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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2013‒07‒15
29 papers chosen by |
| By: | Islam, Nazrul; Kingwell, Ross; Xayavong, Vilaphonh; Anderton, Lucy; Feldman, David; Speijers, Jane |
| Abstract: | Improving farm productivity is often touted as essential for the future prospects of Australian agriculture, particularly for the export-oriented broadacre farm sector. This paper draws on farm panel data for the period 2002 to 2011. The annual components of productivity of the same group of 223 farms are measured each year for a decade by using a multiplicatively complete Färe-Primont index number and applying DEA methods. Results often show pronounced variability in the annual productivity of these farms. Farms are classed according to the geometric mean of their total factor productivity and the variance of this productivity. The convexity of this relationship suggests that to achieve high growth in productivity in broadacre farming, farm businesses are exposed to greater volatility in productivity. There are only a small proportion of farms that over the decade were able to achieve high, stable growth in productivity. Most farms either experienced high growth and high variability in productivity or low growth and low variability in productivity. The characteristics of farm businesses in both categories are examined to ascertain links between farm characteristics and change in farm productivity. Key findings are that overall most farms experienced growth in their total factor productivity with the principal cause of this growth being greater technical efficiency rather than technical change. Farms that experienced the highest growth in their total factor productivity typically increased their farm size, became more crop dominant, often operated farms in lower rainfall regions, generated more profit and were less exposed to debt and generated more crop yield and more livestock income per millimetre (mm) of growing season rainfall. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, Profitability, Farm characteristics, Volatility, Agribusiness, Farm Management, International Relations/Trade, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare13:152158&r=eff |
| By: | Velarde, Orlee; Pede, Valerien |
| Abstract: | This study focuses on the pattern between investment in chemical inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides and technical efficiency of farm households in Laguna, Philippines. Using a one‐stage maximum likelihood estimation procedure, the stochastic production frontier model was estimated simultaneously with the determinants of efficiency. Results show that farmers with a low technical efficiency score have a high investment share in chemical inputs. Farmers who invested more in chemical inputs relative to other variable inputs attained the same or even lower output and were less efficient than those farmers who invested less. The result shows that farmers who invested wisely in chemical inputs can encourage farmers to apply chemical inputs more optimally. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Management, Agricultural Productivity, Farm Household, Fertilizer Use, Rice, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q12, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare13:152203&r=eff |
| By: | Sarbu, Miruna |
| Abstract: | Social software applications such as wikis, blogs or social networks are being increasingly applied in firms. These applications can be used for external communication as well as knowledge management enabling firms to access internal and external knowledge. Firms can optimize customer relationship management, marketing and market research as well as project management and product development resulting in potential productivity gains for the firms. This paper analyses the relationship between social software applications and labour productivity. Using firm-level data of 907 German manufacturing and service firms, this study examines whether these applications have a positive impact on labour productivity. The analysis is based on a Cobb-Douglas production function. The results reveal that social software has a negative impact on labour productivity. They stay robust for different specifications and alternative measures for social software. -- |
| Keywords: | social software,web 2.0,social software intensity,labour productivity |
| JEL: | L10 M20 O33 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13041&r=eff |
| By: | Watto, Muhammad |
