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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2019‒09‒02
seventeen papers chosen by |
| By: | Nusrat Abedin Jimi; Plamen Nikolov; Mohammad Abdul Malek; Subal Kumbhakar |
| Abstract: | Improving productivity among microenterprises is important, especially in low-income countries where market imperfections are pervasive, and resources are scarce. Relaxing credit constraints can increase the productivity of microenterprises. Using a field experiment involving agricultural microenterprises in Bangladesh, we estimated the impact of access to credit on the overall productivity of rice farmers and disentangled the total effect into technological change (frontier shift) and technical efficiency changes. We found that relative to the baseline rice output per decimal, access to credit resulted in, on average, approximately a 14 percent increase in yield, holding all other inputs constant. After decomposing the total effect into the frontier shift and efficiency improvement, we found that, on average, around 11 percent of the increase in output came from changes in technology, or frontier shift, while the remaining 3 percent was attributed to improvements in technical efficiency. The efficiency gain was higher for modern hybrid rice varieties, and almost zero for traditional rice varieties. Within the treatment group, the effect was greater among pure tenant and mixed-tenant microenterprise households compared with microenterprises that only cultivated their own land. |
| Keywords: | field experiment, microfinance, credit, Efficiency, productivity, farmers, South Asia |
| JEL: | E22 D20 H81 O12 O16 Q12 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2019-052&r=all |
| By: | Aparicio, J.; Zofío, J.L. |
| Abstract: | Overall efficiency measures were introduced in the literature for evaluating the economic performance of firms when reference prices are available. These references are usually observed market prices. Recently, Aparicio and Zofío (2019) have shown that the result of applying cross-efficiency methods (Sexton et al., 1986), yielding an aggregate multilateral index that compares the technical performance of firms using the shadow prices of competitors, can be precisely reinterpreted as a measure of economic efficiency. They termed the new approach ‘economic cross-efficiency’. However, these authors restrict their analysis to the basic definitions corresponding to the Farrell (1957) and Nerlove (1965) approaches, i.e., based on the duality between the cost function and the input distance function and between the profit function and the directional distance function, respectively. Here we complete their proposal by introducing new economic cross-efficiency measures related to other popular approaches for measuring economic performance. Specifically those based on the duality between the profitability (maximum revenue to cost) and the generalized (hyperbolic) distance function, and between the profit function and either the weighted additive or the Hölder distance function. Additionally, we introduce panel data extensions related to the so-called cost Malmquist index and the profit Luenberger indicator. Finally, we illustrate the models resorting to Data Envelopment Analysis techniques from which shadow prices are obtained, and considering a banking industry dataset previously used in the cross-efficiency literature. |
| Keywords: | Data Envelopment Analysis, Overall efficiency, Cross-efficiency |
| Date: | 2019–06–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:eureri:119107&r=all |
| By: | Iyad Dhaoui (Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies) |
| Abstract: | Efficiency is becoming one of the central preoccupations of health sector due to mounting pressures on health care resources since many years. However, assessing efficiency at cross-country level has not been often directly evaluated by given inputs or outputs. In the first stage of the two-stage performance analysis, this paper assesses the technical efficiency of 18 health systems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method for the years 1997, 2005 and 2014. We used both an input and an output-oriented approaches to measure the technical efficiency of those systems and we conducted a cluster analysis in terms of health production efficiencies and health outcomes of various countries upon three sub-periods in order to make the division of health production patterns of these countries clearer. The paper also analyzes the allocative efficiency upon the two approaches. In the second stage, the paper analyzes the determinants of health efficiency using a Tobit regression. Descriptive analysis shows that life expectancy has increased since many years, although the important variations in terms of economic development among the considered sample. The DEA results indicated that the average efficiency scores for all health systems were, respectively for the years 1997, 2005 and 2014, 79% and 83.6% and 78.7%, under the input-oriented approach; and 98.2%, 98.5% and 97.9% according to the output-oriented approach. Results showed that efficient frontier includes countries with good health outcomes and those with modest health outcomes. In essence, the empirical evidence rejects some hypotheses, such as the low-income countries cannot be a reference in terms of health efficiency. Cluster analysis showed that both countries on efficiency frontier and countries far from this frontier are different from year to year. Analysis revealed also that some countries may learn from countries which are more economical in their allocation of health resources; and more spending is not necessary the best option. For the Tobit model, results upon the two approaches revealed that private expenditure as a percentage of GDP and control of corruption impact positively and significantly efficiency scores while public spending as a percentage of government expenditure has a negative effect. Adult literacy rate and population density have a positive and non-significant impact. Moreover, results showed no correlation between the efficiency of health system and the income group to which a country is belonging, and we cannot judge this efficiency through the gross national income per capita. |
