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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2014‒09‒29
thirteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Claudia Curi (Free University of Bolzano - Bozen, School of Economics and Management); Cinzia Daraio (University of Rome “La Sapienza”); Patrick Llerena (University of Strasbourg, BETA (Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée) and Observatoire des Sciences et Techniques (OST, Paris)) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the productivity change of the French Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) after the introduction of the July 1999 Innovation Law and the New Public Management Oriented Reform. By using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-based Malmquist Productivity Index, we find an average increase in the short-term productivity of the French TTOs driven by both positive efficiency and technology change. The bootstrap analysis reveals that these improvements are ascribed to 50% of the TTOs system, while the remaining part does not show significant changes. Moreover, while older TTOs positively contribute to the performance of French TTOs in the short run, young TTOs with hospital seems to contribute negatively to the efficiency of the entire system. |
| Keywords: | Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), French University System, Malmquist Productivity Index, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Bootstrap |
| JEL: | C14 D24 I29 O32 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bzn:wpaper:bemps19&r=eff |
| By: | Gu, Wulong; Yan, Beiling |
| Abstract: | This paper presents estimates of effective multifactor productivity (MFP) growth for Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan and selected European Union (EU) countries, based on the EU KLEMS productivity database and the World Input-Output Tables. Effective MFP growth captures the impact of the productivity gains in upstream industries on the productivity growth and international competitiveness of domestic industries, thereby providing an appropriate measure of productivity growth and international competitiveness in the production of final demand products such as consumption, investment and export products. A substantial portion of MFP growth, especially for small, open economies such as Canada?s, is attributable to gains in the production of intermediate inputs in foreign countries. Productivity growth tends to be higher in investment and export products than for the production of consumption products. Technical progress and productivity growth in foreign countries have made a larger contribution to production growth in investment and export products than in consumption products. The analysis provides empirical evidence consistent with the hypothesis that effective MFP growth is a more informative relevant indicator of international competitiveness than is standard MFP growth. |
| Keywords: | Economic accounts, International trade, Productivity accounts |
| Date: | 2014–09–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp6e:2014037e&r=eff |
| By: | Gastón Carracelas (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyze the existence of intra-industry productivity spillovers on Uruguayan manufacturing firms associated with the increased presence of transnational companies. We perform an econometric estimation bi-stage using a panel of manufacturing firms for the period 1997-2008. In the first stage, we estimate the total factor productivity (TFP) using different econometric techniques (Olley & Pakes, 1996; Blundell & Bond, 1998; Levinsohn & Petrin, 2003). In the second stage, we estimate the effect of the increasing presence of transnational companies in the sector on TFP of domestic firms. We make modifications to the base model in order to analyze the effects of the existence of heterogeneous spillovers based on the "absorptive capacity" of domestic firms and the technology-intensive sectors. We also analyze the effects of the recent process of FDI inflows on two keys sectors: Food-beverages and wood-paper. The results indicate that there are no effects of significant productivity spillovers for the average manufacturing sector. However, the large domestic firms with absorbing capacity receive spillovers significantly higher than other large manufacturing firms, while the evidence indicates that there are positive spillovers in low-technology sectors. The effects on the food-beverage sector are significantly lower than those observed on other industrial sectors, while, in the wood-paper sector there are evidence of larger effects. |
| Keywords: | tfp, transnational corporations, productivity spillovers. |
| JEL: | F23 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:0813&r=eff |
| By: | Inklaar, Robert Christiaan; Chen, Wen (Groningen University) |
| Abstract: | Investments in organization capital may impact productivity of not just the investing firm but could also spillover to other firms ? like investments in research and development. In this paper, we test whether there are (positive) know-how spillovers and (negative) business-stealing productivity spillovers for a panel of 1266 U.S. manufacturing firms over the period 1982?2011. We only find evidence of negative spillovers on product-market rivals. This implies that firms invest more in organization capital than would be socially optimal and that existing estimates of the importance of organization capital for productivity growth are overstated. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:rugggd:gd-146&r=eff |
