TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bloom,Nicholas
AU  - Genakos,Christos
AU  - Martin,Ralf
AU  - Sadun,Raffaella
TI  - Modern Management: Good for the Environment or just Hot Air?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14394
PY  - 2008
Y2  - October 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14394
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14394.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Nicholas Bloom
Stanford University
Department of Economics
579 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6072
Tel: 650/725-3266
Fax: 650/725-5702
E-Mail: nbloom@stanford.edu

Christos Genakos
Department of Economics
Athens University of Economics and Business
76 Patission Str.
Athens, 10434
GREECE
Tel: (+30) 210 8203 353
E-Mail: cgenakos@aueb.gr

Ralf Martin
Imperial College Business School
London SW7 2AZ, UK
E-Mail: R.Martin@lse.ac.uk

Raffaella Sadun
Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall 219
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-6190
Fax: 617/495-0355
E-Mail: rsadun@hbs.edu
AB  - We use an innovative methodology to measure management practices in over 300 manufacturing firms in the UK. We then match this management data to production and energy usage information for establishments owned by these firms. We find that establishments in better managed firms are significantly less energy intensive. They use less energy per unit of output, and also in relation to other factor inputs. This is quantitatively substantial: going from the 25th to the 75th percentile of management practices is associated with a 17.4% reduction in energy intensity. This negative relationship is robust to a variety of controls for industry, location, technology and other factor inputs. Better managed firms are also significantly more productive. One interpretation of these results is that well managed firms are adopting modern lean manufacturing practices, which allows them to increase productivity by using energy more efficiently. This suggests that improving the management practices of manufacturing firms may help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
ER  -