Application of the ADE methodology and the Malmquist index to measure productivity and economic growth in six national economies

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze, based on mathematical programming, total factor productivity, the economic growth experienced by the American national economies of Chile, the United States and Mexico, and the Asian counterparts of China, India and Japan. For this purpose, the neoclassical contributions of economic growth are briefly discussed as a frame of reference of the model used for the analysis of the efficient use of productive factors. The aim is also to clarify whether this growth is due to changes in technical efficiency over time or to changes related to technological innovation. Specifically, the aim is to analyze how each of these economies behaves with respect to issues related to relative technical efficiency, productivity and economic growth. In order to reach meaningful conclusions, the non-parametric methodology provided by the Enveloped Data Analysis (EDA) is used for the estimation and decomposition of the Malmquist Total Factor Productivity (TFP) index.