|
on Efficiency and Productivity |
|
Issue of 2012‒09‒16
thirteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Francisco Javier Sáez-Fernández (Universidad de Granada); Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo (Universidad de Valencia) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses efficiency in Latin-American and Caribbean banking, distinguishing between domestic and foreign banks. Scores of both proportional and input-specific technical efficiency are computed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques. Furthermore, the so-called program approach is employed to assess differences in the technology used by domestic and foreign banks. Foreign banks are found to manage all production factors more efficiently; furthermore, this greater efficiency is partly due to the superior technology they use. |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eec:wpaper:1213&r=eff |
| By: | CRISTINA SIMON (Instituto de Empresa) |
| Abstract: | We studied the relationship between collective involuntary and voluntary turnover over unit-level performance. Our unique dataset, consisting of panel data with 24-month observations for 232 stores of a large Spanish fashion retail company, enabled us to compare different time lags between the moment of departures and the performance measures using fixed effects regressions. Such analyses revealed that both types of turnover had different consequences. Voluntary turnover was unrelated to store performance. Otherwise, involuntary turnover was significantly and negatively related both to store productivity and efficiency when variables are measured simultaneously, though this effect disappears |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:rh8-114-i&r=eff |
| By: | John P. Weche Geluebcke (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This study provides the first comparative evidence of foreign and domestic acquisitions in Germany. A propensity score matching approach combined with a difference-in-difference estimator were performed separately for foreign and domestic acquisitions to account for a general takeover effect. The study is based on new high-quality panel data for manufacturing enterprises, provided by German offcial statistics. The results indicate a negative impact of foreign takeovers on employment and no productivity improvements for the period 2007 to 2009. This evidence contradicts existing empirical studies for Germany which find significant productivity improvements and no changes in terms of employment. These fndings are of particular interest to Germany as one of the most important FDI in ow destinations worldwide. They contribute to the foreign ownership performance premium literature as well as improving the understanding of foreign acquisition consequences, a subject of utmost topicality. |
| Keywords: | post-acquisition performance, foreign takeover, manufacturing, treatment analysis, Germany |
| JEL: | F21 F23 G34 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:249&r=eff |
| By: | Esther Goya (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Esther Vayá (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Jordi Suriñach (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a structural model to analyse the impact of innovation activities, including intra- and inter-industry externalities, on the productivity of Spanish firms. To the best of our knowledge, no previous paper has examined spillover effects by adopting such an approach. Here, therefore, we seek to determine the extent to which the innovations carried out by others affect a firm’s productivity. Additionally, firm’s technology level is taken into account in order to ascertain whether there are any differences in this regard between high-tech and low-tech firms both in industrial and service sectors. The database used is the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) which includes 8,611 firms for the year 2009. We find that low-tech firms make the most of a range of factors, including funding and belonging to a group, to increase their investment in R&D. As expected, R&D intensity has a positive impact on the probability of achieving both product and, more especially, process innovations. Finally, innovation output has a positive impact on firm’s productivity, being greater in more advanced firms in the case of process innovations. Both intra- and inter-industry spillovers have a positive impact on firm’s productivity, but this varies with the firm’s level of technology. Thus, innovations made by firms from the same sector are more important for low-tech firms than they are for their high-tech counterparts, while innovations made by the rest of the sectors have a greater impact on high-tech firms. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, innovation, industry spillovers. JEL classification: D24, O33. |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:201214&r=eff |
| By: | Larson, Donald F.; Otsuka, Keijiro; Matsumoto, Tomoya; Kilic, Talip |
