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Omega journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/omega
Learning to learn and productivity growth: Evidence from a new car-assembly plant
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Carlos Saenz-Royo a, Vicente Salas-Fumas b,* a b
Centro Universitario de la Defensa, Carretera Huesca s/n, 50090 Zaragoza, Spain
´a,
School of Economics and Business, University of Zaragoza, Gran Vı 4, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain
article info
abstract
Article history:
Received 17 October 2011
Accepted 29 March 2012
Processed by Associate Editor Pesch
Available online 6 April 2012
This paper models learning by experience beyond the experience curve, including the possibility of
‘‘learning to learn’’: the pace of learning increases over time by building on what has already been learned. We compare the extended deterministic learning model with Jovanovic and Nyarkos’ [26] stochastic learning. The theoretical models are tested with data on the total factor productivity of a car-assembly plant in its first months of operation. We find that the deterministic ‘‘mixed learning model’’, where the speed of learning is equal to a constant plus a learning to learn effect, is the one that best fits the empirical data. The mixed learning model results in a time pattern of total factor productivity growth, first increasing and later decreasing, different from the always decreasing rate of growth of the learning curve, opening new perspectives on the study of learning by experience.
& 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Organizational learning
Learning by experience
Total factor productivity
Production function
Car-assembly plant
1. Introduction
Productivity, or the rate at which input quantities are turned into outputs, has received much attention at the macro (as determinant of differences in the per capita income of countries
[43]), at the firm (as explanatory of differences in competitiveness and