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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2014‒08‒28
eleven papers chosen by |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Information and Communication Technologies - ICT Policy and Strategies Private Sector Development - E-Business Technology Industry Education - Knowledge for Development Tertiary Education Industry |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:16580&r=eff |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Agriculture - Agricultural Research Environmental Economics and Policies Economic Theory and Research Rural Development Knowledge and Information Systems Agriculture - Agribusiness Environment Rural Development Macroeconomics and Economic Growth |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:18736&r=eff |
| By: | Ke Wang |
| Abstract: | In order to evaluate the multistage supply chain efficiency, an appropriate performance evaluation system is importantly required. In practice, a representative multistage supply chain has three members composing a supplier-manufacturer-retailer structure, and has intermediate measures connecting these three supply chain members. Existing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models have difficulties in measuring these kinds of supply chain efficiencies directly. In this paper, we develop several DEA based models for characterizing and measuring these multistage supply chain efficiencies with the consideration of the intermediate measures. We illustrate the models in a three-stage supply chain context which can represent different relationships between the supplier, manufacturer and retailer when they are treated as in different supply chain structures: i) the non-cooperative, ii) the partial-cooperative, and iii) the cooperative supply chain structure. Moreover, the general DEA frameworks for multistage supply chain models are proposed and these models are demonstrated with an illustrative example. |
| Keywords: | Data envelopment analysis, Efficiency evaluation, Multistage supply chain |
| JEL: | C61 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:biw:wpaper:48&r=eff |
| By: | Iootty, Mariana; Correa, Paulo; Radas, Sonja; Skrinjaric, Bruno |
| Abstract: | Drawing on a representative sample of firms, this paper presents some microeconomic evidence on the productivity growth process in Croatia since the onset of recession (2008-12). Four types of results are highlighted. First, there is a persistent (and increasing) heterogeneity in the performance of Croatian firms along outcome measures. Second, Croatia lags behind regional peers in entrepreneurship measures, which suggests a comparatively lower economic dynamism. Third, the lack of dynamism displayed by the Croatian economy is confirmed when looking at the firm entry and exit process: the analytical results point to reduced firm dynamism compared with Croatia's peers in Europe and Central Asia. Fourth, the contribution of net entry to overall productivity growth in Croatia is surprisingly negative. This is contrary to what would be expected based on the literature and suggests that the process of"destructive creation"in Croatia has not been efficient, as the market might be eliminating firms that are potentially productive. Policies that foster market contestability should be pursued, especially policies aiming at better product market regulation (such as liberalization of entry into the service sector, particularly retail and infrastructure). Measures to help finance entrepreneurship (in promising sectors) should be used to support enhancements in firm productivity. In addition, appropriate bankruptcy rules play a key role by easing the exit process and allowing low-productive units to leave the market and free resources that can be better used by other, more efficient, firms. |
| Keywords: | E-Business,Economic Theory&Research,Microfinance,Labor Markets,Markets and Market Access |
| Date: | 2014–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6990&r=eff |
| By: | Jan Heufer; Per Hjertstrand |
| Abstract: | This article provides a robust non-parametric approach to demand analysis based on a concept called homothetic efficiency. Homotheticity is a useful restriction or assumption but data rarely satisfy testable conditions. To overcome this problem, this article provides a way to estimate homothetic efficiency of consumption choices by consumers. |
| Keywords: | Demand theory; efficiency; experimental economics; homotheticity; non-parametric analysis; revealed preference; utility maximisation |
| JEL: | C14 D11 D12 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0496&r=eff |
| By: | Castillo, Paul (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú); Rojas, Youel (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we use quarterly data from Chile, Mexico and Peru to study the link between terms of trade and Total Factor Productivity (TFP). We estimate TFP using a stylized general equilibrium model for a small open economy model with quarterly data. Then, the TFP is decomposed into a domestic component and one external component linked to terms of trade using a structural VAR model as in Blanchard and Quah (1989). Our main results shows that the terms of trade has indeed not only short term but also medium and long term effects on TFP, being the short and medium term impact more predominant in the sample. |
