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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2006‒03‒25
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Frantisek Brazdik |
| Abstract: | The objectives of this analysis are to evaluate the technical and scale efficiency of rice farms in West Java and to identify determinants affecting farms’ efficiency. Further, the farm size–productivity relation is investigated. Data Envelopment Analysis is used to estimate technical efficiency scores. Additionally, Tobit regression is used to explain the variation in the efficiency scores related to farm-specific factors. I conclude that farm size is one of the most important factors of farm’s technical efficiency and that high land fragmentation was the main source of the technical inefficiency during the final period of the intensification era, known as the Green Revolution. |
| Keywords: | Rice farms, data envelopment analysis. |
| JEL: | C23 C50 N55 O38 Q11 Q15 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp286&r=eff |
| By: | José Pineda (Corporación Andina de Fomento); Francisco Rodríguez (Economics and Latin American Studies, Wesleyan University) |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wes:weswpa:2006-010&r=eff |
| By: | Waldo, Staffan (Swedish Institute for Food and Agricultural Economics) |
| Abstract: | Since the school voucher reform in 1992/93 Sweden has experienced a rapid increase in private schools. School regulations allow private and public schools to compete for students on very similar terms. This makes the Swedish educational market interesting for studying how competition affects the provision of education. In this study competition and public school productivity are analyzed for 105 urban municipalities during the period 1998/99 to 2001/02. The empirical estimations are performed in two stages. In the first stage, productivity is estimated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and a Malmquist productivity index. In the second stage, the estimated productivity is regressed on private school competition and a number of control variables. We cannot reject competition to be exogenous in a Hausman test. The coefficient for competition is not significant at the 5 percent level in any of the empirical specifications. |
| Keywords: | Malmquist index; competition; education |
| JEL: | H73 I21 |
| Date: | 2006–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2006_008&r=eff |
| By: | Priit Vahter (Eesti Pank (Bank of Estonia) Research Department, University of Tartu) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of foreign direct investment on labour productivity in manufacturing industries of two transition countries, Estonia and Slovenia. The emphasis is on the dimension of export/local market orientation. The study is based on firm-level panel data. It is shown that in Estonia the export oriented foreign investment enterprises have on average much lower labour productivity than the domestic market oriented foreign affiliates. In Slovenia, on the contrary, the export orientation of foreign affiliates is not correlated with lower labour productivity. No horizontal spillover of foreign direct investment to domestic firms is detected in Estonia. In Slovenia, however, positive spillovers to domestic firms are found. The findings show also that different types of foreign direct investment can have different effects on the host country and that the existence of positive spillover may depend on the level of economic development of the host country. |
| Keywords: | foreign direct investment, productivity, spillovers, export oriented foreign direct investments |
| JEL: | F10 F21 F23 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:123&r=eff |
| By: | Waldo, Staffan (Swedish Institute for Food and Agricultural Economics) |
| Abstract: | The focus in this study is on how efficiency in public education is affected by competition from private schools. The Swedish educational system is used, since the Swedish large scale voucher program implies that private and public schools compete on similar terms. In 2002 approximately 5% of the Swedish children attended private schools, and the share is rapidly increasing. Public school efficiency is estimated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Modelling education is difficult since educational production is not only dependent on factors under control of the school management, but also on the students’ socio-economic backgrounds. A number of approaches have been proposed concerning how to model this in a DEA setting. In this study, four different approaches are used and compared. Special focus is put on a second stage regression, where the efficiency estimates are regressed on competition and other explanatory variables. We can not show that the share of children attending private schools is related to public school performance. |
| Keywords: | Data Envelopment Analysis; competition; education |
| JEL: | H73 I21 |
| Date: | 2006–03–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2006_007&r=eff |
| By: | André Croppenstedt (Agricultural and Development Economics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization) |
| Abstract: | Liberalization of Egyptian agricultural policy and new wheat technology has led to significant increases in area allocated to wheat as well as wheat yields. The wheat self-sufficiency ratio increased from 21 percent in 1986 to about 59 percent over the 2001-03 period. However, the country still imports 4-5 million tonnes of wheat per year. This paper addresses the issue of what kind of output gains can be achieved from improving technical efficiency, i.e. how much more output can be produced with the given levels of inputs and current technology. On average wheat farmers are found to operate 20 percent below the potential output. Better information on irrigation management and two or more extension visits were found to raise output by 14 and 7 percent respectively. However, neither factor was found to affect technical efficiency. Technical efficiency was found not to vary with farm size. |
| Keywords: | Egypt, Wheat, Technical Efficiency, Stochastic Production Frontier. |
| JEL: | C21 O13 Q12 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fao:wpaper:0506&r=eff |
| By: | You, Liangzhi; Rosegrant, Mark W.; Fang, Cheng; Wood, Stanley |
| Abstract: | "Climate change continues to have major impact on crop productivity all over the world. While many researchers have evaluated the possible impact of global warming on crop yields using mainly indirect crop simulation models, there are relatively few direct assessments on the impact of observed climate change on past crop yield and growth. We use a 1979-2000 Chinese crop-specific panel dataset to investigate the climate impact on Chinese wheat yield growth. We find that a 1 percent increase in wheat growing season temperature reduces wheat yields by about 0.3 percent. This negative impact is less severe than those reported in other regions. Rising temperature over the past two decades accounts for a 2.4 percent decline in wheat yields in China while the majority of the wheat yield growth, 75 percent, comes from increased use of physical inputs. We emphasize the necessity of including such major influencing factors as physical inputs into the crop yield-climate function in order to have an accurate estimation of climate impact on crop yields." Authors' Abstract |
| Keywords: | Global warming ,Climate ,Wheat production , |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:143&r=eff |