| Abstract: | In Africa, most development strategies include efforts to improve the productivity of staple crops grown on smallholder farms. An underlying premise is that small farms are productive in the African context and that smallholders do not forgo economies of scale -- a premise supported by the often observed phenomenon that staple cereal yields decline as the scale of production increases. This paper explores a research design conundrum that encourages researchers who study the relationship between productivity and scale to use surveys with a narrow geographic reach, when policy would be better served with studies based on wide and heterogeneous settings. Using a model of endogenous technology choice, the authors explore the relationship between maize yields and scale using alternative data. Since rich descriptions of the decision environments that farmers face are needed to identify the applied technologies that generate the data, improvements in the location specificity of the data should reduce the likelihood of identification errors and biased estimates. However, the analysis finds that the inverse productivity hypothesis holds up well across a broad platform of data, despite obvious shortcomings with some components. It also finds surprising consistency in the estimated scale elasticities. |
| Keywords: | Crops&Crop Management Systems,Climate Change and Agriculture,Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies |
| Date: | 2012–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6190&r=eff |
| By: | Stephen Gibbons; Teemu Lyytikäinen; Henry Overman; Rosa Sanchis-Guarner |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impact of road improvements on firm employment and productivity using plant level longitudinal data for Britain. Exposure to transport improvements is measured by changes in employment accessibility along the road network. These changes are constructed using data on employment for small geographical units, details of the main road network and of road construction schemes carried out between 1998 and 2007. We deal with the central problem of endogenous scheme placement by using changes due to new road links and exploiting the spatial detail in our data to focus on accessibility changes close to new schemes. We find substantial effects on employment and numbers of plants for small-scale geographical areas (electoral wards), but no employment response at plant level. This suggests that road construction affects firm entry and exit, but not the employment of existing firms. We also find effects on labour productivity and wages at the firm level, although these results are less robust. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, employment, accessibility, transport |
| JEL: | D24 O18 R12 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0117&r=eff |
| By: | Petrick, Martin; Kloss, Mathias |
| Abstract: | The aim of this Working Paper is to provide an empirical analysis of the marginal return on working capital and fixed capital in agriculture, based on data gathered by the Farm Accountancy Data Network from seven EU member states. Particular emphasis is placed on the detection of credit market imperfections. The key idea is to provide farm group-specific estimates of the shadow price of capital, and to use these to analyse the drivers of on-farm capital use in European agriculture. Based on Cobb Douglas estimates of farm-type specific production functions, we find that working capital is typically used in more than economically optimal quantities and often displays negative marginal returns across countries and farm types. This is less often the case with regard to fixed capital, but it is only in a small set of sectors where access to fixed capital appears severely constrained. These sectors include field crop and mixed farms in Denmark, dairy farms in East Germany, as well as mixed farms in Italy and the UK. The relationship between farm financial indicators and the estimated shadow prices of capital varies considerably across countries and sectors. Among the farms with a high shadow price for fixed capital in Denmark, high debt levels and little owned land tended to induce more intensive capital use, which may reflect the liberal Danish banking system. In East Germany, Italy and the UK, high debt levels made farmers more tightly capital constrained. Hence, in the latter group of countries, more traditional mechanisms of capital allocation based on debt capacity seemed to be at work. As a general conclusion, EU agriculture appears to be characterised by overcapitalisation rather than by credit constraints. |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:fmwppr:137&r=eff |
| By: | Robert M. Adams |
| Abstract: | This study investigates trends in consolidation and merger activity in the United States banking industry from 2000 through 2010. Over this period, the U.S. banking industry has consistently experienced over 150 mergers annually, with the largest banking organizations holding an increasing share of banking assets. While the industry has undergone considerable consolidation at the national level, local banking markets have not experienced significant increases in concentration. The dynamics of consolidation raise concerns about competition, output, efficiency, and financial stability. This study uses a comprehensive proprietary data set to examine mergers and acquisitions involving banks and thrifts. The methodology in this paper expands the definition of mergers to include more types of transactions than previous studies on bank mergers. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2012-51&r=eff |