| Keywords: | Calibration, general equilibrium, terms of trade, total factor productivity |
| JEL: | C11 C13 C51 F41 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rbp:wpaper:2014-012&r=eff |
| By: | Cavalcanti Ferreira, Pedro; Pessôa de Abreu, Samuel; Veloso A., Fernando |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of distortions in the investment goods sector onaggregate total factor productivity (TFP). We develop a two-sector neo-classical growth model in which TFP in the capital goods sector relative toTFP in the consumption sector is inversely related to the price of invest-ment relative to consumption, so that we use relative prices to measureTFP in the investment goods sector. The model is calibrated to Braziland we nd that distortions in the investment goods sector may explainmost of the decline in Brazilian TFP relative to the United States sincethe mid-1970s. |
| Date: | 2014–08–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:epgewp:755&r=eff |
| By: | Bergantino, Angela Stefania; Porcelli, Francesco |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates, from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view, the relationship between local government efficiency and the local housing market and, in particular, the possibility that councils’ performance is capitalised in the price of housing. The theoretical analysis is developed within a classical "Tiebout framework" using a simple model of urban political economy, showing the mechanism through which local government efficiency is capitalised in the value of houses. The empirical analysis, based on data from Italian municipalities, provides robust evidence in support of the hypothesis of positive capitalisation. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sit:wpaper:13_02&r=eff |
| By: | Guo, Xu; Li, Gao Rong; Wong, Wing Keung |
| Abstract: | Parametric production frontier function has been commonly employed in stochas-tic frontier model but there was no proper test statistic for its plausibility. To fill into this gap, this paper develops two test statistics to test for a hypothesized parametric production frontier function based on local smoothing and global smoothing, respectively. We then pro-pose the residual-based wild bootstrap approach to compute the p-values of our proposed test statistics. Our proposed test statistics are robust to heteroscedasticity. Simulation studies are carried out to examine the infinite sample performance of the sizes and powers of the test statistics. |
| Keywords: | Stochastic frontier; Specification testing; Wild bootstrap. |
| JEL: | C13 C14 |
| Date: | 2014–08–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:57999&r=eff |
| By: | Francis, Bill B. (Lally School of Management, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute); Hasan, Iftekhar (Fordham University and Bank of Finland); Wu, Qiang (Lally School of Management, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) |
| Abstract: | Directors from academia served on the boards of around 40% of S&P 1,500 firms over the 1998–2011 period. This paper investigates the effects of academic directors on corporate governance and firm performance. We find that companies with directors from academia are associated with higher performance and this relation is driven by professors without administrative jobs. We also find that academic directors play an important governance role through their advising and monitoring functions. Specifically, our results show that the presence of academic directors is associated with higher acquisition performance, higher number of patents and citations, higher stock price informativeness, lower discretionary accruals, lower CEO compensation, and higher CEO forced turnover-performance sensitivity. Overall, our results provide supportive evidence that academic directors are valuable advisors and effective monitors and that, in general, firms benefit from having academic directors. |
| Keywords: | academic directors; professors; firm performance; advising; monitoring |
| JEL: | G30 G34 M41 |
| Date: | 2014–07–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bofrdp:2014_015&r=eff |
| By: | Bozeman, Barry (Arizona State University); Link, Albert N. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Five important policy initiatives were promulgated in response to the slowdown in U.S. productivity in the early-1970s, and then again in the late-1970s and early-1980s. These initiatives included the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, the Stevenson-Wydler Act of 1980, the R&E Tax Credit of 1981, the Small Business Innovation and Development Act of 1982, and the National Cooperative Research Act of 1984. Scholars and policy-makers have long debated the direction and magnitude of impacts from these policies but empirical evidence remains modest, especially evidence of their aggregate effects. Our assessment of these policies is based on quantifying their collective impact on industrial investments in R&D in the post-productivity slowdown period. Our findings support the conclusion that the relative levels of industrial investments in R&D from 1980 forward were significantly higher than before, ceteris paribus. |
| Keywords: | technology; innovation; R&D; policy assessment |
| JEL: | H50 O31 O33 O47 |
| Date: | 2014–08–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2014_005&r=eff |