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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2019‒10‒21
ten papers chosen by |
| By: | Tommaso Agasisti (Politecnico di Milano School of management); Francesco Porcelli (SOSE) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the efficiency of Italian local governments using a novel dataset collected by SOSE (an agency of the Italian Ministry of Finance specialized in econometric analysis) and by means of Stochastic Frontier Analysis, for the period 2010-2015. As dependent variable of the cost function, we consider the total current expenditure for producing six “essential” local public services: education (ancillary services), waste management, general administration, local police, urbanization and road conditions, and social services. As outputs, we employ indicators for outputs for each of the six services, although they enter simultaneously in the multioutput cost function. In an alternative specification of the model, we use a composite indicator for the output volume. Thus, we estimate a global efficiency score for each local government in each year. The findings reveal that the total expenditure declined over time, less than proportionally when compared with reduction of outputs produced. As a consequence, the global efficiency of Italian municipalities is estimated to be lower in 2015 than it was in 2010. Moreover, there is evidence of substantial scale economies as well as congestion effects, with municipalities with around 10,000 inhabitants being more efficient than their smaller and larger counterparts. Lastly, on average local governments are more efficient in providing public services in northern Regions than in southern ones. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, local governments, panel Stochastic Frontier Analysis |
| JEL: | D78 H11 H50 H72 H75 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:81&r=all |
| By: | Nicholas Masiyandima; Lawrence Edwards |
| Abstract: | Zimbabwe had one of the world's worst economic crises from the late 1990s to 2009. The crisis encompassed a nancial sector crisis, severe adverse investment and demand shocks and idiosyncratic rm and industry interventions by government. On the basis of the resource misallocation hypothesis, the study investigates the effects of the shocks on within industry resource allocation effciency for the country. Using the country's manufacturing firm data before and after the crisis and comparable data for two comparator countries, Ghana and Kenya to estimate the potential productivity eects of the crisis, there is evidence suggesting a deterioration in the country's within industry resource allocation effciencies, with the country estimated to have lost at least 20 and 32.8 log points in potential firm productivity, respectively, against its pre crisis and its comparator countries productivity, with the allocative ineciency persisting into the post crisis period. |
| Keywords: | Crisis, Selective Policy, Firm, productivity, Size, Allocation, Zimbabwe |
| JEL: | O33 L60 |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:721&r=all |
| By: | Huong Thi Thu Tran (Crawford School of Economics & Government, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia); Kaliappa Kalirajan |
| Abstract: | Understanding the determinants of Environmental goods (EGs) trade is imperative for trade promotion and environmental protection. As the impacts of the determinants differ among EGs subgroups and countries, examining these determinants for each subgroup is necessary for policy recommendations. Export performances measured in terms of export efficiency using the stochastic frontier gravity model and data from APEC from 2007 to 2014 suggest that, albeit, the efforts in tariff reduction of APEC, do not appear to have reduced the constraints to increasing export efficiency of EGs trade over the period of analysis. Through the APEC regional cooperation, there is an urgent need to transfer technology in EGs to those countries with poor export efficiency from those countries enjoying the high level of realization of export efficiency including Japan, USA, China, and Canada. |
| JEL: | F14 F15 Q56 R11 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:ccepwp:1806&r=all |
| By: | Roman G. Smirnov; Kunpeng Wang |
| Abstract: | Charles Cobb and Paul Douglas in 1928 used data from the US manufacturing sector for 1899-1922 to introduce what is known today as the Cobb-Douglas production function that has been widely used in economic theory for decades. We employ the R programming language to fit the formulas for the parameters of the Cobb-Douglas production function generated by the authors recently via the bi-Hamiltonian approach to the same data set utilized by Cobb and Douglas. We conclude that the formulas for the output elasticities and total factor productivity are compatible with the original 1928 data. |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1910.06739&r=all |
| By: | Argentieri, Alessandro; Canova, Luciano; Manera, Matteo |
| Abstract: | In this paper, football data from the 2007/2008 to 2016/2017 seasons of the Italian Serie A were used to identify the effects of replacing a coach mid-season due to poor team performance. We used an instrumental variable approach to correlate coach turnover within a season with player productivity and found a very low positive impact of the coach change in the short term but a significant negative impact in the long term. Our findings are also relevant to the literature on management replacement in small-size firms. |
| Keywords: | Research Methods/ Statistical Methods |
| Date: | 2019–10–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemth:294196&r=all |
| By: | Akimitsu Yagata (Aoyama Gakuin Univiersity); Kaoru Kuramoto (Aoyama Gakuin Univiersity); Yosuke Kurihara (Aoyama Gakuin Univiersity); Toshiyuki Matsumoto (Aoyama Gakuin Univiersity); Satoshi Kumagai (Aoyama Gakuin Univiersity) |
