

Sponsors:
CREST

Food is provided.