| Abstract: | We estimate the efficiency of groundwater use in cotton production in the Punjab province of Pakistan. We use a survey data of 189 cotton producers comprising 98 tube-well owners and 91 water buyers in order to get the differential impact of tube-well ownership on groundwater use efficiency. We use data envelopment analysis to compute the technical, scale, cost and allocative efficiencies for tube-well owners and water buyers relative to a meta-frontier and groupfrontiers. The DEA sub-vector and slack-based models are used to compute groundwater use efficiency. The results indicate low levels of technical inefficiencies with water buyers being more inefficient relative to tube-well owners. However, groundwater use inefficiency is more pronounced than the respective technical efficiency. The sub-vector and slack-based estimates are highly correlated suggesting the robustness of the results. The results on returns to scale indicate that the majority of cotton growers are operating at increasing returns to scale, suggesting that efficiency can be improved by expanding the scale of operation. We use a second-stage bootstrap truncated regression to investigate the factors that influence technical efficiency and groundwater use efficiency. We find that the level of education, seed quality and extension services have positive significant impacts on technical and groundwater use efficiency. We suggest that knowledge of crop water requirements and the use of improved crop varieties can play role in improving the efficiency of groundwater use. |
| Keywords: | Pakistan, groundwater use efficiency, groundwater markets, technical efficiency, DEA, sub-vector, slack-based model, meta-frontier, Crop Production/Industries, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare13:152204&r=eff |
| By: | Thibbotuwawa, Manoj; Mugera, Amin; White, Ben |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses the differences of technical, allocative, cost and scale efficiencies of irrigated and rain-fed rice farmers in Sri Lanka in two different perspectives; first, relative to a common metafrontier, defined as the boundary of an unrestricted technology set and second relative to group frontiers defined to be the boundaries of restricted technology sets in each group. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) metafrontier and group frontier approaches are used for cross section survey data of 90 farms. Rain-fed farms perform comparably with the irrigated farms based on the group frontier results. Rain-fed farmers may be operating as technically efficient as they could, given the existing production technology. However rain-fed farms move significantly towards inefficiency compared to the irrigated farms under the metafrontier technology. Results indicate that the irrigation shifts the rice sector production frontier to a higher level. In addition, a second stage bootstrapped truncated regression shows that efficiency differences between two regions are explained by the timely availability of the water to a significant extent. We suggest that future sectoral policies should be designed to address the efficiency enhancing factors such as irrigation, quality seed, land ownership and scale and female labour participation. |
| Keywords: | technical efficiency, cost efficiency, metafrontier, group-frontier, rice farming, irrigated, rain-fed, Sri Lanka, International Relations/Trade, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q12, D24, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare13:152181&r=eff |
| By: | Giovanni Dosi; Daniele Moschella; Emanuele Pugliese; Federico Tamagni |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a broad set of empirical regularities about selection and market shares reallocation in manufacturing industries of France, Germany, UK and USA. We first disentangle the contribution to industry-level productivity growth of within-firm productivity changes and between-firms reallocation of shares. The evidence corroborates that within-firm learning prevails over competitive selection. Second, we address the strength of reallocation by exploring if and to what extent firm growth rates are shaped by relative productivity levels in deviation from industry average and by the over time variation of productivities themselves. The econometric analysis accounts for both the dynamic dimension of the selection process and idiosyncratic firm-specific factors. We find that changes, rather than relative levels, are the dominant productivity-related determinant of relative growth rates. |
| Keywords: | firms heterogeneity, sectoral productivity decomposition, corporate growth, productivity, market selection, firm-industry dynamics |
| Date: | 2013–07–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2013/15&r=eff |
| By: | Massimo Filippini (ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Lester C. Hunt (University of Surrey) |
| Abstract: | The promotion of US energy efficiency policy is seen as a very important activity by the Energy Information Agency (EIA). Generally, the level of energy efficiency of a state is approximated by energy intensity, commonly calculated as the ratio of energy use to GDP. However, energy intensity is not an accurate proxy for energy efficiency, because changes in energy intensity are a function of changes in several factors including the structure of the economy, climate, efficiency in the use of resources and technical change. The aim of this paper is to measure the ‘underlying energy efficiency’ for the whole economy of 49 ‘states’ in the US using a stochastic frontier energy demand approach. A total US energy demand frontier function is estimated using panel data for 49 ‘states’ over the period 1995 to 2009 using several panel data models: the pooled model; the random effects model; true fixed effects model; the true random effects model; and the Mundlak versions of the pooled and random effects models. The analysis confirms that energy intensity is not a good indicator of energy efficiency; whereas, by controlling for a range of economic and other factors, the measure of ‘underlying energy efficiency’ obtained via the approach adopted here (based on the microeconomic theory of production) is. |
