|
on Efficiency and Productivity |
|
Issue of 2012‒07‒29
27 papers chosen by |
| By: | Halkos, George; Tzeremes, Nickolaos |
| Abstract: | This paper uses three different Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) decompositions to measure Greek seaports’ productivity for the time period 2006-2010. In addition bootstrap techniques are applied in order for confidence intervals of the MPIs and their components to be constructed and therefore to verify if the indicated changes are significant in a statistical sense. Finally, a second stage nonparametric analysis has been applied identifying the effect of seaports’ size on their productivity levels. The results reveal that the number of terminals is a crucial determinant of seaports’ productivity levels. In addition it appears that the high length of Greek seaports has a negative influence on their productivity levels over the years. |
| Keywords: | Malmquist productivity index; bootstrap approach; Nonparametric analysis; Greek seaports |
| JEL: | L91 D24 C60 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40174&r=eff |
| By: | Juan R. Cuadrado-Roura; Andres Maroto-Sanchez |
| Abstract: | The relationship between economic structure and productivity growth has been a subject of increasing interest over recent decades. The innovative focus of this paper concerns the role of the service sector in this relationship at a regional level. Services play a core role in advanced economies, both from a quantitative and a strategic point of view. Traditionally, productivity has been introduced as explaining factor of tertiarization processes in advanced economies, while it has been simultaneously assessed that services display lower productivity levels and growth rates than other economic industries. Nevertheless, in recent years many papers and authors have refuted or limited these conventional theses. This paper focuses on the impact of tertiarization on overall productivity growth, using a sample of European NUTS-2 regions in the period between 1980 and 2007. The results partially refute traditional knowledge on the productivity of services. Contrary to what conventional theories suggest, this research demonstrates that several tertiary activities have shown dynamic productivity growth rates, while their contribution to overall productivity growth plays a more important role than was historically believed. KEY WORDS: General Regional Economics, Service sector, Productivity, Structural change. JEL CLASSIFICATION: L80, O04, C67, R11. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p163&r=eff |
| By: | Axel Schaffer; Jan Rauland |
| Abstract: | There is broad consensus among economists that regions’ competitiveness heavily relies on their ability to produce innovative goods and services (Baumol 1967, Romer 1990, Grossman and Helpman 1991, Barro and Sala-i-Martin 1997, Los and Verspagen 2006). Main drivers of innovation include, but are not limited to, human and cognitive capital (Quelle), R&D expenditures (Quelle), industrial clusters and structure (Quelle) and foreign direct investments (Quelle). Most empirical studies confirm the presumed positive correlation of these inputs and regional innovativeness, measured for example by patent applications. At the same time, regions operating at similar input level show significant differences in the degree of innovativeness. These differences can, to some extent, be explained by the regions efficiency in using their available input factors (Quelle). The presented paper aims, in a first step, to identify this efficiency by using an outlier robust enhancement of the data envelopment analysis (DEA), the so-called order-α-frontier analysis (Daouia and Simar 2005, Daraio and Simar 2006), for a sample of more than 200 EU regions (NUTS 2). The findings of this model suggest that the regions’ efficiency is partly affected by a spatial factor. Therefore, the study foresees to decompose regional efficiency into a spatial and non-spatial part by introducing a geoadditive regression analysis based on markov fields. The spatial part reveals differences of the efficiency for greater areas. Regions located in efficient areas, for example, are likely to be efficient as well, since they benefit by the efficiency of neighboring regions. In contrast, the non-spatial effect gives an idea on a region’s efficiency compared to the neighboring and nearby regions. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p1108&r=eff |
| By: | Marian Rizov; Paul Walsh |
| Abstract: | The focus of the paper is on evaluating the productivity gap between rural and urban locations in the UK using micro data. We build a structural model of the unobservable productivity emphasising the link between productivity and spatial density of economic activity and adapt the semi-parametric estimation approach proposed in Olley and Pakes (1996) to estimate the parameters of production functions at firm level, within 4-digit UK manufacturing industries, for the period 1997 - 2001. We allow market structure to differ by endogenous export status and location choices and model productivity as a second-order Markov process which greatly enhances our ability to obtain unbiased and consistent estimates of TFP measures at firm level. We aggregate the firm TFPs by location category following the 2004 DEFRA definition of rural and find that aggregate productivity systematically differs across urban, rural less sparse and rural sparse locations as the magnitudes of the differentials are 13.2 percent and 18.0 