A Comparative Analysis of Productivity Growth and Productivity Dispersion: Microeconomic Evidence Based on Listed Firms from Japan, Korea, and China

Abstract

Utilizing the firm-level dataset, this study aims to explore

differences in firm-level productivity and growth between Japan,

Korea, and China. Our main results can be summarized as

follows. First, although Japanese firms enjoy the highest average

TFP level in many industries, their TFP growth rate has been

relatively low during the past two decades. Korean firms have

achieved considerable TFP growth in certain industries. The

average TFP level of Chinese firms is still much lower than that

of Japanese and Korean firms in many industries. Second,

within-industry dispersion of TFP levels is very small for

Japanese firms. Third, in Korea, the TFP levels of lowperforming

firms are approaching those of the national frontier

firms at a more rapid pace than in Japan.