| Keywords: | US total energy demand; efficiency and frontier analysis; state energy efficiency |
| JEL: | D D2 Q Q4 Q5 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eth:wpswif:13-181&r=eff |
| By: | Stephan, Mary |
| Abstract: | The total factor productivity indexes of five key Commonwealth fisheries have been developed using the Fisher index and ABARES survey data. Where fish stock biomass information is available, these indexes are also adjusted for changes in fish stocks. In trend terms, productivity increased over the last decade in most Commonwealth fisheries analysed. These increases reflect a mix of government induced structural adjustments and management changes as well as autonomous adjustment responses to market conditions. Changes in productivity can provide information regarding the response of fishing fleets to policy settings and how changes in fish stocks, technology and fleet structure have influenced a fishery’s economic performance. These results are part of ongoing work to develop a suite of economic indicators to assess the economic performance of key Commonwealth fisheries. |
| Keywords: | Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare13:152180&r=eff |
| By: | Mullen, John; Keogh, Mick |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to review likely trends in key drivers of productivity with a view to suggesting the rate of productivity growth that is likely to be required to maintain the competitiveness of Australian agriculture both within the Australian economy and relative to the agricultural sectors of other economies. The paper also canvasses prospect for achieving this level of productivity performance over the period to 2030.Growth in agricultural productivity has slowed over the last two decades and a significant proportion of this slowdown in growth can be attributed to the stagnation in public investment in agricultural R&D since the late 1970s. The prospect that rate of growth of TFP could stay at less than 1.0% rather than recover to a long term rate of 2.0% is obviously quite concerning for the future competitiveness of agriculture both domestically and internationally. It would seem that to maintain TFP growth in the 2.0 – 2.5% per year range, investment in agricultural R&D has to be returned to a level of 3.0% of agriculture’s GVP (or 5% of GDP), a major challenge for government and industry. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, R&D investment, Competitiveness, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare13:152170&r=eff |
| By: | Christopher M. Gunn (Department of Economics, Carleton University) |
| Abstract: | The news-shock literature interprets empirical news-shock identifications as signals about future productivity. Under this view, changes in productivity cause changes in expectations. I investigate an alternative interpretation whereby changes in expectations cause changes in productivity. I present a model where firms adopt the technology of a deterministic frontier, and where self-fulfilling expectational-shocks unleash a frenzy of adoption through which firms increase productivity. Consistent with the news evidence,stock prices and aggregate activity boom, yet TFP increases with a lag. Simulations using i.i.d. expectational-shocks yield moments consistent with the data, and qualitatively capture both high-frequency boom-busts as well as lower-frequency fluctuations. |
| Keywords: | expectations-driven business cycles, intermediation shocks, news shocks, great recession, financial accelerator |
| JEL: | E3 E44 |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:13-04&r=eff |
| By: | Matevz Hribernik; Rafal Kierzenkowski |
| Abstract: | This paper derives estimates of the efficiency of welfare spending in Slovenia and the other OECD countries from data envelopment analysis based on model specifications used in earlier OECD studies. Results suggest that Slovenia ranks about 25th among OECD countries for output efficiency: for a given level of spending outcomes fall short by around 3.5% in health care, by 10% in secondary education and by around one third in public administration. Results also suggests that Slovenia ranks 18th to 27th in the OECD for input efficiency as the same outcomes could be reached by scaling back costs by around half. Alternatively, spending increases could be contained and outcomes improved by increased cost efficiency. Statistical uncertainty surrounding input efficiency estimates is high for countries with the smallest scope for potential savings. Confidence intervals around output efficiency scores are also wide for some emerging market economies.