Human capital contributions to explain productivity differences

This paper develops a parametric decomposition framework of labor productivity growth relaxing the assumption of labor-specific efficiency. The decomposition analysis is applied to a sample of 121 developed and developing countries during the 1970–2007 period drawn from the recently updated Penn World Tables and Barro and Lee (A new data set of educational attainment in the world 1950–2010. NBER Working Paper No. 15902, 2010) educational databases. A generalized Cobb–Douglas functional specification is used taking into account differences in technological structures across groups of countries to approximate aggregate production technology using Jorgenson and Nishimizu (Econ J 88:707–726, 1978) bilateral model of production. The measurement of labor efficiency is based on Kopp’s (Quart J Econ 96:477–503, 1981) orthogonal non-radial index of factor-specific efficiency modified in a parametric frontier framework. The empirical results indicate that the weighted average annual rate of labor productivity growth was 1.239 % over the period analyzed. Technical change was found to be the driving force of labor productivity, while improvements in human capital and factor intensities account for the 19.5 and 12.4 % of that productivity growth, respectively. Finally, labor efficiency improvements contributed by 9.8 % to measured labor productivity growth.     

Value-based performance excellence measurement for higher education institution: instrument validation

The purpose of this article is to construct-validate an instrument of value-based performance excellence measurement for higher education institution (HEI) in Malaysia. The HEI performance is measured using 6 value indicators of leadership, culture, productivity, employee, stakeholders and overall performance. 1,100 questionnaires were distributed and 275 questionnaires were used for analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach was deployed by using analysis of moment structures software. The results for the hypothesised CFA model revealed the fit statistics of CFI = 0.944, TLI = 0.939 and RMSEA = 0.075. In conclusion, the CFA model fitted the data well. Implications of the study was significant to HEI to consider and adapt the value-based assessment approach in university assessment for total excellence.     

A School-Level Gravity Model of Student Migration Flows to Higher Education Institutions

This paper presents a gravity model of student migration flows to higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland. The analysis is performed on a novel dataset containing detailed information on a range of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors, allowing one to estimate the effects of a number of important school-level characteristics on these flows. This is achieved by estimating and comparing a fixed-effects Poisson model and two conditional fixed-effects negative binomial models and selecting the best model on the basis of the Akaike information criterion (AIC). The preferred negative binomial model accounts for over-dispersion in the student flow data and allows for estimation of the parameter coefficients of the HEI-invariant characteristics. The analysis suggests that while geography plays a very important role in explaining student flows, so too do a range of school-level characteristics. Furthermore, it is found that distance has a differential impact across HEIs and HEI types with important implications for policy-makers and HEI managers.     

Social integration and the role of student societies in higher education: an exploratory study in the UK

• This paper reports the research findings of an exploratory study designed to examine the role that planned efforts to establish and cultivate a student society play in the social integration of undergraduate students in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK. It identifies and explores the potential positive and negative benefits and outcomes that the operation of such a society can provide. The study aimed to achieve a better understanding of the role that a student society can play in the social integration of students. A qualitative methodology using 12 in‐depth interviews was employed. Data were analysed in relation to the key theme of the study, that is, student‐peer and student‐staff interactions. In addition, emergent themes were recorded and evaluated. The findings demonstrated that involvement in a student society did contribute to the social integration of students, it was found to be a key factor in reducing student attrition and dropout rates. The findings also demonstrate that a student society can make a meaningful and positive contribution to the management and administration of HEIs in terms of the perceived employability of students and the potential for student recruitment. It would appear that perhaps the value of a student society is currently under‐realised. Student societies could be viewed as a resource that with proper attention and development and could provide real benefits for both students and institutions across the entire HEI environment of the UK. Although there is a danger of student marginality occurring, there are ways to address this potential drawback.

