Published in Food Economics – Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Vol. 5(1):1-13, (2008)
Abstract
This paper investigates productivity developments in the Swedish food
and beverage sector during a period characterized by deeper integration
with the EU. Detailed firm level data is used to estimate firm-level TFP,
which is aggregated to a sector level and thereafter decomposed into two
components. One measures the unweighted productivity average while the
other reveals the effect of different developments of heterogeneous firms
on aggregated TFP. The expected productivity growth does not reveal itself
on a sector level. However, a finer division of the food and beverage sector
reveals productivity growth in five out of ten sub-industries, and an improved
resource allocation among firms within sub-industries explains most of
the productivity growth. Growing industries are relatively successful on
the international market, while sub-industries lacking growth are characterized
by weak capital utilization.
Keywords: Productivity; international trade; Sweden;
food and beverage