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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2019‒09‒09
ten papers chosen by |
| By: | Miroslav Mateev (American University in the Emirates) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of regulation and ownership on the performance of banks in 19 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, over a period of 11 years (2005 - 2015). We test the hypothesis that the effect of regulation on efficiency and profitability depends on the type of bank ownership. We find that only capital regulations have a strong impact on bank efficiency, but this effect does not depend on the level of ownership concentration of the bank. In line with previous empirical studies, we find that the impact of regulatory measures on bank profitability does not depend on bank ownership type. We also investigate whether the impact of regulation and ownership is different between conventional and Islamic banks, and find that the interaction effect of bank regulations and different types of ownership on a bank?s profitability is strongly significant only in the sample of Islamic banks. The analysis of bank performance before and after the recent global financial crisis reveals that bank regulations have no influence on cost efficiency of a conventional bank either before or after the crisis; however, the impact on an Islamic bank?s efficiency is strongly significant in the full sample period and the post-crisis period. |
| Keywords: | global financial crisis, ownership, bank regulation, efficiency, profitability |
| JEL: | G21 G28 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iefpro:8911196&r=all |
| By: | Addo, Felicity; Salhofer, Klaus |
| Abstract: | In the last two decades, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) has experienced significant changes which has created a highly competitive market in which farmers operate. This is particularly challenging for countries with small-scaled agriculture like Austria, requiring farms to significantly improve technical efficiency in order to be competitive. In this paper, we apply a four-error component model to decompose technical efficiency into persistent inefficiency, which captures long run effects of farm management, and transient inefficiency, which accounts for how farms adjust to short run production shocks, while controlling for farm heterogeneity and a random error. We extend this model to include exogenous determinants for both types technical inefficiency. To do so, we estimate a translog stochastic production function for a panel of 231 Austrian crop farms for the period 2003-2016. We observe that though transient and persistent efficiency are similar on average, persistent efficiency is much more dispersed suggesting that persistent technical inefficiency poses a greater problem for Austrian crop farms than the transient component. Overall technical efficiency is estimated at 89%. Regarding persistent technical efficiency, we find that full time farms and medium to large scale farms are more efficient. However, we observe that older farmers and farms that employ a high proportion of family labour are less persistently efficient. With regards to transient technical efficiency, we find that farms that cultivate more on their own land are less transiently efficient compared to farms on rented land. Lastly, we observe that farm subsidies in general negatively affects both types of efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis |
| Date: | 2019–08–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi19:292287&r=all |
| By: | Torres Mazzi, Caio (UNU-MERIT); Foster-McGregor, Neil (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores how technological capabilities influence the relationship between imported inputs and the export performance of firms. We apply threshold regression techniques to a representative dataset of Brazilian firms and find a strong positive influence of innovation skills on the relationship between imported intermediates and export revenues. We further find that the complementarities between importing and exporting are stronger for firms that export products with a higher scope for quality differentiation. We also observe that technological capabilities are directly correlated with export performance, confirming the view that innovation positively influences firms' international competitiveness. This relationship is not found to be significant for firms that export products with a low scope for quality differentiation and that export to lower income non-OECD markets. Overall, our results suggest that technological capabilities and the quality of imported inputs not only benefit firms directly but also complement each other in enhancing export competitiveness. |
| Keywords: | imports, exports, productivity, innovation, technological capabilities, Brazil |
| JEL: | F14 O31 O33 O47 |
| Date: | 2019–08–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2019028&r=all |
| By: | Li, Hao |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:290673&r=all |
| By: | Axenbeck, Janna |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of environmental innovations on firm profitability with respect to differences between small and medium-sized (SME) and large (LE) enterprises. Using data from the Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP) 2015, results show that, in general, SME benefit more from environmental innovations than LE. This effect is particularly strong for resource efficiency-improving innovations induced by regulation. These environmental innovations are significantly related to an increase in profits of SME, whilst related to a decrease in profits of LE. A robustness check with data from the MIP 2009, however, does not confirm this result as the effect for LE is insignificant and differences between the two groups cannot be found in this survey wave. A reason why negative effects for LE are observed in the MIP 2015 - but not in the MIP 2009 - might be that most LE had already exploited the potentials of environmental innovations when they were surveyed in the MIP 2015. This is supported by evidence suggesting that size-related differences in the MIP 2015 are driven by a negative relationship between LE's profits and environmental innovations related to externalities that were reduced by innovations in periods before. |
| Keywords: | Firm Behavior,Firm Size,Porter hypothesis,Environmental Technology Adaption,Technological Innovation,Environmental Regulation |
| JEL: | D22 L25 Q52 Q55 Q58 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:19033&r=all |
| By: | Skevas, Teo; Cabrera, Victor E. |
| Keywords: | Production Economics |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291178&r=all |
| By: | Rodriguez, Orlando |
| Keywords: | Resource /Energy Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:291098&r=all |
| By: | Koppenberg, Maximilian; Hirsch, Stefan |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea19:290706&r=all |
| By: | Uthes, Sandra; Herrera, Beatriz |
| Abstract: | There is a growing demand in the last years for farm-level sustainability data reflected in various initiatives from farmers, science and food or related industries. The broad aim to develop viable food production systems, through supporting the sustainable management of natural resources and climate action and to strive for more balanced territorial development are core values within the EU and are reflected in the changing Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The CAP is one of the key drives of agricultural practice across the EU, it has become more oriented towards the concepts of sustainability reflecting these higher order objectives. The EU operates a farm-level monitoring system, the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), which acts as a check to establish if such successful change is being achieved, currently the primary focus is on the economic dimension of sustainability. This article uses an FADN farm sample for which both FADN and additional sustainability data were available form a data collection carried out by the EU-project FLINT. In particular, we compare the relationship between input intensity, efficiency and sustainability. Sustainability performance of the farms is compared by applying sustainability thresholds as identified in a literature survey. The farms were grouped according to their degree of efficiency and sustainability and possible relationships with farm characteristics are analysed. Based on farm benchmarking, around one half of the farms was observed to be neither efficient nor sustainable, while 15% met our criteria for being classified as efficient and sustainable. The results of our study are not representative but illustrative and can be a starting point for further analyses in this field. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Productivity Analysis |
| Date: | 2019–09–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi19:292342&r=all |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Yaoundé/Cameroon) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to investigate whether enhancing financial access influences productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. The research focuses on 25 countries in the region with data for the period 1980-2014. The adopted empirical strategy is the Generalised Method of Moments. The credit channel of financial access is considered and proxied by private domestic credit while four main total factor productivity (TFP) dynamics are adopted for the study, namely: TFP, real TFP, welfare TFP and real welfare TFP. It is apparent from the findings that enhancing financial access positively affects welfare TFP whereas the effect is not significant on TFP, real TFP and welfare TFP. Policy implications are discussed. The study complements the extant literature by engaging hitherto unemployed dynamics of TFP in Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| Keywords: | Economic Output; Financial Development; Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | E23 F21 F30 O16 O55 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exs:wpaper:19/052&r=all |