Person:
Dutz, Mark Andrew

Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice, The World Bank

Fields of Specialization

Industrial organization economics, Productivity

Departments

Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice, The World Bank

Last updated March 13, 2023

Biography

Mark Dutz is Lead Economist in the Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice of the World Bank Group. He is responsible for work on productivity growth and its interaction with poverty reduction and shared prosperity. He is co-editor of Making Innovation Policy Work: Learning from Experimentation (2014) and Promoting Inclusive Growth: Challenges and Policies (2012), and lead author of The Jobs of Tomorrow: Technology, Productivity and Prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean (2018), and Unleashing India’s Innovation: Toward Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (2007). Dr. Dutz has taught at Princeton University and has published articles in journals and monographs in applied microeconomics, including on competition, innovation, productivity and international trade issues, and their linkages with growth and inclusion. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University and a Masters’ in Public Affairs from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School.

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 27

Productivity, Innovation and Growth in Sri Lanka : An Empirical Investigation

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-02) Dutz, Mark A. ; O'Connell, Stephen D.

This study investigates the impact of key business environment indicators on productivity, innovation, and growth in Sri Lanka through a cluster-level productivity analysis, a firm-level total factor productivity analysis, and a firm-level innovation analysis. For the cluster-level productivity analysis (as measured by output and value added per worker), it combines two established data sources in a novel way by importing average 'industry-size-location' cluster-level business environment variables from the World Bank Enterprise Survey to the comprehensive Sri Lanka Census of Industry productivity data available for similar clusters of enterprises. For the firm-level total factor productivity analysis, it compares data from the 2011 World Bank Enterprise Survey with those from 2004. For the firm-level innovation analysis, it compares findings from the 2011 World Bank Enterprise Survey with a representative sample of enterprises collected as part of the Sri Lanka Longitudinal Survey of Enterprises. The empirical findings highlight the importance -- for cluster-level productivity, firm-level total factor productivity, and innovation -- of connectivity to global knowledge (reflected by one or more of export participation, directly imported inputs, foreign ownership, and use of the internet), availability of skills, access to finance, and competition. The paper also presents evidence, under the assumption that the samples are statistically representative, that both allocative and average technical efficiency have improved, with allocative efficiency increasing roughly four-fold between 2003 and 2010, and accounting for the overwhelming share of the aggregate increase in total factor productivity over this time period. Most of the improvement in allocative efficiency has occurred among larger firms, and in large rather than small cities.
Resource Reallocation and Innovation : Converting Enterprise Risks into Opportunities

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-07) Dutz, Mark A.

This paper argues that the increased flow and management of knowledge permitted by knowledge-based capital, supported by appropriate policies, can be an important factor in reducing the decision risk facing enterprises due to uncertainty and imperfect information, helping improve the resilience of development outcomes. Enterprises are conceptualized as information platforms that manage risk through investments in knowledge-based capital and complementary assets, providing them with the knowledge, protection/enabling, insurance, and coping/leveraging abilities to make better decisions in response to shocks. Investments in knowledge-based capital allow enterprises to better convert voluntary but risky reallocation and innovation decisions into productivity and wealth-enhancing opportunities. They can help the enterprise sector as a whole and most people to self-protect and realize better jobs, earnings, and consumption outcomes by adapting to shocks. However, absent appropriate policies, knowledge-based capital can have adverse distributional effects -- including a skewed industrial concentration of productivity gains and more unequal consumption and income-earning outcomes between rich and poor people. The paper discusses the role of policy in facilitating risk management by enterprises, ultimately to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity. Insufficient enterprise risk-taking is costly for the enterprise sector and the economy as it results in too little experimentation and learning. The paper argues that governments should create business environments that stimulate entrepreneurial risk-taking to invest in market and social opportunities that combine new technologies with appropriately-skilled workers. Policies allowing people to better confront and manage their risks include: (1) spurring entrepreneurial experimentation; (2) supporting skills upgrading; and (3) promoting mechanisms for joint learning through global collaboration.
Promoting Inclusive Growth : Challenges and Policies

(Paris: OECD and the World Bank, 2012-05) de Mello, Luiz ; Dutz, Mark A. ; de Mello, Luiz ; Dutz, Mark A.

Countries worldwide face challenges of high unemployment, unsustainable public finances and lower potential output. It is pertinent therefore to understand future challenges and devise policies accordingly. This document contains the proceedings of a conference co-hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank in 2011. The policy issues highlighted herein include financial development, social policies, innovation, regulation, and political economy issues. The importance of structural reform, and exploiting synergies among policy domains are explored. It is understood that structural reforms can do much to unleash opportunities for investment and to allow countries to tap new sources of growth. They can also address issues of inclusiveness and social cohesion, ensuring that the benefits of sustained growth are shared equitably. Exploiting synergies among policy domains is also essential. For example, innovation calls for investment in human resources and appropriate competition policies to encourage entrepreneurship. Innovation is a key pillar of green growth, which is about greening old activities by harnessing knowledge and new technologies that can also create jobs and promote welfare in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Measuring Intangible Assets in an Emerging Market Economy : An Application to Brazil

