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on Efficiency and Productivity |
| By: | Montacer Ben Cheikh Larbi (ULR - La Rochelle Université); Sina Belkhiria (ISG - Institut Supérieur de Gestion de Tunis [Tunis] - Université de Tunis) |
| Abstract: | This study provides a robust analysis of environment-adjusted airline efficiency under a dual-disposability assumption for undesirable output. It employs also a two-stage methodology to investigate the complex and heterogeneous relationships between airline operational profiles and their environmental efficiency. Technical efficiency is estimated in the first step using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on the Directional Distance Function (DDF) under both assumptions of the technological characterization of gas emissions, contractible versus non-contractible. In the second step, to analyze the factors influencing the estimated efficiency scores, a Tobit second-stage regression is employed. Results show that efficiency scores under strong disposability are systematically and significantly higher than those obtained under weak disposability, with an average difference of 11.9 percentage points. The findings also indicate a positive and statistically significant relationship between the LCC variable and technical efficiency, implying that airline groups with LCC subsidiaries achieve higher efficiency levels. Based on their specific trade-off between operational and environmental inputs, the analysis of technical efficiency elasticities classifies airlines into five groups. These range from "Strong Proactive Environmental Performers" to "Low Efficiency High-Cost" groups, whose efficiency improvements are structurally linked to either an optimization or a deterioration of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions performance. The technical efficiency elasticity with respect to revenue share and to fuel efficiency are parallel across all airlines, while the elasticity for GHG consistently exhibits the opposite sign. We provide one of the few systematic comparisons of efficiency scores under weak versus strong disposability. This comparison allows us to quantify the systematic contraction in measured efficiency that occurs when greenhouse gas emissions are modeled as a technologically costly output rather than a costless byproduct. |
| Keywords: | Environmental efficiency GHG emissions Airline Directional distance function, Directional Distance Function, Airline, GHG Emissions, Environmental Efficiency |
| Date: | 2027–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05768890 |
| By: | Filip Premik (Department of Economics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; Group for Research in Applied Economics (GRAPE), Warszawa, Poland); Dan Yu (Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada) |
| Abstract: | We study how heterogeneity in capital inputs affects firm performance. Drawing on detailed data on municipal bus fleets in Poland, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation generated by public procurement and nationally coordinated sales behavior of bus manufacturers to identify the causal effects of variety in fleet composition across brands and other technical dimensions. More heterogeneous fleets exhibit lower vehicle utilization and, for a fixed level of output, require more units of capital and generate higher costs. Our results emphasize that the productive capacity of capital depends on its internal structure, not only on its aggregate quantity or value. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneous capital; capital utilization; productivity; fleet composition; organization of production |
| JEL: | D24 L23 L62 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fme:wpaper:121 |
| By: | Gilbert Cette (NEOMA - Neoma Business School); Jimmy Lopez (LEDi - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dijon [Dijon] - UB - Université de Bourgogne - UBFC - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté [COMUE], UBE - Université Bourgogne Europe); Jacques Mairesse (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique [Bruz] - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - Groupe ENSAE-ENSAI - Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et Statistique); Giuseppe Nicoletti (LUISS - Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli [Roma]) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates empirically how differences in managerial practices shaped the macroeconomic recovery from the 2008 Great Recession. We build a country-industry panel over the 2007-2015 period for eighteen industries in nine OECD countries, using an indicator of management quality at the country level based on the categorical scores of managerial practices collected at the firm level by Bloom et al. (2012) and an indicator measuring the industry level shocks caused by the 2008 economic crisis. We then rely on the local projection method pioneered by Jordà (2005) to estimate the impact of the shocks on post-2009 macro developments at different levels of managerial quality. We find that both production and employment were more resilient in countries where management quality is higher, resulting in no significant cumulative impact of management quality on productivity over the recovery. The effects of management on production and employment resilience are stronger for industries deeply affected by the 2008 crisis and go along with wage moderation and a slight increase in the labour share. |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05718405 |
| By: | Nara Chung; Marwil Davila Fernandez |
