Ma, L; Liu, C and Mills, A (2016) Construction labor productivity convergence: A conditional frontier approach. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 23(3), pp. 283-301. ISSN 0969-9988
Abstract
Purpose - Understanding and simulating construction activities is a vital issue from a macro-perspective, since construction is an important contributor in economic development. Although the construction labor productivity frontier has attracted much research effort, the temporal and regional characteristics have not yet been explored. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the long-run equilibrium and dynamics within construction development under a conditional frontier context. Design/methodology/approach - Analogous to the simplified production function, this research adopts the conditional frontier theory to investigate the convergence of construction labor productivity across regions and over time. Error correction models are implemented to identify the long-run equilibrium and dynamics of construction labor productivity against three types of convergence hypotheses, while a panel regression method is used to capture the regional heterogeneity. The developed models are applied to investigate and simulate the construction labor productivity in the Australian states and territories. Findings - The results suggest that construction labor productivity in Australia should converge to stable frontiers in a long-run perspective. The dynamics of the productivity are mainly caused by the technology utilization efficiency levels of the local construction industry, while the influences of changes in technology level and capital depending appear limited. Five regional clusters of the Australian construction labor productivity are suggested by the simulation results, including New South Wales; Australian Capital Territory; Northern Territory, Queensland, and Western Australia; South Australia; and Tasmania and Victoria. Originality/value - Three types of frontier of construction labor productivity is proposed. An econometric approach is developed to identify the convergence frontier of construction labor productivity across regions over time. The specified model can provides accurate predictions of the construction labor productivity.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Australia; modelling; construction industry; productivity capacity; productivity rate; economic theory |
| Index terms: | long-run equilibrium, Queensland, economic development, New South Wales, technology utilization, methodology, Australia, error correction model, economic theory, Victoria, construction activity, productivity, efficiency, construction development, South Australia, modelling, construction industry, econometric, dynamics, construction labour |
| Subjects: | innovation and technology management, construction operations, analytical methods, economic analysis, regions and continents, production management, Geography, physical geography and landforms, economic development, management, research methods, performance management, industry analysis, statistical analysis, systems engineering |
| Topics: | Quality Management, Site Management, Project Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Business Strategy, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here