Using factory-level data from an official manufacturing census, I examine productivity among two forms of enterprise in the Russian Empire from around 1908. I find that despite having 60 times more financial capital, factories owned by corporations did not outperform those owned by ordinary and limited partnerships. Although corporations were more mechanized per worker, both enterprise forms attained equal capital and labor productivity and total factor productivity. Corporations attained higher labor productivity than partnerships only in the metals and machinery industry. These findings suggest that Russian factories used the corporate form's unique advantages in a rather limited way: to build larger factories and undertake larger projects, but not to enhance productivity beyond the level of the partnership form. I also find that there were fewer accidents per worker at partnership-owned factories than at corporations.

中文翻译：

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公司和合作伙伴：俄罗斯帝国晚期的工厂生产力


使用来自官方制造业普查的工厂级数据，我研究了 1908 年左右俄罗斯帝国两种形式的企业的生产率。我发现，尽管公司拥有 60 倍的金融资本，但公司拥有的工厂并没有优于普通合伙企业和有限合伙企业拥有的工厂。尽管公司每个工人的机械化程度更高，但两种企业形式都实现了同等的资本和劳动生产率以及全要素生产率。公司获得的劳动生产率高于仅在金属和机械行业的合伙企业。这些发现表明，俄罗斯工厂以相当有限的方式利用了公司形式的独特优势：建造更大的工厂并承担更大的项目，但并没有提高到合伙人形式水平之外的生产力。我还发现，在合伙企业拥有的工厂中，每个工人的事故比在公司中要少。