percent, respectively. Our results are in line with several recent studies. Next, we decompose aggregate productivity into productivity index and industry composition index. The productivity index is the highest in urban locations suggesting that productivity is strongly influenced by density of economic activity and proximity to economic mass. Because industry composition index is positively correlated with productivity index it is evident that locations with high productivity are also characterised by industrial structure enhancing productivity. Further, analysing changes in the decomposition indexes over two periods, before and after implementation of the Euro by the UK main trading partners, reveals substantial heterogeneity in responses across location categories under increased competitive pressure. The main finding is that there is a tendency of rural sparse locations catching up with the urban and rural less sparse location categories in terms of aggregate productivity over the period of analysis. We also find evidence that increased competitive pressure as a result of changes in trade conditions after implementation of the Euro by the UK’s main trading partners has acted as a substitute for the role of density of economic activity in enhancing industry composition, especially in rural sparse locations. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p162&r=eff |
| By: | Soushi Suzuki; Peter Nijkamp |
| Abstract: | With tightening budgets and increasingly critical reviews of public expenditure, there is a need for a careful analysis of the performance of public bodies in terms of an efficient execution of their tasks. These questions show up everywhere in the public domain, for instance, in the provision of medical facilities, the operation of postal services, or the supply of public transport. A standard tool to judge the efficiency of such agencies is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). In the past years, much progress has been made to extend this approach in various directions. Examples are the Distance Friction Minimization (DFM) model and the Context-Dependent (CD) model. The DFM model is based on a generalized distance friction function and serves to improve the performance of a Decision Making Unit (DMU) by identifying the most appropriate movement towards the efficiency frontier surface. Standard DEA models use a uniform proportional input reduction (or a uniform proportional output increase) in the improvement projections, but the DFM approach aims to enhance efficiency strategies by deploying a weighted projection function. This approach may address both input reduction and output increase as a strategy of a DMU. A suitable form of multidimensional projection functions is given by a Multiple Objective Quadratic Programming (MOQP) model using a Euclidean distance. Likewise, the CD model yields efficient frontiers in different levels, while it is based on a level-by-level improvement projection. The present paper will first offer a new integrated DEA tool -merging from a blend of the DFM and CD model using the Charnes-Cooper-Rhodes (CCR) method – in order to design a stepwise efficiency-improving projection model for a conventional DEA. The above-mentioned stepwise-projection model is illustrated on the basis of an application to the efficiency analysis of public transport operations in Japan. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p523&r=eff |
| By: | Megha Mukim |
| Abstract: | Although there is much empirical evidence to show that good firms become exporters, the literature is less lucid regarding the benefits of exporting. This paper disentangles the direction of the causality to show that exporting improves firm performance. It uses Indian plant-level data (over 1995-2008) for 330 firms across six product categories, which experienced sharp increases in exports to Sri Lanka, which then became an important destination market for these products. I generate measures of total factor productivity by estimating production functions using plant-level physical output data. To deal with the problem of self-selection bias, I use instrumental variables that predict export status but are uncorrelated with unobserved productivity. As a robustness check, I model the exporting decision explicitly and jointly estimate it with the production function. I follow Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) and use intermediate inputs to deal with the simultaneity problem. I also conduct panel-data regressions at the industry (4-digit NIC) level to estimate the relationship between productivity and measures of international exposure, such as export shares. I also study how firm performance differs with regards to firm location, and model the effects of economic geography variables such as market access and agglomeration. This paper contributes to the empirical literature by measuring the effects of learning-by-exporting, and makes the case that these effects are more significant for firms that enjoy the advantages of geography. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p176&r=eff |
