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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2016‒07‒02
thirteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Martinez Cillero, Maria; Breen, James; Thorne, Fiona; Wallace, Michael; Hennessy, Thia |
| Abstract: | A high degree of heterogeneity has been observed amongst Irish beef farms, with a diverse range of production systems employing different practices and technologies. Such variation can compromise the estimates obtained when stochastic frontier analysis is used to estimate the frontier under which farms in the sector operate, since it relies on the assumption that all farms operate under the same technology. A latent class stochastic frontier model is implemented using an unbalanced panel dataset constructed from farm level data for Irish beef farms between the years 2000 and 2013, in order to identify different technologies. Results obtained suggest that a single frontier model overestimates technical inefficiency compared to the model where technology heterogeneity is taken into account. Overall results highlight the importance of correctly addressing technology heterogeneity in order to obtain reliable technical efficiency measures; and the comparison of the main characteristics for different classes identified suggest the need of targeted policy measures. |
| Keywords: | latent class model, beef production, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier, Agricultural and Food Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q18 - Agricultural Policy • Food Policy < Q1 - Agriculture < Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, Q12 - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets < Q1 - Agriculture < Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc16:236351&r=eff |
| By: | Fujii, Hidemichi; Cao, Jing; Managi, Shunsuke |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes productive efficiency in relation to CO2 emissions using a unique dataset of 562 Chinese manufacturing firms for the period from 2005 to 2009. We develop a directional distance function approach to identify technical innovators in the area of CO2 emissions. The results indicate that a large number of technical innovators are observed in the textile, paper, steel, and computer industries. Furthermore, there are clearly different trends in productivity change and corporate performance across industries and provinces. This result implies that policy makers need to consider industrial and regional characteristics to develop effective policies that conserve energy and reduce CO2 emissions. |
| Keywords: | Technical innovator; total factor productivity; technology adoption; CO2 emissions; Chinese manufacturing firm |
| JEL: | D24 O14 Q55 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71851&r=eff |
| By: | Willox, Michael; Baldwin, John R. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how much of the slowdown in productivity growth observed in Canada?s business sector between the 1990s (1990 to 1999) and the 2000s (2000 to 2014) was due to weaker productivity growth within industries and how much was due to structural adjustment. The analysis makes use of a decomposition method that differs from many of the standard labour productivity decomposition approaches commonly found in the literature and allows the contributions of changes in the importance of individual industries to be calculated. |
| Keywords: | Economic accounts, Productivity accounts |
| Date: | 2016–06–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2016373e&r=eff |
| By: | Dakpo, K Hervé; Latruffe, Laure |
| Abstract: | In this article we assess the impact of agri-environmental subsidies on farms’ technical efficiency, when the latter is measured with and without accounting for greenhouse gases (GHGs). The application is to a sample of beef cattle farms located in grassland areas in France during the period 1993-2013. In a first stage we calculate robust technical efficiency accounting for both good output (meat) and bad output (GHGs). In a second stage we regress the different technical efficiency scores on a set of explanatory variables including agri-environmental subsidies as an amount received by the farmer related per livestock unit. The results indicate that these subsidies had a positive impact on farms’ technical efficiency among the farmers that have adopted agri-environmental measures. This is the first work on the effect of subsidies on technical efficiency including environmental outputs, and it does not confirm the negative effect generally found in existing studies based on classic technical efficiency. |
| Keywords: | by-production, GHG emissions, agri-environmental subsidies, livestock, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, D24, O47, Q10, Q50, |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc16:236339&r=eff |
| By: | Yasmina Rim Limam, Stephen M. Miller and Giampaolo Garzarelli |
| Abstract: | How do physical capital accumulation and Total Factor Productivity (TFP) individually add to economic growth? We approach this question from the perspective of the quality of both labor and physical capital, namely human capital and the age of physical capital. We build a unique dataset by explicitly calculating the age of physical capital for each country and each year of our time frame and estimate a stochastic frontier production function incorporating input quality in five groups of countries (Africa, East Asia, Latin America, South Asia, and West). Physical capital accumulation generally proves much more important than either the improved quality of factors or TFP growth in explaining output growth. The age of capital decreases growth in all groups except in Africa, while human capital increases growth in all groups except in East Asia. |
| Keywords: | Age of Physical Capital, Output Growth, Stochastic Frontier, Total Factor Productivity |
| JEL: | F43 O47 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:613&r=eff |
