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on Efficiency and Productivity |
| By: | Ahcene Ouali (UMMTO - Université Mouloud Mammeri [Tizi Ouzou] = Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou); Martine Audibert (CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - UCA [2017-2020] - Université Clermont Auvergne [2017-2020] - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne); Ahcène Zehnati (LED - Laboratoire d'Economie Dionysien - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée pour le Développement - Partenaires INRAE) |
| Abstract: | Objective: This study aims to evaluate technical efficiency and the evolution of productivity in 120 public hospital establishments (PHE) in Algeria over the period 2011-2020, as well as the factors which influence this efficiency. Methods: To measure efficiency scores, we used the output-oriented DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) method, considering the variable return to scale hypothesis. At the same time, we used the Malmquist index to measure changes in efficiency and productivity over the years and the Simar Wilson models to assess the determinants of efficiency. Results: The average efficiency scores for the study period are 0.788 and 0.710 in the classic DEA and Bootstrap DEA models, respectively. Regarding the Malmquist index, we observed a 3% decline in total factor productivity during the study period, but an improvement in technical efficiency of 0.3% was noted. As for the determinants of efficiency, six variables werefound to besignificant: bedoccupancy rate, average length of stay, number of beds per doctor, number of beds per thousand inhabitants, number of doctors per thousand inhabitants, and budget. Conclusion: The results indicate an overall improvement in the technical performance of public hospitals during the study period. However, a decline in total factor productivity was observed, mainly due to technological change. |
| Abstract: | Objectif : Cette étude a pour objectif d'évaluer l'efficience technique et l'évolution de la productivité dans 120 établissements publics hospitaliers (EPH) en Algérie sur la période 2011-2020, ainsi que les facteurs qui influencent cette efficience. Méthodes : Pour mesurer les scores d'efficience, nous avons recouru à la méthode DEA ( Data Envelopment Analysis ) orientée vers les résultats, en tenant compte de l'hypothèse de rendement d'échelle variable. Parallèlement, nous avons utilisé l'indice de Malmquist pour évaluer les changements d'efficience et de productivité au fil des années, ainsi que la régression tronquée de Simar et Wilson pour évaluer les déterminants de l'efficience. Résultats : Les scores moyens d'efficience pour la période d'étude sont respectivement de 0, 788 et 0, 710 dans les modèles DEA classique et DEA Bootstrap. En ce qui concerne l'indice de Malmquist, nous avons observé une baisse de 3 % de la productivité totale des facteurs au cours de la période d'étude, mais une amélioration de l'efficience technique de 0, 3 % a été relevée. Quant aux déterminants de l'efficience, six variables (le taux d'occupation des lits, la durée moyenne de séjour, nombre de lits par médecin, nombre de lits pour mille habitants, le nombre de médecins pour mille habitants et le budget) étaient significatives. Conclusion : Les résultats obtenus ont mis en évidence une amélioration globale de la performance technique des établissements publics hospitaliers au cours de la période d'étude. Cependant, une baisse de la productivité totale des facteurs a été observée sur la même période, principalement due au changement technologique. |
| Keywords: | Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Efficience, Double Bootstrap, Indice de Malmquist, efficiency, amp, hospitals, Productivity, Malmquist index |
| Date: | 2025–02–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05021744 |
| By: | Benimana, Gilberthe Uwera; Warner, James; Missiame, Arnold Kwesi |
| Abstract: | Agriculture is central to Rwanda's economy, supporting the livelihood of about 70% of the population and contributing significantly to GDP. Smallholder farmers face many production challenges such as limited use of modern inputs, low productivity, and vulnerability to climate change. Despite efforts like the Crop Intensification Program and the Smart Nkunganire System, which aim to en hance access to resources, agricultural productivity remains suboptimal for Rwanda smallholder farmers. This study seeks to identify specific sources of technical inefficiencies among smallholder farmers, focusing on the total value of farmer’s crop output. By using stochastic frontier analysis, a robust quantitative method for separating inefficiencies and random shocks, the study assessed the overall technical efficiency of smallholder farmers in Rwanda and identified the key factors influencing crop output value. The analysis reveals that fertilizer use, pesticide application, labor, seed use, and land size are key drivers of crop output value. This research further indicates that farmers operate at only 45% of their potential productivity, given the same level of input and technology, highlighting substantial room for efficiency improvements to reach the optimal output value frontier. Furthermore, additional analysis emphasizes the critical role of socioeconomic factors in shaping technical efficiency. The findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to optimize resource utilization, streamline labor allocation and strengthen access to extension services and government initiatives aimed at boosting agricultural production value. These strategies can substantially improve technical efficiency, enabling farmers to achieve optimal crop output values and advancing Rwanda's agricultural development objectives. |