<P>Évaluation de l'efficacité des dépenses sociales en Slovénie avec la méthode d'enveloppement des données<BR>Cet article déduit les estimations de l'efficacité des dépenses sociales en Slovénie et dans les autres pays de l'OCDE à partir de l'analyse d'enveloppement des données basée sur les spécifications de modèles utilisés dans les études antérieures de l'OCDE. Les résultats suggèrent que la Slovénie se classe 25ème parmi les pays de l'OCDE pour l’efficacité productive: pour un niveau donné de dépenses les résultats sont en deçà d'environ 3,5% dans les soins de santé, de 10% dans l'enseignement secondaire et d'environ un tiers dans l'administration publique. Les résultats suggèrent également que la Slovénie se classe entre le 18ème et 27ème rang au sein de l'OCDE pour l'efficacité des intrants puisque les mêmes résultats peuvent être obtenus en réduisant les coûts de moitié environ. Alternativement, les hausses de dépenses pourraient être contenues et les résultats améliorés grâce à une meilleure efficacité-coût. L'incertitude statistique entourant les estimations de l'efficacité des intrants est élevée pour les pays ayant la plus faible marge de manoeuvre en termes d'économies potentielles. Les intervalles de confiance autour des scores d'efficacité productive sont également larges pour certains pays émergents. |
| Keywords: | health, OECD, efficiency, Slovenia, PISA, secondary education, public administration, data envelopment analysis, welfare spending, santé, OCDE, administration publique, Slovénie, PISA, efficacité, dépenses sociales, enseignement secondaire, méthode d’enveloppement des données |
| JEL: | C14 H83 I18 I28 I38 |
| Date: | 2013–06–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1058-en&r=eff |
| By: | Chris Bojke (Centre for Health Economics, University of York, UK); Adriana Castelli (Centre for Health Economics, University of York, UK); Katja Grasic (Centre for Health Economics, University of York, UK); Andrew Street (Centre for Health Economics and Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York, UK); Padraic Ward (Centre for Health Economics and Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York, UK) |
| Abstract: | Overview - 2010/11 was the first full financial year of a Coalition government committed to meeting the so-called “Nicholson challenge†of making £20bn efficiency savings in projected NHS expenditure by 2015. Securing improvements in NHS productivity is seen as a key element in meeting this challenge. In what follows we report year-on-year changes in productivity from 2004/5 to 2010/11. |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chy:respap:87cherp&r=eff |
| By: | Jorge E. Galán; Helena Veiga; Michael P. Wiper |
| Abstract: | Firms face a continuous process of technological and environmental changes that implies making managerial decisions in a dynamic context. However, costs and other constraints prevent firms from making instant adjustments towards optimal conditions and may cause inefficiency to be persistent in time. In this work, we propose a flexible dynamic model that makes possible to distinguish persistent effects in the inefficiency from firm inefficiency heterogeneity and to capture differences in the adjustment costs between firms. The new model is fitted to a ten year sample of Colombian banks. Our findings suggest that firm characteristics associated to size and foreign ownership have negative effects on inefficiency and separating these heterogeneity factors from the dynamics of inefficiency improves model fit. On the other hand, acquisitions are found to have positive and persistent effects on inefficiency. Colombian banks are found to present high inefficiency persistence but there exist important differences between institutions. In particular, merged banks present low costs of adjustment that allow them to recover rapidly the efficiency losses derived from merging processes |
| Keywords: | Banks efficiency, Bayesian inference, Dynamic effects, Persistent shocks, Heterogeneity, Stochastic frontier models |
| JEL: | C11 C22 C23 C51 D24 G21 |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:wsrepe:ws131918&r=eff |
| By: | Marine Hadengue; Thierry Warin |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to highlight a version of the Balassa-Samuelson effect for emerging countries with a new dataset. More than the catching-up effect, we will measure the convergence for three emerging countries: Brazil/China/India. We will compare the convergence between these countries and the productivity frontier represented by the U.S. over the past 10 years. A first contribution is that as the distance between the level of labor productivity in Brazil (China, India) and the United States decreases, the growth rate of labor productivity within the country decreases. In other words, the higher the level of productivity in an industry, the lower its growth rate, showing a convergence to the productivity frontier. A second contribution is that there is unconditional convergence as measured at the industry level. <P> |
| Keywords: | economic convergence, endogenous growth, Brazil, China, India, labor productivity, |
| JEL: | O40 O41 O43 O47 O53 |
| Date: | 2013–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2013s-17&r=eff |
| By: | Hassan, Roger |
