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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2010‒07‒24
nine papers chosen by |
| By: | Zuzana Iršová (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | This article provides an empirical insight on the heterogeneity in the estimates of banking efficiency produced by the stochastic frontier approach. Using data from five countries of Central and Eastern Europe, we study the sensitivity of the efficiency score and the efficiency ranking to a change in the design of the frontier. We found that the average scores are significantly smaller when the transcendental logarithmic functional form is used in the profit efficiency measurement and when the scaling effect is neglected in the cost efficiency measurement. The implied bank ranking is robust to changes in the stochastic frontier definition for cost efficiency, but not for profit efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Banking, Efficiency, Stochastic Frontier Approach, Transitional countries |
| JEL: | C13 G21 L25 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2010_13&r=eff |
| By: | Patricia Tecles; Benjamin M. Tabak |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the efficiency of the Brazilian banking sector over the post-privatization period of 2000-2007. We employ a Bayesian stochastic frontier approach, which provides exact efficiency estimates and confidence intervals and thus, allows an accurate comparison across institutions and bank groups. The results suggest that large banks are the most cost and profit efficient, supporting the concentration process observed in recent years. Foreign banks have achieved a good performance through either the establishment of new affiliates and the acquisition of local banks. The remaining public banks have had improvements in cost efficiency, but are relatively profit inefficient. Finally, we observe a positive impact of capitalization on efficiency. |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcb:wpaper:210&r=eff |
| By: | Dolores Añon Higon (ERI-CES); Miguel Manjon Antolin (Universidad Rovira i Virgili); Juan A. Mañez (ERI-CES) |
| Abstract: | In this study we analyze multinationality (domestic-based firms vs. multinationals) and foreignness (foreign vs. domestic firms) effects in the returns of R&D to productivity. We follow a two-step strategy. In the first step, we consistently estimate firm’s productivity by GMM and numerically compute the sample distribution of the R&D returns. In the second step, we use stochastic dominance techniques to make inferences on the multinationality and foreignness effects. Results for a panel of UK manufacturing firms suggest that multinationality and foreignness effects operate in an opposite way: whilst the multinationality effect enhances R&D returns, the foreignness diminishes them. |
| Keywords: | multinationals, foreignness, R&D, productivity |
| JEL: | C14 D24 F23 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbe:wpaper:1110&r=eff |
| By: | John Fernald; Brent Neiman |
| Abstract: | We derive aggregate growth-accounting implications for a two-sector economy with heterogeneous capital subsidies and monopoly power. In this economy, measures of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in terms of quantities (the primal) and real factor prices (the dual) can diverge from each other as well as from true technology growth. These distortions potentially give rise to dynamic reallocation effects that imply that change in technology needs to be measured from the bottom up rather than the top down. We show an example, for Singapore, of how incomplete data can be used to obtain estimates of aggregate and sectoral technology growth as well as reallocation effects. We also apply our framework to reconcile divergent TFP estimates in Singapore and to resolve other empirical puzzles regarding Asian development. |
| Keywords: | Industrial productivity ; Productivity ; Technology ; Singapore |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2010-18&r=eff |
| By: | D. Kumara Charyulu; Subho Biswas |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses in detail the vast and rich agricultural knowledge that India has developed since ancient times, and the entire agricultural community trying to find an alternative sustainable farming system, which is ecologically sound, economically and socially acceptable. [Working Paper No. 2010-04-01] |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, organic input units, DEA analysis, drivers for efficiency |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2641&r=eff |
| By: | Kahn, Lisa B. (Yale University); Lange, Fabian (Yale University) |
| Abstract: | Two ubiquitous empirical regularities in pay distributions are that the variance of wages increases with experience, and innovations in wage residuals have a large, unpredictable component. The leading explanations for these patterns are that over time, either firms learn about worker productivity but productivity remains fixed or workers' productivities themselves evolve heterogeneously. In this paper, we seek to disentangle these two models and place magnitudes on their relative importance. We derive a dynamic model of learning and productivity that nests both models and allows them to coexist. We estimate our model on a 20-year panel of pay and performance measures from a single, large firm (the Baker-Gibbs-Holmstrom data). Incorporating performance measures yields two key innovations. First, the panel structure implies that we have repeat measures of correlates of productivity, as opposed to the empirical evidence on employer learning which uses one fixed measure. Second, we can separate productivity from pay, whereas the previous literature on productivity evolution could not. We find that both models are important in explaining the data. However, the predominant effect is that worker productivity evolves idiosyncratically over time, implying firms must continuously learn about a moving target. Therefore, while the majority of pay dispersion is driven by variation in individual productivity, wages differ significantly from individual productivity at all experience levels due to imperfect information. We believe this represents a significant reinterpretation of the empirical literature on employer learning. |
| Keywords: | employer learning, productivity, performance evaluations, personnel |
| JEL: | D21 D83 J24 J33 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5054&r=eff |
| By: | Sergey Lychagin; Joris Pinkse; Margaret E. Slade; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | We simultaneously assess the contributions to productivity of three sources of research and development spillovers: geographic, technology and product–market proximity. To do this, we construct a new measure of geographic proximity that is based on the distribution of a firm’s inventor locations rather than its headquarters, and we report both parametric and semiparametric estimates of our geographic– distance functions. We find that: i) Geographic space matters even after conditioning on horizontal and technological spillovers; ii) Technological proximity matters; iii) Product–market proximity is less important; iv) Locations of researchers are more important than headquarters but both have explanatory power; and v) Geographic markets are very local. |
| JEL: | C23 L60 O33 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16188&r=eff |
| By: | Cortes, Kalena E. (Syracuse University); Bricker, Jesse (Federal Reserve Board); Rohlfs, Chris (Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | Absences in Chicago Public High Schools are 3-7 days per year higher in first period than at other times of the day. This study exploits this empirical regularity and the essentially random variation between students in the ordering of classes over the day to measure how the returns to classroom learning vary by course subject, and how much attendance in one class spills over into learning in other subjects. We find that having a class in first period reduces grades in that course and has little effect on long-term grades or grades in related subjects. We also find moderately-sized negative effects of having a class in first period on test scores in that subject and in related subjects, particularly for math classes. |
| Keywords: | education production, subject-specific, math, English, morning classes, first period, course schedule, quasi-experimental, attendance, absenteeism, Chicago, high school |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J13 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5031&r=eff |
| By: | Yamamura, Eiji |
| Abstract: | Empirical results through a fixed effects regression model show that government size has a negative effect on growth mainly through hampering capital accumulation. When a sample is divided into OECD and non-OECD countries, the negative effect of government size on capital accumulation persists for non-OECD countries but not for OECD countries. |
| Keywords: | Government size; Efficiency improvement; Capital accumulation; Fixed effects |
| JEL: | H11 O43 |
| Date: | 2010–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:23972&r=eff |