Plastina Presents at University of Minnesota

On Friday, Nov. 21, Dr. Alejandro Plastina, RaFF Director, presented as part of the APEC Seminar Series at the University of Minnesota. His presentation, “Unveiling the Robustness of Productivity Comparisons with Basket Alikeness Measures,” introduced an indicator of the robustness of numerical comparisons of total factor productivity (TFP) indexes, called the TFP basket alikeness measure (TBAM). 

Robustness matters because the true production technology is not known with certainty. TBAM is derived from the same data used for TFP index calculations and serves as a relative measure of homogeneity across input and output ratios. 

Applied to the agricultural sectors of the United States and China over 1961-2016, the findings state that U.S. TFP comparisons are robust over longer periods, while China’s are robust over shorter ones, with cross-country comparisons generally lacking robustness.

The seminar series is an activity of the Department of Applied Economics, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota, and is an opportunity to share ideas, learn about cutting-edge research, and interact with scholars from around the world.