| Abstract: | The Australian government has put forward many policies in the past three decades with the aim of increasing water market activity. Water trading is widely thought to transfer water to its highest productive use in order to extract the greatest benefit to society. This paper employs an empirical analysis of the agricultural water market in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin in order to determine whether trading has indeed induced agricultural water use efficiency. This thesis focuses on technical water use efficiency as it searches for evidence that water trade has induced innovation in minimizing water use at the farm level. This research is done on three different scales in order to test the relationship between water trade and the efficiency of its use in several situations. First a cross-sectional analysis of the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District shows an increasing trend in water use efficiency between 1998/99 and 2010/11, although only a weak relationship with trade is found. Second a panel-data regression is performed across the four Murray-Darling Basin states in order to estimate the relationship that both permanent and temporary trade has on water use efficiency. The results of the panel regression conclude that while a 1GL increase in permanent water entitlement trade has led to a 0.00089ML/Ha increase in water use efficiency over the past 15 years, there is no hard evidence that temporary trade has had the same effect. Finally a case study of the dairy industry in the Goulburn region models the incentives faced by farmers who can substitute between feed grain and water for pastured grass as production inputs. Given water and grain prices it is possible to illustrate the optimal decision making of farmers in 2007/08 to see the positive impact of water trading in promoting economic efficiency. This thesis makes an important empirical contribution to the current literature on water markets. The analysis done determines the relative success of permanent water entitlement trade in inducing innovation in water use; this innovation in water use increases technical water use efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare13:152156&r=eff |
| By: | Muto, Ichiro; Sudo, Nao; Yoneyama, Shunichi |
| Abstract: | The lost decades following the bubble burst in 1991 has been accompanied by slowdown of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in Japan. What has driven the TFP down, however, remains a puzzle. To address this question, we develop a New Keynesian sticky price model that is designed to investigate two suspects behind the TFP slowdown other than regression of technology; (i) malfunction of financial intermediation, and (ii) inter- and intra-sectoral misallocation of resources. Namely, our model consists of two goods producing sectors and financial intermediation and non-technology shocks endogenously alter the observed TFP through these channels. We use an estimated model based on the data from the 1980s to the 2010s to demonstrate that exogenous deteriorations of balance sheets of financial intermediaries and firms contributed a sizable portion of TFP decline by hampering financial intermediation. We also show that such shocks play the dominant role in generating persistent deflation during the lost decades. |
| Keywords: | lost decades; total factor productivity; financial intermediation; input-output linkage; financial imbalances |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:dynare:028&r=eff |
| By: | Voskoboynikov, Ilya B.; Timmer, Marcel (Groningen University) |
| Abstract: | GDP per capita growth rates in Russia have been among the highest in the world since the mid-1990s. Previous growth accounting research suggests that this was mainly driven by multi-factor productivity (MFP) growth. In this paper we analyse for the first time the drivers of Russian growth for thirty-four industries over the period 1995 to 2008. We pay in particular attention to the construction of a proper measure of capital services, to use in place of the stock measures employed in previous research. Based on these new measures, we find that aggregate GDP growth is driven as much by capital input as by MFP growth. Mining and Retailing account for an increasing share of the inputs, but are weak in terms of MFP performance. In contrast, MFP growth was rapid in goods-producing industries, but the sector?s GDP share declined. The major drivers of MFP growth were in the high-skilled services industries that were particularly underdeveloped in the Russian economy in the 1990s. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:rugggd:gd-137&r=eff |
| By: | Skirtun, Maggie |
| Abstract: | This paper uses an index number profit decomposition approach to examine recent drivers of change in profitability in two key Commonwealth prawn fisheries, the Northern Prawn Fishery and the Torres Strait Prawn Fishery. This approach allows for the drivers of profitability that can be influenced by a fishery manager (fish stocks and productivity) to be separated from those that cannot (output prices and input prices). The results reveal that a divergence in the economic performance of the two fisheries has been the result of differences in productivity trends. These differences are the likely result of differences in fishery management arrangements between the two fisheries. |
| Keywords: | Livestock Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare13:152179&r=eff |
| By: | Amitabh Chandra; Amy Finkelstein; Adam Sacarny; Chad Syverson |
