Business and Economics > Production and Operations Management

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Tongfang Yuan
Qatar has been actively preparing to embrace the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI), allowing it to lead its Emerging Market peers in AI readiness. Qatar’s AI exposure has increased significantly over the years, and increasing AI adoption is assessed to yield more opportunities than risks for the country’s labor force, thanks to the private sector’s contribution in increasing jobs that are more likely to benefit from AI-driven productivity gains. Scenario analyses suggest that increasing AI adoption, supported by policy reforms to boost human capital, innovation and domestic knowledge spillovers, could generate sizeable labor productivity gains over the medium term.
Soo Jung Chang
,
Hamin Lee
,
Sumin Lee
,
Samil Oh
,
Zexi Sun
, and
Xin Cindy Xu
This paper examines the economic impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Korea. Korea is among the global frontrunners in AI adoption, with higher adoption rates among larger, younger, and technologically advanced firms. AI holds the promise for boosting productivity and output, though the effects are more pronounced among larger and mature Korean firms. About half of jobs are exposed to AI, with higher exposures among female, younger, more educated, and higher income workers. Korea’s strong innovation and digital infrastructure highlights its AI readiness, while enhancing labor market flexibility and social safety nets are essential to fully harness AI’s potential.
Si Guo
Productivity growth depends not only on technological innovation but also on production networks that amplify its impact. Theory and cross-country evidence indicate a positive relationship between productivity growth and the use of intermediate inputs, a measure of network connectedness. We find that Chile’s intermediate input utilization is significantly lower than that of OECD peers, such as Korea and the Czech Republic, and declined during 2008-21. This is primarily due to weak domestic producer connections and the smaller presence of the manufacturing sector. We argue that diversifying exports from mining, reducing trade costs, and improving contract enforcement could strengthen network linkages and boost growth.
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
At the request of Bank of Botswana, a Technical Assistance mission from the Monetary and Capital Markets (MCM) Department visited Gaborone, Botswana during May 27–31, 2024, to assist the authorities in enhancing their forecasting and policy analysis system (FPAS). The mission assessed and advised on both near-term and medium-term forecasting tools and models currently used by the Bank of Botswana. The mission team helped create a new centralized database and introduced a new flexible platform with a suite of models that expands and complements existing near-term forecasting models. The mission team also improved the medium-term forecasting framework by reviewing model calibration, introducing a fiscal block, and recommending further adjustments.
Oyun Erdene Adilbish
,
Diego A. Cerdeiro
,
Romain A Duval
,
Gee Hee Hong
,
Luca Mazzone
,
Lorenzo Rotunno
,
Hasan H Toprak
, and
Maryam Vaziri
Europe faces a well-known productivity malaise, with a large and widening aggregate productivity gap relative to the U.S. In this paper, we provide a novel diagnosis of the firm-level roots of Europe’s productivity growth slowdown through an analysis of data covering the universe of firms in Europe and the U.S over their life cycles. Compared to their U.S. counterparts, we identify critical performance gaps among both Europe’s frontier firms and young high-growth firms. Our firm-level analyses reveal that smaller markets and limited market-based financing are key bottlenecks for frontier European firms, while skill shortages and insufficient risk capital, such as venture capital, hinder the formation and subsequent growth of young firms in Europe. These findings suggest that removing remaining intra-Europe barriers to accelerate factor and product markets integration, alongside national reforms to facilitate swifter resource reallocation and enhance human capital, could help revive Europe’s productivity growth.
Can Sever
Economic growth in the advanced economies (AEs) has been slowing down since the early 2000s, while government debt ratios have been rising. The recent surge in debt at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has further intensified concerns about these phenomena. This paper aims to offer insight into the high-debt low-growth environment in AEs by exploring a causal link from government debt to future growth, specifically through the impact of debt on R&D activities. Using data from manufacturing industries since the 1980s, it shows that (i) government debt leads to a decline in growth, particularly in R&D-intensive industries; (ii) the differential effect of government debt on these industries is persistent; and (iii) more developed or open financial systems tend to mitigate this negative impact. These findings contribute to our understanding of the relationship between government debt and growth in AEs, given the role of technological progress and innovation in economic growth.
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
The Czech Republic is evolving from a heavily manufacturing-based, export-oriented hub to a more mature and diversified economy. Non-auto manufacturing, energy, and construction, once important Czech engines of growth, have run out of steam, hampered by decelerating productivity growth, higher energy costs, and sluggish demand. The auto industry has shown resilience so far, but the required transition to electric vehicles and exposure to foreign competition are set to exert significant pressures in the coming years. Higher value-added sectors, including ICT services, are constrained by lack of skilled labor and limited access to capital, undermining their ability to compete in global markets.
Alexander Amundsen
,
Amélie Lafrance-Cooke
, and
Danny Leung
Did the COVID-19 pandemic zombify the economy? Commentators have pointed to the pandemic and related business support measures potentially fueling zombification. Using administrative data covering the universe of Canadian firms, we find a broad-based decline in the share of zombie firms across industries relative to pre-pandemic levels. Whereas business support measures kept firms alive and operating as non-zombie firms, the decline in the zombie firm share was caused by would-be zombie firms exiting, indicative of the pandemic’s cleansing effects. As a consequence, while aggregate labour productivity worsened in Canada over the pandemic, it was not driven by zombie firms.