| Date: | 2019–08–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1320&r=all |
| By: | E. Grifell-Tatjé (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona); C. A. K. Lovell (School of Economics and Centre for Efficiency and Productivity Analysis (CEPA) at The University of Queensland, Australia) |
| Abstract: | A primal (or direct) productivity index is conventionally defined as the ratio of an output quantity index to an input quantity index. There have been attempts in the literature to define and implement dual and indirect productivity indexes based on price changes rather than quantity changes. Although dual and indirect productivity indexes share a common motivation, the measurement of productivity change when prices are measured more accurately than quantities, they differ analytically, from one another and from primal productivity indexes. We introduce a new dual productivity index, based on contributions of Konüs and Shephard, and we compare our dual productivity index with a primal productivity index based on the work of Malmquist. We also compare these two theoretical productivity indexes with analogous empirical Fisher productivity indexes. We provide an empirical application to US agricultural productivity growth. |
| Keywords: | dual and primal productivity indexes, price distance functions, agricultural productivity |
| JEL: | D24 D33 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uqcepa:140&r=all |
| By: | Fanti, Lucrezia; Guarascio, Dario; Tubiana, Matteo |
| Abstract: | Relying on a unique integrated database, this work explores the relationship between labour productivity, on one side; intensity and characteristics of companies’ skills need and degree of skill mismatch, on the other. The analysis focuses on a representative sample of Italian limited liability companies observed during the years 2012, 2014 and 2017. First, companies acknowledging the need to update their knowledge base display a higher productivity vis-à-vis other firms. Second, when it comes to the skill need distinguished by competence/knowledge domains (management, STEM, social and soft skills, technical operatives and humanities) it emerges that companies looking for technical operative and social skills show lower labour productivity as compared to other firms. On the contrary, companies characterized by a need in managerial, STEM or humanities-related skills show higher productivity. Third, the ability to match the skill need via new hiring is always positively correlated with firms’ productivity. This result is confirmed across all the adopted specifications. |
| Keywords: | labour productivity, skill mismatch, firm-level heterogeneity, knowledge- base, organizational capabilities |
| JEL: | D22 D80 J24 |
| Date: | 2019–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:95694&r=all |
| By: | Nergiz Dincer (Department of Economics, TED University); Ayça Tekin-Koru (Department of Economics, TED University) |
| Abstract: | The main aim of the current paper is to investigate the productivity dynamics of Turkey during the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) era to contribute to the ongoing discussions of long-term economic growth of the country, using a unique data set and firm-level granular productivity analysis. Furthermore, the deindustrialization of Turkey is scrutinized as a complement to the productivity analysis. Among a plethora of results, the following three are the most important ones in terms of their policy implications: (i) The aggregate productivity figures underestimated the productivity improvements in the manufacturing sector and overestimated the productivity losses in the services sector. (ii) The productivity growth of manufacturing sector in Turkey has been positive yet evolving towards medium-low tech manufacturing which displays the lowest productivity growth among all manufacturing sectors. (iii) While the surviving firms in the Turkish manufacturing sector have increased their own productivity in the AKP era, in the services sector surviving firms have a negative contribution to aggregate productivity growth. |
| Date: | 2019–08–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1318&r=all |
| By: | Giovanni Dosi; Marco Grazzi; Le Li; Luigi Marengo; Simona Settepanella |
| Abstract: | In this article we propose a new methodology for computing the aggregate productivity of an industry, its variations and decompositions of the latter into changes of individual productivities (within effect) and changes in industry composition (between effect). Current aggregate measures rely on some weighted average of individual productivities, and decompositions distinguish between the effect of productivities and weights on variations of the average. However such aggregate measure is incoherent with the disaggregate one (the two are computed with different methodologies), is subject to aggregation biases, arbitrariness in the choice of weights, and information loss. Such problems are particularly serious when heterogeneity among firms is high. We propose instead a geometric approach where aggregate productivity can be measured directly on industry data, but nevertheless its variations can be decomposed into between and within effects plus an heterogeneity effect. We show that our measure does not incur in many of the problems of the weighted average and we also present an empirical application to European data. |