| Abstract: | Socially responsible investment (SRI) involves investors selecting companies based on their level of social responsibility. An eco-fund is an SRI-type investment trust that invests in environment-friendly companies, also known as ?eco-excellent? companies. In many cases, the process of choosing the companies to be included in the trust is not transparent and, due to subjective decisions by fund managers, it is not clear how the investment rate is determined.In this study, we propose four eco-funds and evaluate their performance. Since the risk of the eco-fund should be distributed, the investment rate will be determined so that the percentage of the top brands is low. The portfolio should consist of brands with high efficiency in environmental investment.First, we evaluate a company?s environmental management capability and profitability using quantitative data such as the amount of sales, greenhouse gas emissions, and ROE (return on equity). We then determine a set of brands for the eco-funds to invest in. To determine the investment rate for each stock or portfolio, an environmental minimum variance frontier is calculated.The proposed eco-funds are (1) EEC fund, (2) Beta fund, (3) Expanded beta fund, and (4) Environmental index fund. (1) The EEC fund invests in brands that perform well both in terms of environmental management based on carbon productivity and profitability based on ROE. (2) The Beta fund invests in brands that perform well both in environmental management based on carbon productivity beta values and earnings efficiency based on ROE. (3) The Expanded beta fund invests in brands that perform well only in environmental management based on carbon productivity beta values; it includes more brands than the Beta fund. (4) The Environmental index fund invests in all the brands considered and is a benchmark to measure the performance of the other eco-funds. |
| Keywords: | Eco-funds, Carbon Productivity, Environmental Investment, Portfolio |
| JEL: | Q59 Q56 M00 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9811732&r=all |
| By: | Voth, Hans-Joachim; Xu, Guo |
| Abstract: | Patronage is a byword for poor performance, yet it remains pervasive. We study the selection effects of patronage in the world's most successful navy â?? the British Royal Navy between 1690 and 1849. Using newly collected data on the battle performance of more than 5,800 naval officers promoted â?? with and without family ties â?? to the top of the navy hierarchy, we find that connected promotees outperformed unconnected ones. Therewas substantial heterogeneity among the admirals in charge of promotions. Discretion over appointments thus created scope for "good" and "bad" patronage. Because most admirals promoted on the basis of merit and did not favor their kin, the overall selection effect of patronage was positive. |
| Keywords: | Management; motivation; patronage; Performance; Royal Navy; selection |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13963&r=all |
| By: | Corrado, Carol; Haskel, Jonathan; Jona-Lasinio, Cecilia |
| Abstract: | How has capital reallocation affected productivity growth since the financial cri- sis? For example, have low interest rates disrupted the reallocation process? This paper calculates the effect on productivity growth of capital reallocation between industries. It uses an accounting framework, due to Jorgenson and his co-authors, that computes the contribution of capital services to productivity growth relative to one where rates of return are equalised between sectors: if capital persists in the low return sectors, the reallocation measure falls. Using data from 11 countries (the major EU economies plus the US), in 1997-2013, we nd: (a) the contribution of capital reallocation to productivity growth is lower in most economies after than before the financial crisis, notably in Mediterranean countries; (b) more capital real- location is correlated with lower real interest rates, contrary to the hypothesis that low real interest rates have hurt capital reallocation; (c) controlling for shocks, lower capital reallocation is associated with lower optimism, and weaker financial systems. |
| Keywords: | capital reallocation; Intangible Capital; Productivity Growth |
| JEL: | E01 E22 O47 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13972&r=all |
| By: | Barry Ehinomen Ebhojie (O'Khona General Dealers and Projects) |
| Abstract: | Worldwide, more than one third of energy is used in buildings which account for about 15% of the total greenhouse gas that is emitted globally. Buildings in cities can account to about 80% for carbon monoxide emitted. Therefore, the built environment is a very critical part of the climate change mitigation. Evaluated in this research are energy efficiency measures that can be implemented through regulations and controls. From administered questionnaires, the issues of energy efficiency have become an imperative principle in the building sector and the way it is managed in South Africa. Based on the analysis provided, energy efficient behaviour is the predominant factor that influences energy consumption. According to the PCA results, seven variables (Age of building, number of bedrooms, roofing materials, energy for cooking and heating, window style and brick and concrete wall) were all dominant variables and these variables remain significant after implementing multiple regression models to estimate energy cost. |
| Keywords: | Buildings; Energy Efficiency; Greenhouse gas; PCA |
| JEL: | D10 A13 C83 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9812036&r=all |
| By: | Yang, Jangho; Heinrich, Torsten; Winkler, Julian; Lafond, François; Koutroumpis, Pantelis; Farmer, J. Doyne |
| Abstract: | Productivity levels and growth are extremely heterogeneous among firms. A vast literature has developed to explain the origins of productivity shocks, their dispersion, evolution and their relation- ship to the business cycle. We examine in detail the distribution of labor productivity levels and growth, and observe that they exhibit heavy tails. We propose to model these distributions using the four parameter Lévy stable distribution, a natural candidate deriving from the generalised Central Limit Theorem. We show that it is a better fit than several standard alternatives, and is remarkably consistent over time, countries and sectors. In all samples considered, the tail parameter is such that the theoretical variance of the distribution is infinite, so that the sample standard deviation increases with sample size. We find a consistent positive skewness, a markedly different behaviour between the left and right tails, and a positive relationship between productivity and size. The distributional approach allows us to test different measures of dispersion and find that productivity dispersion has slightly decreased over the past decade. |
| Keywords: | productivity, dispersion, distribution, heavy-tail, Lévy stable distribution |
| JEL: | D2 J24 O3 R12 |
| Date: | 2019–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:96474&r=all |