NBER Publications by Haim Regev

An industrial policy of subsidizing physical capital investment has been utilized in many countries in order to encourage export growth and spread economic development to outlying areas. For Israel, we possess a unique time series-cross section micro data set that details investment and its associated subsidies by vintage at the level of the individual enterprise for 620 firms. These data provide the means by which an empirical analysis of the effects of the policy of subsidizing capital can be undertaken. We estimate that, for the years 1990-94, this policy has resulted in production inefficiencies ranging from 5% for firms that receive the average level of subsidies to 15% for heavily subsidized firms. We also document the fact that much of the subsidization appears not to have been ...

An analysis of a large panel data set on Israeli industrial firms finds that most of the growth in aggregate productivity comes from productivity changes within firms rather than from entry, exit, or differential growth; that firms which will exit in the future have lower productivity performance several years earlier (the "shadow of death" effect); and that, overall, there was little total factor productivity growth in Israeli industry during 1979-1988 (another "lost decade").

The main purpose of this paper is to present estimates of production and cost functions obtained from using a time-series, cross-section data set pertaining to Israeli industry, We include a detailed list of heterogeneity controls in the specifications which substantially enhances the explanatory power of the models and contributes to our understanding of the nature of Israeli industry. Econometric problems which arise in attempting to estimate production and cost functions from panel data, such as sample selectivity, serial correlation due to unobserved firm effects, and endogeneity are addressed. A surprising finding is the relative inefficiency of large firms listed on the stock exchange. Histadrut and public firms appear to be poor performers in a number of dimensions. Large public fir...

The main purpose of this study is to characterize and analyze high technology industrial firms in Israel. We are able to advance beyond previous empirical studies of high technology because we have access to a unique individual firm data set, a sample of 670 establishments in Israel for the year 1982. Not only do we have basic production data at the individual firm level, but also each firm's capital stock revalued to 1982 dollars. A technology index is constructed from three technological indicators -- substantial R&D investment, a high proportion of the work force consisting of engineers and technicians, and a high proportion of the capital stock being of recent vintages. This technology index is used to classify firms. The largest concentration of High Tech firms are found in electronic...