| Keywords: | Productivity measurement; Decomposition of aggregate productivity growth; Firm heterogeneity. |
| Date: | 2019–08–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2019/26&r=all |
| By: | Tirkaso, Wondmagegn T.; Hailu, Atakelty G. |
| Keywords: | Production Economics |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291180&r=all |
| By: | Giuliano, Genevieve |
| Abstract: | The METRANS Transportation Center is working with California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, and the California Air Resources Board to implement the economic competitiveness provisions of the California Sustainable Freight Action Plan (CSFAP). The CSFAP aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by establishing targets for freight efficiency and the transition to zero emission trucks by 2030. The CSFAP also calls for improving the economic competitiveness of the freight sector. It requires that an industry stakeholder group be convened to establish metrics and targets for economic competitiveness. This brief summarizes the research support that METRANS has been providing to this stakeholder group. The first phase of the work was to establish a framework for measuring economic competitiveness and establishing a 2030 target. METRANS has taken a deliberate approach in order to achieve consensus among the stakeholders and assure that the process would result in meaningful metrics. View the NCST Project Webpage |
| Keywords: | Business, Data analysis, Economic analysis, Economic impacts, Freight traffic, Freight transportation, Metrics (Quantitative assessment), Productivity, Supply chain management, Workshops |
| Date: | 2019–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt3055c30s&r=all |
| By: | Chennak, Ahmed; Fulginiti, Lilyan E. |
| Keywords: | International Development |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291019&r=all |
| By: | Kappes, Alex; Marsh, Thomas L. |
| Keywords: | Labor and Human Capital |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:290979&r=all |
| By: | Edquist, Harald; Goodridge, Peter; Haskel, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | Did the huge investment in telecommunications networks in the 1990s affect subsequent total factor productivity? Using data from 13 European countries and the US, 1995-2013, we document the substan- tial growth and then slowdown in "telecommunications" capital and ask if this is related to the growth and slowdown in TFP. We explore this by disaggregating ICT equipment investment into "IT" and "CT" equipment investment. We test for distinct effects from each using a simple framework where CT cap- ital has network externalities and so potentially impacts TFP, with the marginal impact of CT capital growth being higher in countries spending more on renting CT capital. We find: a) evidence of a robust correlation between (lagged) growth in (rental share-weighted) CT capital services and TFP growth; b) the estimated externality from CT capital potentially explains around 30-40% of TFP growth in North European countries, 60% in Scandinavia and around 90% in the US; c) CT capital has a social return around five times its private return; and d) a slowdown in the accumulation of CT capital accounts for just over half of the post-2003 TFP slowdown in the US but only one-tenth of the TFP slowdown in the EU |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13910&r=all |
| By: | SUZUKI Wataru |
| Abstract: | This study aims to empirically investigate the determinants of labor productivity (LP) of Japan's home help industry, such as economies of scale and economies of scope. By using establishment-level data constructed through the Care Service Information Disclosure System (CSIDS), the study estimates a simple LP function. Major results of this study are as follows. First, LP varies notably across establishments in Japan's home help industry. Second, Economies of scope, competition conditions, years of business activity, type of ownership, quality of service and demand factors have significant impact on the LP of establishments. Economies of scale may also have a positive impact on LP because we find that joint-run establishments outperform single establishments. Third, although the exiting and new entrant establishments both have much lower LP than the existing establishments, LP of second year establishments is higher than LP for existing ones. This result suggests that entry and exit play an important role in the reallocation process in the home help industry. Finally, variance decomposition of the logarithm of establishment-level LP shows that the component within municipalities is much larger than the component between municipalities. There is a β-convergence in establishment-level LP. Convergence of LP between municipalities seems to be faster than within municipalities. |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:19043&r=all |
| By: | Owusu, Eric S.; Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291200&r=all |
| By: | Baffoe-Bonnie, Anthony; Kostandini, Genti |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291186&r=all |
| By: | Rosas, Juan F.; Lence, Sergio H. |
| Keywords: | Production Economics |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291136&r=all |
| By: | Dakpo, K Hervé; Femenia, Fabienne |
| Keywords: | Production Economics |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291146&r=all |