| Abstract: | The conventional wisdom in health economics is that large differences in average productivity across hospitals are the result of idiosyncratic, institutional features of the healthcare sector which dull the role of market forces. Strikingly, however, we find that productivity dispersion in heart attack treatment across hospitals is, if anything, smaller than in narrowly defined manufacturing industries such as ready-mixed concrete. While this fact admits multiple interpretations, we also find evidence against the conventional wisdom that the healthcare sector does not operate like an industry subject to standard market forces. In particular, we find that hospitals that are more productive at treating heart attacks have higher market shares at a point in time and are more likely to expand over time. For example, a 10 percent increase in hospital productivity today is associated with about 4 percent more patients in 5 years. Taken together, these facts suggest that the healthcare sector may have more in common with “traditional” sectors than is often assumed. |
| JEL: | D22 D24 I11 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19200&r=eff |
| By: | Daan Steenkamp (Reserve Bank of New Zealand) |
| Abstract: | The Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis suggests that countries with a weak relative productivity performance should, over time, see a low or falling real exchange rate. This note uses detailed sectoral data to test the hypothesis over the period 1978-2006 and also fails to find any evidence of the expected effect. |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nzb:nzbans:2013/01&r=eff |
| By: | Gazi Mainul Hassan (University of Waikato); Arusha Cooray (University of Wollongong) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the Extreme Bounds Analysis (EBA) to examine the comparative growth effects of gender disaggregated and level-specific enrolment ratios in a panel of Asian economies. To test our hypotheses, at first we employ an endogenous growth type framework where education has externality effects and then we compare the results with those obtained from an alternative neoclassical exogenous growth type model where education’s effect is transmitted only via total factor productivity (TFP). It is found that the externality effects of education are positive and robust for both male and female and that these are relatively large and significant at the primary, secondary as well as tertiary level. Furthermore, in the endogenous type framework, a gender gap is observed wherein the male growth effect of education is consistently larger than that of female at all levels. Compared to these, in the neoclassical type model we find that only the male and female primary and secondary enrolment ratios have robust growth effects. In contrast to the externality effects, these growth effects are small. |
| Keywords: | education and growth; endogenous growth; Solow growth model; extreme bounds analysis; total factor productivity. |
| JEL: | O11 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–07–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:13/10&r=eff |
| By: | Ballesteros, Marife M.; Egana, Jasmine V. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effectiveness and efficiency of implementation of the National Housing Authority (NHA) resettlement programs. The review focuses on the recent operations of NHA covering the period between 2003 and 2011, which covers one of the largest resettlement projects of NHA involving about 93,000 families for the North and South Rail infrastructure project. During this period, the resettlement program received about 85 percent of NHA budget. NHA has executed the development of 88 resettlement projects nationwide of which 45 project sites are located in Metro Manila and the peripheral areas (or the Greater Manila Area) and 43 in the regions. The dominant scheme in GMA is the Completed Housing Project (CHP) with more than 70 percent (32 sites) of total projects developer constructed. The balance consists of Incremental Housing Projects (IHP) (6 sites) and mixed projects (7 sites), which combined the CHP and IHP methods. By location, there are more in-city projects (68 sites) than off-city projects (20 sites). However, in-city projects are dominant only in the regions and provinces outside Metro Manila. In the highly urbanized cities of Metro Manila, large-scale resettlement was not provided due to land constraints. Based on actual cost per unit, it costs less to produce a unit of housing using the CHP scheme than IHP by about 17 percent or about PHP 25,000 per unit, on the average. However, cost benefit ratio analysis shows that IHP is more cost effective considering the value of developments and the greater participation and investments of households and community in maintenance of housing estates. Between in-city and off-city CHP projects, the average total project cost is higher for in-city projects compared to off-city projects mainly due to higher cost of land but in-city projects are more sustainable and acceptable to both households and local government units (LGUs). It is recommended that the most effective and efficient approach to resettlement is a combined approach of in-city and incremental housing. However, there are necessary conditions that require specific actions not only from NHA but other stakeholders as well to implement this approach such as: (1) land for socialized housing has to be made available by the LGU or national government especially in highly urbanized cities such as Metro Manila; (2) the feasibility of vertical developments in-city should be considered; and (3) the need for the NHA to improve the production process for incremental housing. |
