A Comparative Analysis of Productivity Growth and Productivity Dispersion: Microeconomic Evidence Based on Listed Firms from Japan, Korea, and China

Utilizing the firm-level dataset, this study aims to explore differences in firm-level productivity and growth between Japan, Korea, and China. Our main results can be summarized as follows. First, although Japanese firms enjoy the highest average TFP level in many industries, their TFP growth rate has been relatively low during the past two decades. Korean firms have achieved considerable TFP growth in certain industries. The average TFP level of Chinese firms is still much lower than that of Japanese and Korean firms in many industries. Second, within-industry dispersion of TFP levels is very small for Japanese firms. Third, in Korea, the TFP levels of lowperforming firms are approaching those of the national frontier firms at a more rapid pace than in Japan.