| By: | Sala, Davide (Department of Business and Economics); Yalcin, Erdal (IFO Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | As the firm gravitates to the core analysis of international trade models, the possibilities to learn from the theory of the multinational enterprise developed in international business studies increase. The managerial resources and capabilities that are so emphasized in this theory for export initiation have largely been neglected in the empirical studies of international trade. Probably not because they are unimportant, but rather because of the challenge to identify and measure them. We exploit Danish employer-employee matched data to overcome this barrier and analyze the impact of managers’ international experience together with other managerial characteristics on the likelihood that the firm starts exporting. We find that productivity and fixed costs associated to exporting are not the sole determinants of the selection of firms into international markets, but “managerial inputs” are as important. Our data allows us to identify managers’ export experience based on the CEOs’ historical career as documented in official registry statistics. This puts our study apart from earlier survey based studies which rely on self-assessments. |
| Keywords: | Export status; managerial promotions; international experience; self-selection |
| JEL: | D22 F23 M51 |
| Date: | 2012–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2012_018&r=eff |
| By: | J. H. Ll. Dewhurst |
| Abstract: | The measurement of inter-connectedness in an economy using input-output tables is not new, however much of the previous literature has not had any explicit dynamic dimension. Studies have tried to estimate the degree of inter-relatedness for an economy at a given point in time using one input-output table, some have compared different economies at a point in time but few have looked at the question of how interconnectedness within an economy changes over time. The publication in 2010 of a consistent series of input-output tables for Scotland offers the researcher the opportunity to track changes in the degree of inter-connectedness over the seven year period 1998 to 2007. The paper is in two parts. A simple measure of inter-connectedness is introduced in the first part of the paper and applied to the Scottish tables. In the second part of the paper an extraction method is applied to sector by sector to the tables in order to estimate how interconnectedness has changed over time for each industrial sector. |
| Keywords: | Extraction method, Input-Output Analysis, Inter-connectedness, Scottish economy |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R15 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dun:dpaper:271&r=eff |
| By: | Lionel Perini (Institute of economic research IRENE, Faculty of Economics, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates educational peer effects at the lower secondary level in Switzerland where different tracking systems coexist. Using a cross-sectional survey based on standardized questionnaires, the structure and magnitude of social interactions among classmates are analyzed. The results are used to find out if grouping students in a completely non-selective way could increase efficiency and equality of opportunity. Empirical findings suggest that mixing students in reading and science classes could enhance efficiency and equity while a similar practice in mathematics courses could only improve equity without any gain in efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Peer effects, ability tracking, family background, equality of opportunity, quantile regression. |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irn:wpaper:12-01&r=eff |
| By: | Allen N. Berger (University of South Carolina); Thomas Kick (Deutsche Bundesbank); Klaus Schaeck (Bangor Business School) |
| Abstract: | Little is known about how socioeconomic characteristics of executive teams affect corporate governance in banking. Exploiting a unique dataset, we show how age, gender, and education composition of executive teams affect risk taking of financial institutions. First, we establish that age, gender, and education jointly affect the variability of bank performance. Second, we use difference-in-difference estimations that focus exclusively on mandatory executive retirements and find that younger executive teams increase risk taking, as do board changes that result in a higher proportion of female executives. In contrast, if board changes increase the representation of executives holding Ph.D. degrees, risk taking declines. |
| Keywords: | Banks, executives, risk taking, age, gender, education |
| JEL: | G21 G34 I21 J16 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bng:wpaper:12004&r=eff |
| By: | Kozo Harimaya (Faculty of Business Administration, Ritsumeikan University); Takao Ohkawa (Faculty of Economics, Ritsumeikan University); Makoto Okamura (Faculty of Economics, Ritsumeikan University); Tetsuya Shinkai (School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the managerial behavior of firms by estimating a nested objective function consistent with the framework of Fershtman and Judd (1987). Using data for Japanese regional banks for FY 1980-FY 2009, we focus on oligopolistic behavior in the domestic loan market and examine the intensity with which managers attempt to maximize sales and profits. We find that sales-maximization explains the behavior of Japanese regional banks more adequately and appropriately than profit-maximization. In particular, yearly fluctuations of the degree of managerial objectives suggest that the effort to maximize sales has intensified after full-scale liberalization of interest rates. |
| Keywords: | firm objective, strategic delegation, managerial incentives, financial liberalization and banking |
| JEL: | L13 L21 G21 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kgu:wpaper:94&r=eff |