Measuring Productivity Growth in Asia: Do Market Imperfections Matter?
Recent research reports contradictory estimates of productivity growth for the newly
industrialized economies (NIEs) of Asia. In particular, estimates using real factor prices find
relatively rapid TFP growth; estimates using quantities of inputs and output find relatively low TFP
growth. The difference is particularly notable for Singapore, where the difference is about 2-1/4
percentage-points per year. We show that about 2/3 of that difference reflects differences in
estimated capital payments. We argue that these differences reflect economically interesting
imperfections in output and capital markets, including sizeable economic profits in Singapore and
government-directed credit. We derive a measure of technology growth, corrected for the
imperfections that we quantify.