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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2007‒01‒06
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Carlos Pestana Barrosa; Nicolas Peypoch; Jonathan Williams |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a framework for benchmarking European co-operative banks and the rationalization of their operational activities. The analysis is based on the Luenberger productivity indicator. A key advantage of this method is that it allows for both input contraction and output expansion in determining relative efficiencies and productivity changes. Benchmarks are provided for improving the operations of those banks which perform worse than others. Several interesting and useful managerial insights and implications arise from the study. The general conclusion is that, between 1996 and 2003, productivity increased for the majority of European co-operative banks analyzed. |
| Keywords: | Europe; Co-operative banks; Luenberger productivity indicator. |
| JEL: | G21 D24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:isegwp:wp362006&r=eff |
| By: | Jian Wang (Shandong University, China); Zhong Zhao (IZA Bonn, Germany); Amir Mahmood (University of Newcastle, Australia) |
| Abstract: | Using the 1997-1998 New South Wales public-hospitals comparison data, we investigate the hospital-level inefficiency by applying a stochastic-frontier multiproduct cost function. We use a flexible translog cost function to reduce the measurement errors of the outputs of the hospital. The main findings are: First, inefficiency accounts for 9.3% of total hospital costs in large hospitals and 11.3% in small hospitals, when including complexity indicators. Second, diseconomies of scale exist in very large hospitals, whereas scale economies appear in very small hospitals. Third, scope effects are found in both large and small hospitals. Fourth, small hospitals are more labor-intensive than large hospitals are. |
| Keywords: | translog cost function, economies of scale and scope, efficiency, public hospital |
| JEL: | I11 I18 C31 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2520&r=eff |
| By: | Kenn Ariga (Kyoto University); Giorgio Brunello (Padova University, Kyoto University, CESifo and IZA); Roki Iwahashi (University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa); Lorenzo Rocco (Padova University) |
| Abstract: | During the postwar period, many countries have de-tracked their secondary schools, based on the view that early tracking was unfair. What are the efficiency costs, if any, of de-tracking schools? To answer this question, we develop a two skills - two jobs model with a frictional labour market, where new school graduates need to actively search for their best match. We compute optimal tracking length and the output gain/loss associated to the gap between actual and optimal tracking length. Using a sample of 18 countries, we find that: a) actual tracking length is often longer than optimal, which might call for some efficient de-tracking; b) the output loss of having a tracking length longer or shorter than optimal is sizeable, and close to 2 percent of total net output. |
| Keywords: | mismatch, school tracking |
| JEL: | I2 J6 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2534&r=eff |