| Keywords: | agriculture; smallholders; stochastic models; crops; agricultural development; Rwanda; Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2025–05–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:rsspwp:174560 |
| By: | Kaitila, Ville |
| Abstract: | Abstract Labour productivity in service industries in Finland is lower than in peer countries on average. The difference in the capital-stock-to-hours-worked ratio is even greater. We analysed five service industries in Europe, the United States, and Japan in 1995–2023. Labour productivity is strongly and positively related to how large the capital stock is in relation to the labour input and how high the level of education of the workforce is. Tangible capital, i.e. information and communication technology and traditional fixed capital (buildings, machinery, and transport equipment), is important, but so is intangible capital, i.e. software, and research and development. The results highlight the importance of investments for productivity growth in service industries and support policy measures that encourage companies to make long-term capital investments. In addition, policy measures to increase the level of education and, among other things, to improve the functioning of competition and markets in Finland are important. |
| Keywords: | Service industries, Productivity, Capital intensity, ICT, R&D, Software and databases |
| JEL: | C23 O14 O30 O47 |
| Date: | 2025–05–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:briefs:159 |
| By: | Dan Ben-Moshe; David Genesove |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes a model in which an outcome variable equals the difference between a frontier function of inputs and a nonnegative unobserved deviation. If zero is in the support of the deviation at a given input value, then the frontier function is identified by the maximum outcome there. This obviates the need for instrumental variables. Implementation requires allowing for the distribution of deviations to depend on inputs, thus not ruling out endogenous inputs and ensuring the estimated frontier is not merely a constant shift of a biased conditional expectation. Including random errors results in a stochastic frontier analysis model generalized to allow the joint distribution of deviations and errors to depend on inputs. If the minimum deviation is a function of inputs, then we derive a lower bound for the mean deviation using variance and skewness, without making parametric distributional assumptions. We apply our results to a frontier production function, with deviations representing inefficiencies. |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2504.19832 |
| By: | Mickenzie Bass; Oksana Leukhina |
| Abstract: | Industries with higher percentages of college-educated workers and those with more prevalent AI use tended to see higher productivity growth in recent years. |
| Keywords: | productivity; artificial intelligence (AI); college-educated workers |
| Date: | 2025–05–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:l00001:99968 |
| By: | Yusuke Adachi |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a novel method for estimating the housing production function that addresses transmission bias caused by unobserved heterogeneity in land productivity. The approach builds on the nonparametric identification strategy of Gandhi et al. (2020) and exploits the zero-profit condition to allow consistent estimation even when either capital input or housing value is unobserved, under the assumption that land productivity follows a Markov process. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the estimator performs well across a variety of production technologies. |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2504.20429 |
| By: | Akira Ishide (The University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | Aggregate production and total factor productivity (TFP) fall dramatically during sudden stop episodes. During these episodes, domestic demand contracts, while foreign demand remains largely stable, and exchange rate depreciation favors exporters. This shift leads to a relative expansion of export-oriented activities over domestic-oriented activities. Due to a combination of differences in market power and tax treatment, export-oriented activities exhibit lower revenue-based TFP (TFPR) than domestic-oriented activities. Consequently, the reallocation of resources toward export-oriented activities reduces aggregate TFP. Leveraging detailed microdata from Mexico, I provide new empirical evidence demonstrating the difference in distortions and reallocations of resources at the plant–product–destination level during the 1994 sudden stop. I then build a multisector small open economy new Keynesian model and show that reallocation effects explain about 50% of the observed decline in value added in the manufacturing sector. |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfi:fseres:cf602 |