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficiency and productivity in the Thai non-life insurance industry

This paper estimates a stochastic cost frontier for a sample of the non-life insurance industry in Thailand from 2000 to 2007. Our model explicitly considers the heteroscedasticity in the variances of the noise and inefficiency components that could affect the position of the cost frontier as well as the measurement of efficiency. Tests for double heteroscedasticity and appropriate specification for the cost frontier are performed. The chosen model is used to examine whether economies of scale and a change in technology exist. In addition, this paper calculates total factor productivity (TFP) change and decomposes it into scale effect, cost efficiency effect, technology effect, output effect, price effect, and environmental effect. Our results reveal that, on average, Thai non-life insurance firms are between 74 and 79 % efficient, that economies of scale exist, and that regress in technology shifts the cost frontier upward by 2.2 %. The regress in technology is the dominant contributor to a negative TFP growth of 1.15 %. The restructuring of the industry following the 1997 Asian financial crisis finally paid off when the industry experienced technology progress in 2005 and beyond. Between 2005 and 2007, technology progress and productivity growth occurred at a little over 2 % a year. In-depth analysis of the most and the least efficient firms reveals that most efficient firms tend to strategically select types of insurance services and underwrite average and small size sum insured per policy to diversify their risks. In addition, they tend to be savvy investors. The opposite holds for the least efficient firms which concentrate in providing labor-intensive, small sum automobile insurance policies or underwrite large coverage policies for fewer policyholders. Balancing the mix of insurance types, spreading risk across insurance types or across number of policyholders, investing in high yield assets, or developing a market niche may prove beneficial for improving cost efficiency.     

对高校推行快乐体育而淡化田径项目的思考

文章阐述了田径运动在高校体育中的作用及锻炼价值，分析了目前普通高校体育课中田径项目开展的现状及遭受冷落的原因，提出一些相应的对策和建议，以使田径选项课在普通高校公共体育课中顺利开展下去。     

Flexibility,labour retention and productivity in the EU

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between internal flexibility, the employment of fixed-term contract workers and productivity in 27 European Union countries. Drawing on European Company Survey data, the paper assesses whether establishments that employ on a fixed-term basis experience higher productivity than their competitors and stronger labour productivity improvements over time. These issues are of importance, given the recent weakness of productivity growth in many EU member countries, the steps that governments have taken to relax rules relating to the employment of fixed-term workers and the emphasis placed on contractual flexibility within the European Commission’s flexicurity agenda. The paper finds that establishments that do not use fixed-term contracts enjoy productivity advantages over those that do. Establishments that employ on a fixed-term basis but retain workers once their fixed-term contract has expired perform better than those that do not retain workers. The findings also show that establishments that pursue internal flexibility report both higher productivity than competitors and productivity increases over time. In addition, they are more likely to retain workers who have reached the end of a fixed-term contract.     

高校教师非权力性影响力研究

高校教师是教学关系中的主导者与实施者,其非权力性影响力是教师发挥综合涵养,对学生产生的一种非强制性制约作用,对大学生思想形成、学业发展与行为引导等都具有重要的指导意义。文章拟对高校教师非权力性影响力价值体现、构成要素及制约因素等进行分析,同时结合笔者的实践经验,提出提升高校教师非权力性影响力的对策思考。     

Efficiency in government health spending: a super slacks-based model

This article evaluates the performance of health expenditure and demonstrates how productivity has changed over time for 46 selected countries in Europe and Central Asia by applying three nonparametric data envelopment analysis models that assume variable returns-to-scale, slacks-based measures (SBM), and Super SBM, respectively. Our results show that countries could have increased output by 1.2 % based on existing levels of inputs. The finding of decreased productivity growth is related to technical change, and super efficiency is found to provide a good framework for ranking efficient units. Based on the Super SBM model, we obtain proper scores and find the most efficient country.     

Hicks-Moorsteen versus Malmquist: a connection by means of a radial productivity index

A primal index of productivity change is introduced which decomposes exactly into three components: technical change, technical efficiency change and average scale economies (radial scale change). The productivity index is defined using variations of the distance function along pre-assigned input–output rays and, for this reason, it is deemed a radial productivity index (RPI). It is proven that: first, the RPI index collapses to the Malmquist productivity index when the technology is constant returns to scale (CRS); second the RPI index equals the Hicks-Moorsteen productivity index under homotheticity of technology (and non-CRS). The key to these results is a new definition and measure of the contribution of scale economies to productivity change.     

