PRODUCTIVITY ANALYSIS IN

Abstract: Despite the widely recognised importance of the manufacturing industry for success-ful development few studies investigate this sector in cross-country analysis. We fill this gap in the literature by analysing manufacturing production across a large number of developing and developed economies. Our empirical framework allows for heterogeneous production technology and accounts for endogeneity as well as cross-section dependence in the panel. Our results imply that differences in production technology are of crucial importance for understanding cross-country differences in labour productivity and their underlying causes. In the light of these findings the interpretation of regression intercepts as TFP level estimates collapses an