| Keywords: | Philippines, housing, resettlement program |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2013-28&r=eff |
| By: | Debby Lanser; Ryanne van Dalen |
| Abstract: | This CPB Discussion Paper investigates the effect of receiving a grant from the Dutch Technology Foundation STW on the research output of an individual researcher. <strong>We find no evidence that STW grant receipt increases research output for the general funding programme (OTP) whereas the results indicate an increase in the number of scientific publications for the thematic programmes.</strong> <strong>Read also: <a href="http://www.cpb.nl/en/publication/up-or-out-how-individual-research-grants-affect-academic-careers-in-the-netherlands">CPB Discussion Paper 249</a></strong> STW funds application-oriented research by equally weighting academic quality and utilisation of submitted research proposals. Research output is therefore measured along these two criteria, that is, publications and citations for scientific productivity and publications with industry and patent applications for utilisation. STW roughly distinguishes two types of funding instruments, i.e. the Open Technology Programme (OTP) in which research proposals from different disciplines compete against each other and the thematic programmes on specific research themes with more prominent industrial involvement. We are able to identify causal effects of such a grant on research output by exploiting the discontinuity in the relationship between the priority scores assigned to each proposal and receiving an STW grant. We find no evidence that an STW grant has a positive effect on scientific productivity or utilisation for the OTP. However, we do find significantly positive effects of an STW grant on publication rates within the thematic programmes. Grant receipt in thematic programmes leads to six additional publications including one co-authored by industry professionals over the next four years. This academic discussion paper is an example of the CPB’s work on science policy. Another discussion paper is published simultaneously on the effects of individual research grants (NWO Vernieuwingsimpuls or IRI-grants) on academic careers (<a href="http://www.cpb.nl/en/publication/up-or-out-how-individual-research-grants-affect-academic-careers-in-the-netherlands">CPB Discussion Paper 249</a>). |
| JEL: | I23 J24 O38 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:248&r=eff |
| By: | Gian Luca Clementi; Berardino Palazzo |
| Abstract: | Do firm entry and exit play a major role in shaping aggregate dynamics? Our answer is yes. Entry and exit propagate the effects of aggregate shocks. In turn, this results in greater persistence and unconditional variation of aggregate time-series. These are features of the equilibrium allocation in Hopenhayn (1992)'s model of equilibrium industry dynamics, amended to allow for investment in physical capital and aggregate fluctuations. In the aftermath of a positive productivity shock, the number of entrants increases. The new firms are smaller and less productive than the incumbents, as in the data. As the common productivity component reverts to its unconditional mean, the new entrants that survive become more productive over time, keeping aggregate efficiency higher than in a scenario without entry or exit. |
| JEL: | D92 E23 E32 L11 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19217&r=eff |
| By: | Federico Belotti (Università di Roma, Tor Vergata); Silvio Daidone (Università di Roma, Tor Vergata); Giuseppe Ilardi (Banca d'Italia, Economic and Financial Statistics Department) |
| Date: | 2013–07–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:isug09:03&r=eff |
| By: | Briones, Roehlano M. |
| Abstract: | Expenditures on agriculture have been rising over time, as expression of the state`s commitment to reduce poverty, raise rural incomes and household welfare, and promote food security. However, agriculture continues to exhibit disappointing performance, namely, laggard growth, lack of diversification and competitiveness, tepid productivity growth, and persistent poverty among farmers. There is basis for attributing this performance at least in part to faulty design and execution of agricultural programs. Private goods provided as production support, most notably input subsidies, are contra-indicated based on case studies of past failures. Moreover, a series of audit reports document leakages and anomalies in these types of programs. This is consistent with international evidence that favors a shift in public expenditure from provision of private goods to provision of public goods. Extension is flagged owing to problems in quality of services provided. Production support should be limited in duration and scope to goods characterized by market failure, most notably those embodying new technologies. Support for postharvest and processing facilities should be limited to strategic investments toward addressing coordination problems and facilitating market development. Among public goods (or goods with public good features), irrigation has not been found to be effective based on econometric evidence. This places in question the current plan to ramp up investment in irrigation, making it by far the largest single item for public spending on agriculture. Such investment plans should be reviewed given studies point to design flaws and other implementation problems in past irrigation projects. The public goods that do show evidence of impact on agricultural incomes and productivity are infrastructure such as roads, ports, electrification (under other infrastructure), regulatory services, and R&D for technological change and agricultural modernization. |