| By: | Clemens, Marco (Institute for Labor Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU) and Trier University); Sauermann, Jan (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy) |
| Abstract: | Performance pay has been shown to have important implications for worker and firm productivity.Although workers’ skills may directly matter for the cost of effort to reach performance goals, surprisingly little is know about the heterogeneity in the effects of incentive pay across workers. In this study, we apply a dynamic difference-in-differences estimator to the introduction of a generous bonus pay program to study how salient performance thresholds affect incentivized and non-incentivized performance outcomes for low- and high-skilled workers. While we do find that individual incentive pay did not affect workers’ performance on average, we show that this result conceals an underlying heterogeneity in the response to individual performance pay: individual performance pay has a significant effect on the performance of high-skilled workers but not for low-skilled workers. The findings can be rationalized with the idea that the costs of effort differ by workers’ skill level. We also explore whether agents alter their overtime hours and find a negative effect, possibly avoiding negative consequences of longer working hours. |
| Keywords: | performance pay; incentives; productivity; skills; panel data |
| JEL: | C23 J33 M52 |
| Date: | 2025–05–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2025_006 |
| By: | Eren Gürer; Alfons Weichenrieder |
| Abstract: | This study examines optimal government redistribution in a Mirrleesian framework, accounting for a negative effect of longer working hours on productivity. A government ignoring this effect perceives labor supply as insufficient and sets lower marginal income taxes to encourage work. In contrast, a government recognizing the endogenous relationship between productivity and labor supply redistributes more. However, the resulting marginal taxes are still lower than those predicted by standard models where productivity is independent of working hours. |
| Keywords: | working hours, productivity, optimal redistribution, self-confirming policy equilibrium. |
| JEL: | H21 H31 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11866 |
| By: | Tom Coupé (University of Canterbury); Weilun Wu |
| Abstract: | This paper uses meta-analysis to summarize the literature that analyses the impact of generative AI on productivity. While we find substantial heterogeneity across studies, our preferred estimate suggests that on average, across a wide range of tasks, sectors, study methods and productivity measures, the use of GenAI tools increases productivity by 17 %. We further find some evidence that experimental studies show a higher association between GenAI use and productivity than quasi-experimental studies, and weak evidence that the size of the impact of GenAI tools is bigger for quantitative than for qualitative measures of productivity. |
| Keywords: | Generative Artificial Intelligence, Productivity, Meta-Analysis |
| JEL: | J24 O3 |
| Date: | 2025–05–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:25/09 |
| By: | Okeke, Clement Ejiofor |
| Abstract: | The moderating effect of dividend policy on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the financial performance of firms is gradually gaining attention in the literature. However, most of the past works of literature in this area have concentrated on investigating the direct relationship between CSR and dividends or CSR and firm performance. This paper examined the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and the Financial Performance of Listed Consumer Goods Firms in Nigeria. and how dividend policy moderates these relationships. The study used an ex post facto research approach and secondary data were retrieved from the annual financial reports of selected consumer goods firms in Nigeria for eleven years from 2013-2022. E-views version 12 was used to carry out correlation and regression analysis of the direct and moderating effects of relevant variables. The study found that dividend payment has a weakening but insignificant moderating effect on the relationship between Community Corporate Social Responsibility (C-CSR) and Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) of listed consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The study also found that dividend payment has a reversing but insignificant moderating effect on the relationship between Employee Relations Corporate Social Responsibility (ER-CSR) and Return on Capital Employed of listed consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The study recommends that managers and board members in the consumer goods industries in Nigeria should seek investments and policies that would create a balance in the social behavior components and dividend policies of the firms since the interests of the shareholders, communities, and employees are key in maintaining impressive financial performance. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Social Responsibility, Return of Capital Employed, Financial Performance, Dividend. |
| JEL: | A1 L0 M0 O1 |
| Date: | 2024–09–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:123030 |
| By: | Lisa D. Cook |
| Date: | 2025–05–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgsq:99950 |