August 2014
Article
Journal of the European Economic Association

The New Empirical Economics of Management

By: Nicholas Bloom, Renata Lemos, Raffaella Sadun, Daniela Scur and John Van Reenen

Format:Print

Abstract

Over the last decade the World Management Survey (WMS) has collected firm-level management practices data across multiple sectors and countries. We developed the survey to try to explain the large and persistent TFP differences across firms and countries. This review paper discusses what has been learned empirically and theoretically from the WMS and other recent work on management practices. Our preliminary results suggest that about a quarter of cross-country and within-country TFP gaps can be accounted for by management practices. Management seems to matter both qualitatively and quantitatively. Competition, governance, human capital, and informational frictions help account for the variation in management.

Keywords

Management Practices and Processes; Performance Productivity; Microeconomics

Citation

Bloom, Nicholas, Renata Lemos, Raffaella Sadun, Daniela Scur, and John Van Reenen. "The New Empirical Economics of Management." Journal of the European Economic Association 12, no. 4 (August 2014): 835–876.