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-07) Dutz, Mark A. ; Kannebley, Sérgio Jr. ; Scarpelli, Maira ; Sharma, Siddharth

This paper measures intangible investment in Brazil. It estimates that during 2000-2008, annual business spending on intangible assets or knowledge-based capital in Brazil averaged about 4 percent of gross domestic product. While this is significantly lower than comparable rates for the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom, which hover around 11 percent, it is not too far below estimates for other developed countries such as Italy and Spain. Of the total expenditure on intangible assets in 2006, about 23 percent was spent on computer software and databases, 43 percent on innovative property (predominantly research and development and new product development in financial services), and 34 percent on economic competencies (which comprises branding, employee training and organization improvement). Brazil's share of spending on economic competencies is markedly lower than that observed in the United States and the United Kingdom, and the analysis finds it to be the slowest growing of the major intangible categories. Finally, having extended the intangible investment estimation methodology to produce more disaggregated (industry-level) estimates, the authors show that intangible investment is positively correlated with recent export growth and total factor productivity estimates across manufacturing industries. This suggests that intangible or knowledge-based capital, as measured here, can account for part of the hitherto unexplained component of productivity growth.
Road Freight Logistics, Competition and Innovation : Downstream Benefits and Policy Implications

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-11) Dutz, Mark

This empirical paper sheds light on a significant element of the debate of whether infrastructure services have a strong impact on economic development by exploring the impact of innovative road freight services on downstream business users. The paper uses a new and purpose-specific survey of 165 logistics service providers and 493 user enterprises in food processing, food distribution, and the automotive industry in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. The main findings are that there are substantial downstream benefits from innovations in road freight services, both dampening cost increases and raising sales revenues of business users. The additional finding that increased intensity of competition in road freight services is significantly associated with the provision of innovative services suggests that easing any remaining barriers to competition in upstream business sectors should be a priority.
Technological Learning and Innovation : Climbing a Tall Ladder

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-07) Canuto, Otaviano ; Dutz, Mark A. ; Reis, José Guilherme

As the global stock of ideas expands and diffuses across and within countries, technological learning is poised to become an even more important determinant of growth through its impact on innovation. This note reviews global trends that make a policy focus on technological learning and innovation more important than ever for developing countries. The note explores how the recent global financial crisis may affect these trends and outlines several implications of these trends for innovation policy moving forward. Developing countries will benefit from an increased policy emphasis on technological learning and the adoption of more efficient existing technologies to generate more and better jobs and higher standards of living.
Public-Private Partnership Units : What Are They, and What Do They Do?

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-09) Dutz, Mark ; Harris, Clive ; Dhingra, Inderbir ; Shugart, Chris

As governments turn to the private sector to provide services once delivered by the public sector, they must learn new skills. An increasingly common way to provide the new capacities needed is to establish public-private partnership units - as new agencies or as special cells within a cross-sectoral ministry such as finance or planning. Making the right choices on what roles such units play, where they are located, and how conflicts of interest are managed is critical in their success. This paper reviews the experience.
Increasing the Effectiveness of Preshipment Inspection Services

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2001-05) Dutz, Mark

Preshipment inspection can help control overinvoicing or underinvoicing of imports, misclassification of imports, and misappropriation of donor funds provided for import support. Of the various objectives for customs reform, trade facilitation is arguably the most important for efficiency and growth. Because of the potential long-term gains from reform, governments should focus on implementing an effective program for customs modernization and institutional reform, and not view preshipment inspection services as a substitute for this effort. This Note reviews recent evidence on the effectiveness of preshipment inspection services.
Public and Private Investments in Innovation Capabilities : Structural Transformation in the Chilean Wine Industry

(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-07) Dutz, Mark A. ; O'Connell, Stephen D. ; Troncoso, Javier L.

This paper assembles novel data on the Chilean wine industry to investigate the role of investments in knowledge capital on sales growth in domestic and international markets. The study uses archival data collected from the Government of Chile to compile and categorize public expenditures and programs supporting the Chilean wine industry over the period of 1990-2012 into investment in different types of knowledge capital. These spending categories are related to industry-level sales growth. The paper finds that the most important correlate is spending on research and development. The study also uses data from a new survey of Chilean wine firms to capture information on firm-specific investments in knowledge capital. The findings show that investments in collaboration capital, in particular hiring foreign consultants, as well as participation in international wine fairs are the strongest correlates of growth in export sales, while spending on aspects of branding (local advertising and brand design) are the strongest correlates of domestic market sales growth.
Does More Intense Competition Lead to Higher Growth?

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-04) Dutz, Mark A. ; Hayri, Aydin

The relationship between the intensity of competition in an economy and its long-run growth is an open question in economics. Theoretically, there is no clear-cut answer. Empirical evidence exists, however, that in some sectors more competition leads to more innovation, and accelerates productivity growth. To complement those findings, and capture economy-wide effects, the authors conduct a cross-country study. They examine the impact on growth of various measures having to do with intensity of domestic competition - beyond the effects of trade liberalization. Their results indicate a strong correlation between long-run growth, and effective enforcement of antitrust, and competition policy.