| By: | Alon Brav; Wei Jiang; Hyunseob Kim |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the long-term effect of hedge fund activism on the productivity of target firms using plant-level information from the U.S. Census Bureau. A typical target firm improves its production efficiency within two years after activism, and this improvement is concentrated in industries with a high degree of product market competition. By following plants that were sold post-intervention, we also find that efficient capital redeployment is an important channel via which activists create value. Furthermore, our analyses demonstrate that measuring performance using the Compustat data is likely to lead to a downward bias because target firms experiencing greater improvement post-intervention are also more likely to disappear from the Compustat database. Finally, consistent with recent work in asset-pricing linking firm investment decisions and expected returns, we show how changes to target firms’ productivity are associated with a decline in systemic risk, particularly in competitive industries. |
| Keywords: | Hedge funds, Governance, Productivity |
| JEL: | G12 G23 G34 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:12-14&r=eff |
| By: | Raffaele Paci; Emanuela Marrocu |
| Abstract: | Firms productivity is crucially influenced by knowledge spillovers generated either by other firms located nearby or by direct contacts with consumers or by foreign demand in the case of traded products. In this paper we propose a new channel of efficiency-enhancing knowledge diffusion, which can be exploited by local firms to extract relevant information on consumer preferences: direct contacts with tourism flows. Tourists have the peculiar feature of being external consumers, who directly arrive to the destination region and this represents a remarkable advantage for the local enterprises, as the latter can exploit the new information and increase the overall efficiency level of the local economy. More specifically, we examine, within a spatial estimation framework, tourism flows as determinants of regional total factor productivity, controlling also for other intangible factors (such as human, social and technological capital) and for the degree of accessibility. We apply the analysis to a sample of 199 European regions belonging to the EU15 member countries, plus Switzerland and Norway. The empirical results show that tourism flows enhance regional efficiency and that a positive role is also played by intangible assets, infrastructures and spatial spillovers. Keywords: tourism, information, customer knowledge, total factor productivity, European regions JEL: L83, D83, O33, R10 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p493&r=eff |
| By: | Jichung Yang; Daeyoung Park; Changmu Jung |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the spatial distributions of firm and entrepreneurship were investigated in relation with the productivity. To analyze the effect of manufacturing firms' detailed distribution patterns on the productivity of manufacturing industries, micro geographic data were used, which avoids systematic problems relating scales and borders of box unit that is administrative territories. First of all, agglomeration distances for every sub-industries were estimated, that is spatial boundaries of localization effect. Three main variables relating spatial distribution patterns of firms in same industrial classification, that are the number of firms, the average distance to other firms and disperse index from standard deviation of firms' Euclidian coordinates, are computed from Euclidian coordinates of firms in the agglomeration boundaries. Also, we checked the relationship between Entrepreneurships and productivity. And mixed effects were checked. These tests were applied to an exhaustive manufacturing firms data-set of Korea including Seoul Metropolitan Area provided by NSO. We can predict that for most sub-industries, (i) the number of firms of the same industrial classification in the agglomeration boundary has positive effect on the productivity, (ii) the average distance to other firms has positive effect below the specific distance and negative effect beyond that, and (iii) the more disperse the firms are, productivity gets decreased |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p1428&r=eff |
| By: | Yevgeniya Shevtsova |
| Abstract: | The paper empirically assesses microeconomic exporting-productivity nexus using the data for Ukrainian manufacturing and service sectors for the years 2000-2005. The results of the estimation show that firms with higher total factor productivity (TFP) levels in the period prior to entry are much more likely to enter export markets. Also age, size and intangible assets of the firm have significant positive influence on the probability of exporting. The results also suggest significant positive post-entry productivity effect for the firms that enter export markets and negative productivity effect for those that exit. At the industry level the results also confirm the presence of learning-by-exporting effect. However the effect is not universal and varies between different types of exporting firms and export destinations. Firms that export to the countries of the European Union and other OECD countries experience higher advances in their TFP than firms exporting to other CIS countries. The magnitude of the effect is also positively correlated with the capital intensity of the industries. These findings have important implications for the formation of industrial policies, suggesting that government programs designed to upgrade firms’ productivity and innovative capabilities would increase the ability of domestic firms to overcome foreign market barriers as well as assimilate further benefits arising from exporting, which can further enhance international competitiveness of Ukrainian firms. |
