Four U.S. business school lecturers presented a series of lectures on their research of U.S. businesses at a symposium titled “Corporate Competitiveness from the International Viewpoint,” organized by the Keizai Koho Center in Tokyo on May 30. Each lecturer delivered his or her presentation before taking part in a panel discussion.
John Asker, an associate professor in the Department of Economics at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, was the first speaker to present. He spoke from his standpoint as an economist.
In his presentation “Resource (Mis)Allocation and Industrial Competitiveness,” Asker argued productivity is the prime determinant of a firm’s, industry’s or country’s competitiveness.
To increase productivity, companies can exploit technological or managerial innovation or better allocate existing resources. Asker’s presentation focused on the latter.
His research team used data from the U.S. census and the World Bank Enterprise Survey to show the correlation between productivity and sales-to-capital ratio versus better productivity and better sales-to-capital ratio.
Asker’s data showed the extent to which productivity is positively correlated to sales is different from company to company. However, “the important message is that companies should be doing everything they can to maximize productivity,” he said.
John Asker is an Associate Professor of Economics at New York University Stern School of Business, where he teaches classes in empirical industrial organization, strategy research and microeconomics. His research covers topics related to cartel behavior, vertical restraints, procurement design and the effects of industry subsidies. To address these issues, he employs a mix of theoretical and empirical methods.
His papers have been published in journals, including the American Economic Review, the RAND Journal of Economics, the Journal of Public Economics and the Journal of Political Economy. He is currently an Editor of the Journal of Industrial Economics.