Polarization of the worldwide distribution of productivity

We employ data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods to construct the world production frontier, which is in turn used to decompose (labor) productivity growth into components attributable to technological change (shift of the production frontier), efficiency change (movements toward or away from the frontier), physical capital deepening, and human capital accumulation over the 1965–2007 period. Using this decomposition, we provide new findings on the causes of polarization (the emergence of bimodality) and divergence (increased variance) of the world productivity distribution. First, unlike earlier studies, we find that efficiency change is the unique driver of the emergence of a second (higher) mode. Second, while earlier studies attributed the overall change in the distribution exclusively to physical capital accumulation, we find that technological change and human capital accumulation are also significant factors explaining this change in the distribution (most notably the emergence of a long right-hand tail). Robustness exercises indicate that these revisions of earlier findings are attributable to the addition of (more recent) years and a much greater number of countries included in our sample. We also check to see whether our results are changed by a correction for the downward bias in the DEA construction of the frontier, concluding that these corrections affect none of our major findings (essentially because the level correction roughly washes out in changes.)     

A comparative study of domestic,European and international job-related relocation

This paper explores a number of relocation outcomes for geographically mobile employees in the following three regions: Germany as the home country and destination for domestic assignments (n = 115), Western Europe (n = 116) and other countries (n = 236). The satisfaction with various aspects of the post-relocation environment, the perception of change between the pre- and post-relocation environment and the attachment to the post-relocation environment at various levels were compared between the three groups. For the European and international sub-samples differences in the ideal country and future plans were also investigated. The group that stood out most clearly was the domestic sub-sample. It emerged as the group least satisfied with their job or task characteristics, perceived significantly fewer changes in the environment and was comparatively eager to leave the site they were currently working at and the job they were currently employed in. The sometimes proposed redefinition of intra-European assignments as ‘quasi-domestic’ relocation appears to be inappropriate.     

The exchange rate and machinery and equipment imports: Identifying the impact of import source and export destination country currency valuation changes

This paper presents estimates of the impact of exchange rate movements on the quantity of machinery and equipment imports. Many countries have become increasingly reliant on imports of these types of products and evidence in a number of studies indicates that investment in machinery and equipment contributes to improved productivity and growth. Unlike previous studies, this study differentiates between exchange rate movements with respect to machinery and equipment import source and final good export destination countries. Data are employed for two machinery and equipment importing countries, Australia and Canada, and two exporting countries, Japan and the U.S. The results indicate that a currency depreciation with respect to an import source country has a significant negative effect on the quantity of machinery and equipment imports, while a depreciation with respect to a domestic final good export destination country has a significant positive effect. These findings imply that the net impact on the quantity of machinery and equipment imports of an exchange rate change with respect to a particular country will depend on the extent to which that country is a supplier of machinery and equipment imports and a market for domestic exports.     

Setting the course for quality assurance in higher education

While the application of quality management and total quality management in higher education (HE) are discussed in literature, quality assurance (QA) of academic programs—the main services offered by higher education institutes (HEIs)—is yet to be fully understood. Scepticism prevails on how the principles of QA—having origin in manufacturing sector—can be applied in HE. The main question addressed in this article is ‘how the academic processes can be designed for QA?’ This paper suggests the use of systems approach for a number of reasons: first systems approach brings wide range of stakeholders into organisational consciousness. Second, it allows deployment of QA strategically through the development of a mission for the HEI. Third, it allows alignment and realignment of academic processes with the mission of the HEI. Finally, it allows systematic management of QA implementation with an essential focus on continual improvement. The mentioned elements are embodied in a framework consisting of a list of diagnostic questions to guide the integration of QA into academic processes. The framework should help HEIs integrate QA into academic programs with continual improvement as an essential ingredient.     

A profile of European accounting research: evidence from leading research journals

This paper attempts both to advance understanding about the research profile of accounting in Europe and to evaluate the role of The European Accounting Review in the dissemination of Europe-based accounting research. Empirical evidence supporting this investigation was gathered from all the papers published in thirteen top accounting journals during the period 1992 to 1997. Our results show that (i) a vast majority of European contributions to well-regarded journals are authored by scholars affiliated to British higher education organizations. Therefore, the overwhelming dominance of British accounting academics over Europe-based accounting research posits considerable doubts on the extent to which it is correct to form the notion of European accounting research. Our results suggest that such a notion is strongly shaped by one constituency of the European setting, that is, by researchers affiliated to British higher education institutions. (ii) The European Accounting Review has played a significant role in the diffusion of Europe-based accounting research. The journal constitutes the sole venue providing international visibility to scholars of eleven continental European countries. Moreover, The European Accounting Review has published a significant proportion of contributions from scholars of the other fifteen European countries. (iii) There exists limited mobility of non-English written accounting research across European countries. Lastly, the paper posits some suggestions for further work in this area.     