| Keywords: | exports; TFP; matching; Heckman procedure; system GMM; sample selection; endogeneity. |
| JEL: | D24 F14 L25 R38 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:12/18&r=eff |
| By: | Emanuela Marrocu; Raffaele Paci; Marco Pontis |
| Abstract: | Firms competitive strategy in industrialised countries is increasingly based on activities such as the inventions of new processes and products, the improvements of the employees skill, the creation of a reputation for company’s products. All these actions are intended to increase firms economic performances and are labelled as “intangible capital”. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of intangible capital on firms productivity in addition to the well-known one played by traditional inputs. Firms productivity may also depend on the socio-economic conditions of the region where the firm is located. Therefore, we also control for the physical endowments of the region (public capital, infrastructures) as well as for several types of intangible assets specific to the region (human, technological and social capital) that yield positive externalities to the localised firms. In our empirical application we employ a large panel of European companies over the period 2002-2006 belonging to 116 regions of six countries. The estimation results - robust to various ways of disaggregating the sample data (by country, macro-sector and firms dimension) and to different econometric methodologies (2SLS, Olley-Pakes, Levinsohn-Petrin) - show the positive influence of the internal intangible capital on firms productivity levels and also the crucial role played by the intangible assets at the regional level. These results remark the importance of policies designed to stimulate the accumulation of intangible capital stocks internal to the firms through appropriate fiscal policies and to create a favourable external environment based on high endowments of human, social and technological capital. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p496&r=eff |
| By: | Ricardo AGUADO; Jabier MARTINEZ; Miguel Angel LARRINAGA |
| Abstract: | Research, development and innovation activities have become key sources of competitive advantage, which is one of the main factors behind the wellbeing of citizens living in a given territory. Being aware of this fact, public administrations at different administrative levels have encouraged the production of innovations through different public policies. On the other hand, firms that invest in research, development and innovation usually obtain in the long and medium terms innovative products and services that allow them to compete in favorable conditions in the local and international markets. If we focus in Europe, regional disparities in the amount of innovation inputs on one side and in the amount of innovation outputs on the other side are very high. In this paper the authors will measure the productivity of research, development and innovation activities performed by all regions in the EU. In order to do so, the authors will take into account some indicators to measure innovation inputs and outputs (related to science, technology and also to collaboration among agents in innovation activities and wealth creation) at the regional level. Using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) we will measure regional productivity in the field of R&D and innovation and we will compare this productivity outcome between regions in the EU. After explaining this first DEA model, we will use the main components analysis and then cluster analysis to achieve a typology of regions regarding their productivity in R&D and innovation activities. Once the typology of regions has been described and analyzed, the paper will end with some policy recommendations for each type of region, taking into account the regional innovation systems approach to innovation understanding and innovation policy. It may be possible to establish learning processes between different types of regions, taking into account the singularity and the unique mix of assets of each region. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p412&r=eff |
| By: | Lourens Broersma; Arjen Edzes; Jouke van Dijk |
| Abstract: | Many welfare reforms undertaken in OECD-countries are directed towards enhancing efficiency in the administration and implementation of social security and social benefits. In this perspective the governance reforms in The Netherlands are an example of decentralisation through budgeting of means to municipalities. This brings about a unique twofold experiment in which we compare the efficiency changes in providing social assistance as a result of decentralisation and budgeting and the influence of policy measures at a local level. By using data envelopment analysis we assess the effect of the introduction of the new Work and Social Assistance Act (WSA) in 2004 on cost efficiency. By using a stochastic frontier analysis we assess the impact of municipal policy strategies on cost inefficiencies for the period 2005-2007. We find a clear positive effect of the WSA in 2004 on cost efficiency. Furthermore, we find that in the aftermath, when efficiency slowly dropped after 2005, there is a distinct impact of policy strategies municipalities adopt. Pursuing a strategy of activation raised efficiency significantly, whereas strict control or combinations of strategies led a (weak) fall in efficiency. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p177&r=eff |
| By: | Alejandra Trejo |