| By: | Anastasia Litina (CREA, Université de Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | This research advances the hypothesis that natural land productivity in the past, and its effect on the desirable level of cooperation in the agricultural sector, had a persistent effect on the evolution of social capital, the process of industrialization and comparative economic development across the globe. Exploiting exogenous sources of variations in land productivity across a) countries; b) individuals within a country, and c) migrants of different ancestry within a country, the research establishes that lower level of land productivity in the past is associated with more intense coope- ration and higher levels of contemporary social capital and development, |
| Keywords: | Land productivity, Cooperation, Social Capital, trust, Growth, development, Agriculture, Industrialisation |
| JEL: | O11 O13 O14 O31 O33 O41 O50 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:14-16&r=eff |
| By: | Amjad Naveed (Department of Border Region Studies, University of Southern Denmark); Nisar Ahmad (Department of Border Region Studies, University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | The borders of the EU are open for the movement of resources but still there can be some strong negative effects of international borders on productivity and knowledge spillovers compared to the internal regional borders. These negative effects could be due to language barriers, cultural differences, local rules and regulation, legal issues, property rights, etc. These effects of international borders have economic significance that needs to be controlled when analyzing the regional knowledge spillovers. This aspect related to international borders has not been fully taken into account in the existing literature related to knowledge spillovers. Ignoring this effect might under or overestimate the effect of knowledge and technology spillovers. The results show that technology and knowledge spillovers are mainly coming from internal neighbor regions only, whereas spillovers across the international borders are statistically insignificant. Moreover, the results show that not properly incorporating border effects will lead to inaccurate estimates of the spillovers. |
| Keywords: | total factor productivity, knowledge spillovers, European regions, spatial econometrics, Extended Spatial Durbin Model |
| JEL: | C31 D24 O49 O52 R10 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sdn:wpaper:2&r=eff |
| By: | Claudio Pinto (Università di Salerno, Italy) |
| Abstract: | In Italy (and in the other European countries) the debate of the difference in the efficiency in the hospital services production is a crucial, principally in the context of hospitals costs containment and regional responsbility in the managing, organizing and financing their own health care system. In this paper we compare the relative efficiency of the Italian directly managed hospitals using robust advanced m-order non-parametric frontier approach. In this manner we deal with the influence of outliers on the measurement and can control for the sample size difference. To compare the efficiency between different geographical area, we carried out two non parametric tests used in this literature. The hospital production model estimated here is in line with the literature of the non-parametric efficiency analysis on hospital sector, but limited data to force us to consider only acute (in ordinary and day hospital regime), surgical and assistance activity, eliminating emergency service and outpatient activity. The results suggest that in the 2007 statistically significant differences remain between North and South and Isles areas. Less marked are the differences between North and Centre, and Centre and South and Isles. The analysis of proportion give us a picture of these differences. |
| Keywords: | efficiency, directly managed hospitals, m-order frontier, non-parametric tests, geographical areas comparison |
| JEL: | D24 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:5&r=eff |
| By: | Donal Palcic; Eoin Reeves (Department of Economics, University of Limerick) |
| Abstract: | As one of Ireland’s largest agri-business companies the Irish Sugar company played a key role in the country’s economic development in the twentieth century. The company was privatised in 1991 (under the new name Greencore) and has since transformed from a largely commodity-based agri-business into an international convenience food company. This paper analyses the financial and economic performance of the company before and after privatisation. It finds that the change from public to private ownership was not strongly associated with improved financial performance and productivity as the company had experienced rapid growth and improvement in the pre-privatisation period. These findings run counter to perspectives such as public choice theory that suggest a positive relationship between privatisation and company performance. Performance in the post-privatisation period was strongly influenced by greater exposure to market forces in the company’s expanding food division. It is surprising that greater competition did not translate into improved overall performance. |
| Keywords: | privatisation, performance, productivity, Irish Sugar, British Sugar |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lim:wpaper:022013&r=eff |
| By: | Vergamini, Daniele; Cuming, David; Viaggi, Davide |
| Abstract: | The new technologies in the field of food processing provide the opportunity to revive some productions that are crushed by the global market and environmental issues. However in the citrus sector the lack of investment and difficulties to manage economic cost are likely to slow down the take-off of these innovations. Starting from the results of the 7FP European Project NAMASTE, this paper provides a methodology for the computation of the full cost of several citrus by-products and an attempts to analyse through a simulation model the decision making problem of a citrus firm who decide to upgrade citrus waste in order to obtain several by-products. The results show the importance of using the full cost in the management of resources. However, the possibility of producing from citrus wastes are constrained by production capacity resources and by the overall efficiency of production technologies. The economic sustainability can be achieved by an increases in production efficiency, improving the technologies and the ability to reuse waste. However, a large amount of investment is still required, which only the large firms can support, at least in the short term. |