| By: | Efobi Uchenna Rapuluchukwu; Tanankem Voufo Belmondo; Beecroft Ibukun |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of fiscal incentives on firms’ productivity using Cameroonian firms as a case. We use data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey for over 300 firms to calculate the productivity of firms. The Enterprise Survey also contains unique measures of assessing firms’ beneficiary status from different categories of fiscal incentives such as import duty exemption, profit tax exemption and export financing. The availability of these measures at the firm level allows us to conduct an impact analysis using the propensity score matching technique. Our results show a significant and positive impact of the productivity of firms that benefit from profit tax exemption and export financing. However, when considering import duty exemption, the significance of this variable was not consistent. The paper thus provides support for the argument that the government’s involvement in the firm should be targeted at rewarding outputs and not supporting processes, and thus provides an essential element of a strategy for industrialisation. |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ocp:rpaper:rp-16/03&r=eff |
| By: | Bruno Lanz; Simon Dietz; Timothy Swanson |
| Abstract: | We study how stochasticity in the evolution of agricultural productivity interacts with economic and population growth, and the associated demand for food. We use a two-sector Schumpeterian model of growth, in which a manufacturing sector produces the traditional consumption good and an agricultural sector produces food to sustain contemporary population. In addition, sectors differ in that agriculture also demands land as an input, itself treated as a scarce form of capital. In our model both population and sectoral technological progress are endogenously determined, and key technological parameters of the model are structurally estimated using 1960-2010 data on world GDP, population, cropland and technological progress. Introducing random shocks to the evolution of total factor productivity in agriculture, we show that uncertainty optimally requires more land to be converted into agricultural use as a hedge against production shortages, and that it significantly affects both consumption and population trajectories. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth; Stochastic control; Agricultural productivity; Endogenous innovations; Land conversion; Population dynamics; Food security. |
| JEL: | O11 O13 O31 J11 C61 Q16 Q24 |
| Date: | 2016–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:ciesrp:cies_rp_43&r=eff |
| By: | Tom Chang; Joshua Graff Zivin; Tal Gross; Matthew Neidell |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of pollution on worker productivity in the service sector by focusing on two call centers in China. Using precise measures of each worker’s daily output linked to daily measures of pollution and meteorology, we find that higher levels of air pollution decrease worker productivity by reducing the number of calls that workers complete each day. These results manifest themselves at commonly found levels of pollution in major cities throughout the developing and developed world, suggesting that these types of effects are likely to apply broadly. When decomposing these effects, we find that the decreases in productivity are explained by increases in time spent on breaks rather than the duration of phone calls. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that the negative impacts of pollution on productivity extend beyond physically demanding tasks to indoor, white-collar work. |
| JEL: | J22 J24 Q51 Q53 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22328&r=eff |
| By: | Khem Raj Dahal; Shiva Ch; ra Dhakal |
| Abstract: | This study compares the productivity and profitability of organic and conventional farming for five crops (tea, coffee, rice, maize and cauliflower) in five different districts in Nepal.We find that organic farmers generally have a larger number of cattle and land holdings, but are not very different from conventional farmers in terms of education and household size. In terms of crop productivity, conventional yields are statistically higher than organic yields for two crops, tea and rice, and conventional profits in rice are also higher. Two crops, organic maize and coffee, show negative profits in both conventional and organic systems. However, net revenues are higher in organic maize and coffee relative to their conventional counterparts because of lower costs. In general, conventional crops are more costly to produce than organics. Organic farms face many more policy barriers than conventionally cropped farms. In this context, technological options such as suitable seed varieties, bio-fertilizers, vermi-compost, and improved farm yard manure would improve organic crop productivity. A shortage of organic manure could be overcome by promoting farm livestock enterprises. |
| Keywords: | Organic farming, productivity, profits, rice, tea, Nepal |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:snd:wpaper:106&r=eff |
| By: | Yakhontova, Elena Sergeevna (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)); Gavrilova, S.V. (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)) |
| Abstract: | The paper deals with theoretical approaches to the management of productivity, research the key factors that determine productivity in Russian companies and advanced productivity management practices. productivity management is seen in close connection of the production system and personnel management system. Special attention in this work is given to the study of best practices of domestic and foreign companies in the sustainable growth of labor productivity of staff. |
| Keywords: | management of productivity, Russian companies |
| Date: | 2016–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:3132&r=eff |
| By: | Temoso, Omphile; Hadley, David; Villano, Renato |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare16:235522&r=eff |
| By: | Green |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare16:235315&r=eff |
| By: | Andrew B. Bernard; Andreas Moxnes; Yukiko U. Saito |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the importance of buyer-supplier relationships, geography and the structure of the production network in firm performance. We develop a simple model where firms can outsource tasks and search for suppliers in different locations. Low search and outsourcing costs lead firms to search more and find better suppliers. This in turn drives down the firm's marginal production costs. We test the theory by exploiting the opening of a high-speed (Shinkansen) train line in Japan which lowered the cost of passenger travel but left shipping costs unchanged. Using an exhaustive dataset on firms' buyer-seller linkages, we find significant improvements in firm performance as well as creation of new buyer-seller links, consistent with the model. |
| Keywords: | production networks, trade, productivity, infrastructure |
| JEL: | F14 D22 D85 L10 L14 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1435&r=eff |