| Abstract: | It is argued that the competitive capacities from the regional and local point of view can be constructed, that in fact are tied to territorial policies and to the development of a territorial culture that integrates the local system of companies. Moreover a process of such nature can contribute to overcome the deterioration of backward territories. The construction of territorial competitiveness has to be one along the fundamental lines of action of sub-national governments. The existence of a solid service sector and some degree of specialisation in tertiary activities are among a number of territorial diversity of factors which need to be taken into account in relation to the creation of competitive capacities. In addition globalisation has presumably played a significant role in the productive restructuring of economies; within this the service sector has had over the years an increasing quantitative and qualitative importance in economic structures. This urges to evaluate the role of the third sector, in a context of economic globalisation, in the processes of constructing regional competitive capacities. This paper aims at providing a wide-ranging assessment of efficiency of the third sector at the regional level and its sources as well as an examination of the territorial structure of services and commerce in Mexico, specialisation patterns and productive structures. Our interest is to begin a line of study to analyse the efficiency of the Mexican tertiary sector by looking at the differences in regional performance and also the geographical determinants of these differentials. We will evaluate if there are clear patterns of concentration, specialisation and regional efficiency because of its impact on regional competitiveness. The regional efficiency of the service sector in Mexico in the period of NAFTA operation will be analysed. We employ state level data to examine technical efficiency´s differentials across regions and their determinants. The methodology includes Data Envelopment Analysis to measure the efficiency of the third sector which is the dependent variable in a reduced form model that links regional performance with a number of proxies for various types of agglomeration economies such as specialisation, urbanisation and internal economies of scale. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p196&r=eff |
| By: | Christopher Ordowich; David Cheney; Jan Youtie; Andrea Fernández-Ribas; Philip Shapira |
| Abstract: | This work examines the impact of manufacturing extension services on establishment productivity. It builds on an earlier study conducted by Jarmin in the 1990s, by matching the Census of Manufacturers (CMF) with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) customer and activity datasets to generate treatment and comparison groups for analysis. The scope of the study is the period 1997 to 2002, which was a period of economic downturn in the manufacturing sector and budgetary challenges for the MEP. The paper presents some preliminary findings from this analysis. Both lagged dependent variable (LDV) and difference in difference (DiD) models are employed to estimate the relationship between manufacturing extension and labor productivity. The results presented are inconclusive and paint a mixed picture as they demonstrate the benefits and limitations of using Census microdata in program evaluation. They also point to the need to conduct analyses that could help to better understand the dynamic impact of MEP services. |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:12-15&r=eff |
| By: | Jaanika Merik¸ll; Helen Poltim‰e; Tiiu Paas |
| Abstract: | The process of European integration has introduced a valuable empirical example on the impact of economic integration on income convergence. Many empirical papers confirm the income convergence within the new member states and between the new and old members. At the same time it is found that the main contribution to economic growth in these catching-up countries comes from the total factor productivity growth (TFP), which motivates us to take a deeper look on the factors behind TFP developments. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the characteristics behind the productivity development in the new EU member countries. It may be generalised that the productivity development of a country, industry or firm is determined by two main factors: its own effort to develop new technologies and some external technology pool. The ability to internalize the latter into the own productivity growth depends again on many factors like: various technology diffusion channels as foreign direct investment (FDI); import and export; absorptive capacity and geographic proximity. There is a vast empirical literature on drivers of productivity and productivity spillovers, but up to our knowledge there is no comparative analysis on CEE countries. The CEE countries are typical middle income countries that do not devote many resources on own R&D, but due to the common market have presumably benefited a lot from the technology pool of the neighbouring high-income EU members. Our paper contributes to the literature by investigating comparatively the eight EU members with former Soviet background and controlling for geographical proximity. We compose a 2-digit NACE industry-level data set over the time-span of 1995-2007 and employ a dynamic panel data analysis methods suggested by Arellano-Bover/Blundell-Bond. The preliminary results indicate that compared to studies on high-income countries CEE countries have benefited relatively more from foreign R&D stock and this effect is the strongest for small countries. Our analysis shows also that the geographical proximity to the high-income countries matters and within the EU geographic proximity is a better technology diffusion channel than trade flows. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p931&r=eff |
