Productivity changes of pulp and paper industry in OECD countries, 1991-2000: a non-parametric Malmquist approach

The objective of this article was to measure the productivity of pulp and paper industry in OECD countries over the period of 1991-2000. We calculated the Malmquist productivity index by using the nonparametric-frontier approach, and decomposed the index into two components: technical change and efficiency change. Empirical results showed that the productivity change of pulp and paper industry in OECD countries ranged from Switzerland's −0.9% to Japan's 2.4% over the sampled period. The Nordic nations (Finland, Norway and Sweden) recorded, 1.2-1.5% improvement in their performance. The productivity of the Canadian pulp and paper industry increased by 2%, while that of its United States counterpart increased only by 0.8%. The results also showed that the last decade's productivity growth was attributed more to the technical change than efficiency change.