| Keywords: | Food industry by-products, full cost accounting, citrus by-products., Agribusiness, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aiea14:173122&r=eff |
| By: | Jong-Wha Lee (Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)); Warwick J. McKibbin |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the impacts of more rapid growth in labor productivity in the service sector in Asia based on an empirical general equilibrium model. The model allows for input–output linkages and capital movements across industries and economies, and consumption and investment dynamics. We find that faster productivity growth in the service sector in Asia benefits all sectors eventually, and contributes to the sustained and balanced growth of Asian economies, but the dynamic adjustment is different across economies. This adjustment depends on the sectoral composition of each economy, the capital intensity of each sector, and the openness of each sector to international trade. In particular, during the adjustment to higher services productivity growth, there is a significant expansion of the durable manufacturing sector that is required to provide the capital stock that accompanies the higher aggregate economic growth rate. |
| Keywords: | the service sector, Labour Productivity, general equilibrium model, balanced growth |
| JEL: | J21 O11 O14 O41 O53 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:tradew:24361&r=eff |
| By: | Cathal Buckley (Rural Economy and Development Programme, Teagasc, Athenry, Co. Galway, Ireland); Paul Murphy (Agricultural Catchments Programme, Teagasc, Wexford, Co. Wexford); David Wall (Johnstown Castle Research Centre, Teagasc, Wexford, Co. Wexford.) |
| Abstract: | This study establishes farm gate N and P balances and use efficiencies based on the average of 2 years of Teagasc National Farm Survey data in 2009 and 2010. The weighted average farm gate N surplus for this nationally representative sample of specialist dairy farms was 143.4 kg N ha-1. Average farm gate nitrogen use efficiency was 23.2%. For dairy farms operating under an EU Nitrates Derogation, the average N surplus was higher at 181.8 kg N ha-1 and averageN use efficiency was slightly lower at 22.2%. The total average farm gate P balance was 4.1 kg ha-1 in surplus, and P use efficiency averaged 83.9%. P balance ranged from -7.3 to 23.0 kg ha-1. A total of 27% had a negative P balance. The average P surplus for farms with a Nitrates Derogation was below the average of all farms at 3.5 kg P ha-1 and average P use efficiency for these Derogation farms was above the average of all farms at 90%. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tea:wpaper:1302&r=eff |
| By: | Cinzia Daraio (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Marco Diana (Politecnico di Torino, Italy); Flavia Di Costa (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Claudio Leporelli (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Giorgio Matteucci (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Alberto Nastasi (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza") |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a self-contained reference for both policy makers and scholars who want to address the problem of efficiency and effectiveness of Local Public Transport (LPT) in a sound empirical way. Framing economic efficiency studies into a transport planning perspective, it offers a critical discussion of the existing empirical studies, relating them to the main methodological approaches used. The connection between such perspectives and Operations Research studies dealing with scheduling and tactical design of public transport services is also developed. The comprehensive classification of selected relevant dimensions of the empirical literature, namely inputs, outputs, kind of data analyzed, methods adopted and policy relevant questions addressed, and the systematic investigation of their interrelationships allows us to summarize the existing literature and to propose desirable developments and extensions for future studies in the field. |
| Keywords: | Public transport ; Variable and Total Cost Functions ; Efficiency ; Effectiveness ; OLS ; Translog ; DEA ; SFA ; Transport indicators ; Transit scheduling ; Tactical design |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aeg:report:2014-14&r=eff |
| By: | CHATZINIKOLAOU, PARTHENA; MANOS, BASIL; KIOMOURTZI, FEDRA |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a model for sustainable planning and optimization of agricultural production. The model is a mathematical programming model, based on multicriteria techniques, and is used as a tool for the analysis and simulation of agricultural production plans, as well as for the study of impacts of the various policies in agriculture. The model can achieve the optimum production plan of an agricultural region combining in one utility function different conflicting criteria as the maximization of gross margin and the minimization of fertilizers used, under a set of constraints for land, labour, available capital, common agricultural policy etc. The proposed model was applied to the region of Thessaly, in central Greece. In all prefectures, the optimum production plan achieves greater gross return, les fertilizers use, and less irrigated water use than the existent production plan. |
| Keywords: | sustainable planning, multicriteria analysis, optimization of agricultural production, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aiea14:173105&r=eff |