| By: | Daniela Schettini; Carlos Roberto Azzoni; Antonio P√°ez |
| Abstract: | More competitive regions tend to present higher level of economic growth, with positive reflexes on social aspects. The different economic performances observed among regions are explained mainly by the spatial concentration of the economic activities. This paper aims to analyze the influence of space on the regional competitiveness behavior of the Brazilian manufacturing industry. In doing so, it uses a panel data of 137 mesoregions and industry sectors that are aggregated in four categories according to technology intensity, during 2000 to 2006. We apply the stochastic frontier of production methodology to obtain the measures of regional efficiency and the Markov spatial transition matrixes that analyze the dynamic of the transition of the regions among efficiency categories considering their local spatial context. We found evidences that there is a higher probability of the regions to become less competitive when the neighborhood is not considered. On the other hand, when considering spatial influences, we observed that the probability of a good neighborhood (more competitive) in stimulating the region’s efficiency is higher than the probability of a bad neighborhood (less competitive) in lowering its efficiency. In other words, the pull effect of the neighborhood in the competitiveness of the Brazilian regions is stronger than the drag effect. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p1052&r=eff |
| By: | Marta Portela; Isabel Neira |
| Abstract: | Theories of economic growth at the regional and national level, have expanded the traditional production function of the Solow model towards a wide function that collects conditioning factors of labour productivity, measured by R & D expenditure, the number of patents, the human capital, the social capital or entrepreneurship rates. This set of factors have been developed by authors like Westlund (2006) and Koo and Kim (2009). The aim of this paper is to analyze regional growth in the EU, considering the differences between the EU15 and its eastern regions, using such set of factors and taking into account the limitations of existing data for this type of analysis. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p1160&r=eff |
| By: | Adriana Di Liberto; Stefano Usai |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a fixed-effect panel methodology that enables us to simultaneously take into account both TFP convergence and the traditional neoclassical-type of convergence. We analyse a sample of 199 European regions between 1985 and 2006 and find the absence of an overall process of TFP convergence as we observe that TFP dispersion is virtually constant across two different subperiods. However, the absence of a strong process of TFP convergence hides interesting and complex dynamic patterns across regions as we observe significant changes in countries ranking. These results suggest that while obtaining fast growth in TFP is not simple, it appears to be a key factor in achieving fast GDP per capita growth. They also suggests a role for geography in the observed dynamics. Our results are robust to the use of different estimation procedures such as simple LSDV, Kiviet-corrected LSDV, and GMM àla Arellano and Bond. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p409&r=eff |
| By: | Bachev, Hrabrin |
| Abstract: | Broadly applied traditional frameworks for assessing efficiency of economic organizations in agriculture are (only) based on the “technical efficiency” of the factors of production and the “productivity of employed resources”. They compare the levels of efficiency of farms of different types, sectors, and countries without taking into account the transaction costs and the specific economic, institutional and natural environment of their development. At the same time, other agrarian organizations (contracts, associations, markets, public and hybrid forms) are not considered as alternative economic structures and are either ignored or studies separately. This paper suggests a new approach for assessing efficiency of economic organizations and public intervention in agriculture incorporating achievements of the interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics. Presented new approach includes: studying out the farm and agrarian organizations as a governing rather than a production structure; assessment of the comparative efficiency of alternative market, contract, internal, and hybrid modes of governance on the base of their potential to minimise production and transaction costs and to maximise the production and transaction benefits; analysis of the level of transaction costs and their institutional (distribution of rights and obligations, and the systems of their enforcements), behavioural (preferences, bounded rationality and opportunism of individuals), dimensional (uncertainty, frequency, assets specificity and appropriability of activity/transactions), technological (non-separability, economies of scale and scope) and natural factors; and determination of adequate criteria of farm efficiency and its effective boundaries – the potential to increase