| Keywords: | Philippines, public goods, farm subsidies, agricultural production support, impact assessment |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2013-23&r=eff |
| By: | Charyulu, D.Kumara; Bantilan, MCS; Rajalaxmi, A |
| Abstract: | Sorghum is the third cereal crop after rice and wheat in India, mostly grown under marginal and stress-prone areas of Semi-Arid Tropics (SAT). NARS, ICRISAT and private seed companies are the major stakeholders working for sorghum crop improvement in the last five decades (1960-2012). Altogether more than 256 improved cultivars have been notified and made available to farmers during the same time. The current knowledge about spread and impact of sorghum improved crop varieties in the country is incomplete. The present study made an attempt to address these issues with help of primary as well as secondary sources of information. The analysis has concluded that nearly 80 per cent of total sorghum area is under improved cultivars which helped to increase the country productivity levels by 85 per cent during 1960 and 2010. This aptly proves that role of sorghum improved cultivars in sustaining the higher yields. |
| Keywords: | Development of improved cultivars, diffusion of sorghum improved cultivars in India, Impact on yield Growth and variability, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare13:152141&r=eff |
| By: | rondi, laura; cambini, carlo; bremberger, francisca; gugler, klaus |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of different regulatory contracts of electricity companies on their dividend policy. Using a panel of 106 publicly traded European electric utilities in the period 1986-2011 we link dividend pay-out and smoothing ratios to the implementation of different regulatory mechanisms (cost plus vs. incentive regulation) and also to firm ownership. After controlling for the potential endogeneity of the regulatory mechanism, our results show that electric utilities subject to incentive regulation smooth their dividends less than firms subject to cost plus regulation but also present higher target payout ratios; thus suggesting that incentive regulation leads firms to a dividend policy more responsive to earnings variability and more consistent with efficiency-enhancing pressures. This suggests that when managers are more sensitive to competition-like efficiency pressures following the adoption of incentive regulation, they are more inclined to cut dividends when necessary. These results seem to apply in particular to incentive regulated firms when they are privately controlled. |
| Keywords: | Dividends, Lintner model, regulation, energy industry, price cap, incentive regulation |
| JEL: | G35 G38 L51 L94 |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:48043&r=eff |
| By: | Chantal C. Cantarelli; Bert van Wee; Eric J. E. Molin; Bent Flyvbjerg |
| Abstract: | Cost overruns on Dutch transportation infrastructure are substantially lower than in other countries. This paper examines three independent variables and their relation with cost overrun in order to decide whether this is different for Dutch infrastructure projects compared to worldwide findings. The three independent variables are project type (road, rail, and fixed link projects), project size (measured in terms of estimated costs) and the length of the project implementation phase. For Dutch projects, average cost overrun is 10.6% for rail, 18.6% for roads and 21.7% for fixed links. This is the opposite of worldwide findings where rail has the largest overrun. For project size, small Dutch projects have the largest average percentage cost overruns but in terms of total overrun, large projects have a larger share. Worldwide research showed that cost overruns are large for all project sizes. The length of the implementation phase and especially the length of the pre-construction phase are important determinants of cost overruns in the Netherlands. With each additional year of pre-construction, percentage cost overrun increases by five percentage points. In contrast, the length of the construction phase has hardly any influence on cost overruns. This is an important contribution to current knowledge about cost overruns, because the period in which projects are most prone to cost overruns is narrowed down considerably, at least in the Netherlands. This means that period can be focused on to determine the causes and cures of overruns. Regarding the three determinants, it was again concluded that Dutch projects perform differently compared to the worldwide pattern, showing again the risk of ecological fallacy. It is therefore important to consider individual countries and to compare countries. |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1307.2179&r=eff |