The Performance of Manufacturing in the European Union in the Context of Agricultural Economics - The Agricultural Economics of the 21st Century - page 47

productivity growth rate between the 27 countries are significant, with coun-
tries such as France and Luxembourg with negative average productivity
growth rates and countries such as Italy and Slovakia with the greatest growth
rates.
The same happens with the different forms of manufacturing considered,
namely those related with the manufacture of food products, beverages, and
tobacco. The manufacture of tobacco products presents the greatest average
labor productivity growth rate. Curiously this sector is that which possesses
the lower Verdoorn coefficient. This needs further research in the future
despite the explanation presented. The processing and preserving of fish
and fish products showed the lower average productivity growth rate and
the lower Verdoorn coefficient, sign of a weak increase in return for this
sector.
The new variables, with exception to the total share of employment in
manufacturing (which presents strong negative effects in some industries),
have a residual effect and in some cases, also, negative. This means that the
manufacturing sector is not enough, in the existing European Union coun-
tries, developed to catch opportunities that come from the spillover effects,
externalities, endogeneity of the factors, and learning by doing effects.
Consequently, these variables have a negative effect, when they were
expected to have a positive effect.
In general, all the manufacturing sectors considered have significant
increasing returns to scale, taking into account the Verdoorn coefficient.
But these results could be better if the effects represented in the new variables
were potentiated. In this line, it is important to promote strategies to make this
possible.
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