From European Union to European Monetary Union: the new member states and accession countries of Central and Eastern Europe in 2004

The 10 new member states and candidate countries from Central and Eastern Europe have made the institutional reforms embodied in the acquis communautaire, including developing institutions of social dialogue which are supposed to ease the path to entry into the European Monetary Union (EMU). This review assesses the challenges facing the Central and Eastern European countries in achieving the targets set for EMU entry and questions whether the existing institutions of social dialogue will be able to bear the strain of achieving those targets.     

An Analysis of the Convergence of the Composition of Public Expenditures in European Union Countries

The literature on fiscal policies is paying increasing attention to the impact of the composition of public expenditures on long‐term economic growth. Public policy endogenous growth models recommend to change the composition of public expenditures to items considered productive expenditures. In this sense, European institutions are encouraging the rise in the share of productive outlays like public investments, R&D, and active labor market policies, among others. The article analyzes whether these recommendations are followed by European Union countries and whether a convergence to a new pattern of public finances with a higher share of those items considered productive expenditures by European institutions is arising.     

Creation of climate-smart and energy-efficient agriculture in the European Union: Pathways based on the frontier analysis

Creation of the climate-smart agriculture requires efficient resource use and mitigation of the environmental pressures among other objectives. Therefore, it is important to assess the energy efficiency and productivity growth in the European Union's agriculture. This paper analyses the sample of the selected European Union member states. The productive technology including the energy consumption and the resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is constructed. The measurement of the energy efficiency and productivity change relies on the slacks-based measure and Luenberger productivity indicator. The productivity growth was decomposed with respect to the input/output variables and the sources of growth (i.e., efficiency change and technical progress). The average annual productivity growth of 0.79% was obtained for the selected countries during 1995–2016. The highest productivity gains were observed in Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium and Romania (1.27%–1.94% per year). The productivity growth related to GHG emission dominated the contributions by the input/output variables in Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium, Romania, Poland, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Hungary and Estonia.     

Structure of the labour market and wage inequality: evidence from European countries

The aim of this paper is to explore how the structural changes that have occurred in the labour market, in terms of employment composition by skill levels, affect wage inequality in three developed countries of Western Europe that are in close geographical proximity but have disparities in their labour market characteristics. More precisely, the analysis compares, from an international perspective, France, Germany—whose labour markets have been characterised in recent years by job polarization and the upgrading of occupations, respectively—and Italy, where neither of the two phenomena can be clearly identified. Using EU-SILC (European Union—Survey on Income and Living Conditions) data, in the first step, RIF-regression (Recentered Influence Function) enables an exploration on the primary factors that are likely to explain the differences in generating personal labour earnings and, in the second step, a decomposition of the change in wage inequality between 2005 and 2013 to evaluate how much of the overall gap is accounted for by the endowments in employees’ individual characteristics (composition effect) rather than the capability of labour markets to transform these characteristics into job opportunities and earnings (wage structure). Regarding France and Germany, the main results highlight how the endowment effect plays a key role in decreasing or, at least, not increasing wage inequality, whereas in Italy the rising inequality may be due to the lower efficiency of the country’s labour market in creating job opportunities, better job-related careers, and higher-salaries for employees.     

Australia’s mining productivity decline: implications for MFP measurement

This paper investigates the mining sector’s poor productivity performance as measured by the growth accounting formula for multifactor productivity (MFP) index during the recent mining boom in Australia. We provide an alternative measure of productivity growth by estimating a translog variable cost function, with parameters that separate productivity growth due to technical change from that due to the effects of returns to scale, capacity utilisation and natural resource inputs. The results show that the average MFP growth in Australian mining based on the dual cost-function measure of technical change is 2 % over the sample period 1974–1975 to 2007–2008, rather than ?0.2 % from the published index. The difference arises because declining natural resource inputs, the effects of capacity utilisation and returns to scale have all reduced the ‘true’ MFP growth.