productivity of resources with minimum transaction costs comparing to a practically possible alternative organisation. The new approach is also used to precise the needs for public interventions (“the economic role of government”) in agrarian sector and to assess the comparative efficiency of alternative forms of public involvement. The analysis of socio-economic and natural environment and the transaction costs identifies a multiple cases of “market and private failures” associated with non-identified or badly assigned property rights, ineffective system of enforcement of absolute and contracted rights, high uncertainty and dependency of activity, low appropriability, needs for collective actions etc. which necessitate a third-party public intervention in market and private sectors. The individual forms of public involvement (institutional modernisation, assistance, regulation, taxation, hybrid or internal organisation) are with unequal efficiency in the specific environment of different countries, regions, and sectors, and the most efficient one(s) is/are to be selected with taking into account the total (direct, private, public, transaction, third-party etc.) costs and the contribution to the sustainable development. Nevertheless, “the public failure” is feasible and bad interventions, delayed, under or over-regulations, miss-management, corruption etc. are widespread and as a result the sustainable development of the sector is compromised. |
| Keywords: | efficiency of farms and agrarian organizations; market; private and public governance |
| JEL: | Q13 Q15 Q12 Q18 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40136&r=eff |
| By: | Davide Fiaschi; Andrea Mario Lavezzi; Angela Parenti |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a methodology which combines elements of parametric regression analysis with the nonparametric distribution dynamics approach in order to analyse the role of some variables in the convergence of productivity across European regions over the period 1980-2002. We find that the initial productivity crucially accounts in the convergence process across European regions. Differently, employment growth seems not to play a role, while the Structural and Cohesion Funds seem to play a positive role, even though such effect seems to be very low and statistically significant only at the low bound of the range of initial productivity. The structural change of regional economies plays a positive role, but such effect is statistically significant only for the least productive regions. The output composition of a region in 1980 affects the convergence process of productivity growth in several ways. In particular, the share of non market services on output acts like a source of convergence from 1980 to 2002 but in the long-run it plays a negligible role. Finally, the share of finance acts like a force of divergence across European regions, especially for the least productive regions. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p320&r=eff |
| By: | Stephen Cecchetti; Enisse Kharroubi |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how financial development affects aggregate productivity growth. Based on a sample of developed and emerging economies, we first show that the level of financial development is good only up to a point, after which it becomes a drag on growth. Second, focusing on advanced economies, we show that a fast-growing financial sector is detrimental to aggregate productivity growth. |
| Keywords: | Growth, financial development, credit booms, R&D intensity, financial dependence |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:381&r=eff |
| By: | Knut Sandberg Eriksen |
| Abstract: | Road improvements lead to benefits in the form of e.g. reduced travelling time, improved traffic safety and reduced emissions. These improvements do not only benefit the actual road users, but they are also “spreading” into the local community or neighbouring communities through several types of effects e.g. enlarged labour markets. There may be “wider” benefits, meaning that the total net benefits of the project are greater than the sum of net benefits of the road users. Actually the question is not whether these “wider” benefits exist, but whether they are of any practical importance or if they might as well be ignored in ordinary economic evaluation. During several decades economists have tried to investigate the hypothesis with varying results depending on model as well as on data. The present paper follows up our two earlier studies, where we have tried to establish whether road investments contribute to economic growth, which our earlier studies give little support for. Previously we have analysed data for industry sector or for geographical regions. This time we have sufficient data for analysing industry sector within each region. Our approaches are inspired by an article by John G. Fernald presented in 1999. Four models are analysed, based on data from Statistics Norway, for the period 1997-2005. The models have the same design, only the size of time-lags varies. The analyses show that out of four models only one produces significant results. In this model productivity growth is lagged two years behind road investments to allow for the improvements to be completed. What we find is that significance is high, but the size of the productivity coefficients is rather small, just around 1 2 percents, depending upon the cost shares. Models with other time-lags produce insignificant and diverging results. The time variable is highly significant with a positive sign, thus indicating that road investments are becoming more productivity enhancing over time. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p1613&r=eff |