| Abstract: | This paper extends Goodwin's (1967) predator-prey growth-cycle model to incorporate the negative impact of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) on labor productivity. Using U.S. state-level data for 1998--2019, we first document that deteriorations in the labor share are followed by rising drug-induced mortality. We then build this link into the model through a novel discrete-choice mechanism in which the probability of OUD decreases with the wage share, so when real wages fail to keep pace with productivity growth, opioid use rises. This behavioral health channel feeds back into the economy through a productivity damage function. Applying the existence part of the Andronov-Hopf bifurcation theorem, we show that the resulting three-dimensional nonlinear system admits a limit cycle, as confirmed by our numerical simulations. Along the cycle, rising OUD paradoxically raises the employment rate, as falling productivity requires more labor per unit of output; across steady states, however, higher OUD prevalence is associated with a lower employment rate, consistent with evidence that opioid use disorder reduces labor force participation. Moreover, our numerical experiments show that OUD sensitivity to income widens fluctuations, while productivity sensitivity to OUD counterintuitively compresses them through a self-correcting feedback that speeds the recovery of the wage share. Policies that weaken the link between income and OUD, such as stronger social safety nets, stabilize the resulting dynamics. |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2610.10356 |
| By: | Zoltan Bartha |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the post-2010 expansion of the Hungarian construction sector as a case study of large-scale government intervention in a single market. A political economy framework conceptualises the intervention as two mutually reinforcing policies - expansionary demand (public procurement and housing subsidies) and preferential allocation towards politically connected firms - operating under inelastic supply through two mechanisms: market-level subsidy capitalisation and firm-level rent extraction. Using a structured descriptive case study design, the paper draws on Hungarian Central Statistical Office and Eurostat macroeconomic statistics, firm-level data on Hungary's largest companies (CrefoPort), policy documents, and a regional comparison to assess four propositions derived from the framework. The evidence supports all four: real construction output grew faster than in any regional peer except Romania; construction producer prices persistently outpaced the GDP deflator; ownership of the leading firms shifted towards politically connected domestic owners, whose profitability rose sharply while their exports remained negligible; labour productivity per hour worked returned by 2024 to roughly its 2000 level; and connected firms captured a rising share of sector profits, as the subsidies' value was partly eroded by the price increases they induced. Competing explanations do not jointly account for this configuration. The findings illustrate how combined demand stimulus and favouritism produce extensive growth without efficiency gains. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2610.03791 |
| By: | Gandhi, Piyush; Hagerty, Nick; Zucker, Ariel |
| Abstract: | Energy efficiency is a global priority, but investments in energy efficiency do not always deliver the expected benefits. This paper studies micro-irrigation systems (MIS), a technology thought to reduce the energy required for irrigation by as much as 70 percent. We installed individual meters to directly measure the energy consumption of several hundred farmers in Gujarat, India, and linked the meter data with survey data to yield a uniquely comprehensive view into energy use patterns in smallholder agriculture. We document two facts. One, energy use varies widely across farmers, and this variation is unexplained by factors such as farm area or village geography. Two, MIS users in our sample consume 30 to 40 percent more energy than non-users of MIS. This difference does not appear to be fully explained by observable differences across farmers nor by rebound effects, suggesting that the energy efficiency gains of MIS under real-world conditions may be disappointing. Our results highlight a need for increased attention to the details of implementation and further research into the actual benefits of resource-conserving technologies. |
| Keywords: | 4404 Development Studies (for-2020), 44 Human Society (for-2020), 2 Zero Hunger (sdg), Energy efficiency, Rebound effect, Irrigation, Technology subsidies, Energy (science-metrix), 3304 Urban and regional planning (for-2020), 4407 Policy and administration (for-2020), 4802 Environmental and resources law (for-2020) |
| Date: | 2026–12–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucscec:qt8gn3x7gz |
| By: | Li Gan |
| Abstract: | Can a regulator promise both a risk ceiling and a development deadline when safety productivity is unknown? A ceiling below the final model's unprotected hazard requires a minimum stock of safety knowledge, so both promises hold only if weak research can be ruled out. Learning first and then replaying development, with spare compute in safety, comes close to that minimum. In a calibration with only state risk, constant safety yield, and full knowledge transfer, it needs only 3.3 percent more productivity than the necessary bound. Customer services pay for the guarantee. Rules that fix compute allocation fix dates, not risk. |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2610.11093 |
| By: | Garg, Prashant (Bocconi University); Lambert, Peter John (University of Warwick & London School of Economics); Martin, Ralf (Imperial College London, Centre for Economic Performance and CEPR); Medvedev, Denis (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper pilots a method for measuring firms' product and process innovation at scale. Our approach uses LLMs to complete a detailed innovation survey for a sample of 600, 000 companies operating across 40 countries. The preliminary results contain 6 million individual instances of innovative activity along with rich textual descriptions. These responses carry signal, for example a one-standard-deviation increase in a firm's product innovation index is associated with a 5% higher measured TFP residual. The data reveal that innovation is widespread: two-fifths of companies engage in product innovation and one-quarter in process innovation, far exceeding the share of patenting firms. Firms are more likely to have labor-augmenting than labor-saving introductions, while about 14% have green product in novation and 12% have green process innovation. Greenness and net labor augmentation are positively associated across countries. Beyond our specific application, this paper illustrates the potential for using LLMs to generate survey-level insights at population scale. |
| Keywords: | Innovation direction; Green innovation; Automation; LLMs; AI measurement; Patents JEL Classification: O30; O31; O33; O34; Q55; J24 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:825 |