Total factor productivity of Russian companies: Assessments, trends, and dynamic factors

The article presents the results of the analysis of total factor productivity(TFP) of Russian companies across eight industries - agriculture, extraction, processing, energy, water supply, trade, transportation, and information and communication - during the period of 2012 to 2020. Over this timeframe, there was an observable trend of decreasing TFP among Russian companies cumulatively. Sector-specific analysis reveals an upward TFP trend in agriculture, extraction, and trade sectors, while in information and communication, the metric remained virtually unchanged. Almost across all sectors, except for information and communication, private companies exhibited lower TFP compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) with direct government ownership. Furthermore, in the extraction sector, SOEs demonstrated higher TFP than private organizations. However, the TFP of medium and small private companies proved to be higher across all sectors, excluding agriculture and extraction. Additionally, it was found that both private companies and SOEs with direct government ownership lagged behind the productivity of SOEs with indirect government ownership, except for the extraction sector, where these distinctions were negligible.