| By: | Vicente Ruiz; Lewis Dijkstra |
| Abstract: | To account for differences among rural and urban regions, the OECD has established a regional typology, classifying TL3 regions as predominantly urban (PU), intermediate (IN) or predominantly rural (PR). This typology has proved to be meaningful to better explain regional differences in economic and labour market performance. However, it does not take into account the presence of economic agglomerations if they happen to be in neighbouring regions. Remote rural regions face a different set of problems than rural regions close to a city, where a wider range of services and opportunities can be found. This paper suggests a refinement of the current typology to include a criterion on the accessibility to urban centres. The results show a clear distinction between remote rural regions and rural regions close to a city in terms of declining and ageing population, level of productivity and unemployment. This extended typology, which includes a measure of distance from cities for the population living in a rural area, has been first applied to Europe by the Directorate of Regional Policy of the European Commission and then to North America by the OECD. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p1650&r=eff |
| By: | Carl Gaigne; Julie LeGallo; Bertrand Schmitt |
| Abstract: | The well-known rise in the geographical concentration of hog production suggests the presence of agglomeration economies related to spatial spillovers and inter-dependencies among industries. In this paper, we examine whether manure management regulation restricting manure application per acre may weaken productivity gains arising from the agglomeration process. We develop a spatial model of production showing that, on the one hand, dispersion is favored when manure is applied to land as a crop nutrient and, on the other hand, agglomeration is strengthened when farmers adopt manure treatment. Estimations of a reduced form of the spatial model with a SHAC procedure applied on 1988 and 2000 French hog production data confirm the role played by the spatial spillovers and the backward and forwards relationships. Results also suggest that manure management regulation does not work against the spatial concentration of hog production, but boosts the role played by spatial spillovers in agglomeration process |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p1326&r=eff |
| By: | Mircea Epure; Diego Prior; Christian Serarols |
| Abstract: | Literature highlights the importance of university spin-offs and their assistance mechanisms. However, there is little evidence on how to select and operationalize the appropriate variables for assessing this type of firms. This paper provides tools to estimate and interpret the efficiency of spinoffs embedded in university-based support mechanisms. We thus contribute to the literature in at least two ways. First, we identify the specific inputs and outputs that are required by both the organisational and regional development perspectives. Second, an application considers a unique sample of spin-offs created at Catalan universities within a regional support programme. Main descriptive results indicate that many efficient spin-offs have formal technology transfer agreements and emerge from universities with more technological background. Second stage analyses show that higher levels of innovation and specific academic knowledge or experience related with the university of origin are associated with higher efficiency. |
| Keywords: | university spin-off, regional development, efficiency, entrepreneurship, technology transfer, innovation |
| JEL: | M1 R1 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1330&r=eff |
| By: | Goodridge, Peter; Haskel, Jonathan; Wallis, Gavin |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an update of the NESTA Innovation Index and tries to calculate some facts for the 'knowledge economy'. Building on the work of Corrado, Hulten and Sichel (CHS, 2005,9), using new data sets and a new micro survey, we (1) document UK intangible investment and (2) see how it contributes to economic growth. Regarding investment in knowledge/intangibles, we find (a) this is now 34% greater than tangible investment, in 2009, £124.2bn and £92.7bn respectively; (b) that R&D is about 11% of total intangible investment, software 18%, design 12%, and training and organizational capital 21% each; (d) the most intangible-intensive industry is manufacturing (intangible investment is 17% of value added) and (e) treating intangible expenditure as investment raises market sector value added growth in the 1990s due to the ICT investment boom, but has less impact on aggregate measures of growth in the 2000s. Regarding the contribution to growth, for 2000-09, (a) intangible capital deepening accounts for 26% of labour productivity growth, against computer hardware and telecommunications equipment combined (16%) and TFP (-0.4%); (b) adding intangibles to growth accounting lowers TFP growth by about 18 percentage points (c) capitalising R&D adds 0.04% to input growth and reduces ΔlnTFP by 0.02% and (d) manufacturing accounts for 47% of intangible capital deepening plus TFP. |
| Keywords: | growth; innovation; intangibles |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9063&r=eff |