Dynamic stochastic analysis of the farm subsidy-efficiency link: evidence from France

The existing literature on the subsidy-efficiency nexus is almost exclusively based on static modelling and thus ignores the inter-temporal nature of production decisions. The present paper contributes to this literature by developing a dynamic stochastic frontier model, which is then estimated using a sample of French farms over the period 1992–2011. For comparison purposes, the static counterpart of the dynamic model is also estimated. The results indicate that, in the dynamic case as well as in the static one, public subsidies are negatively associated with farm technical efficiency. Nevertheless, these linkages are found to be weak, and they are much weaker when dynamic aspects are taken into account.     

Money donations,volunteering and organizational efficiency

The purpose of this article is to explain the cross-sectional variation in money donations to charities at the organizational level. Using a unique data base which includes volunteer labor data, this article tests the hypotheses that money donations are positively related to volunteering and the technical efficiency of the firm. Technical efficiency is measured by a number of non-parametric indices. The empirical results indicateinter alia that the more technically efficient the charity, the more money donations it is able to raise. Moreoer, at least for one model, money donations and volunteering are found to be complementary at the organizational level. In addition, the results in this article are not consistent with the well-known hypothesis that government financing crowds out private donations.     

Measurement of innovation efficiency in logistic enterprises: Evidence from China based on the three-stage DEA-Malmquist index model approach

Continuous improvement of technological innovation ability, adjustment of the development strategy, and enhancement of operational performance are of great theoretical and practical significance for logistics enterprises. This paper aims to analyze and evaluate the innovation efficiency of the logistics industry. The study utilizes the static three-stage DEA model and the dynamic Malmquist index model, considering a total of 12 indicators related to innovation input, output, and environmental variables. A dataset of 2940 entries from 49 listed logistics enterprises from 2017 to 2021 was calculated. The analysis provides insights into the innovation efficiency of logistics enterprises from a static perspective and the innovation total factor productivity from a dynamic perspective and decomposition terms. Based on the analysis of environmental variables by the SFA model, it was found that DEA inefficiency is the combined result of environmental factors and management inefficiency. Environmental variables have both positive and negative effects on innovation. The improvement of the economic development level will lead to excess R&D investment. Increased government simple fund subsidies are not conducive to the efficient allocation of innovation resources within enterprises. The expansion of enterprise scale will increase R&D personnel and investment in fixed assets. A thriving technology market can encourage enterprises to improve their own conversion rate of scientific and technological output and give full play to their innovation ability. The dynamic Malmquist model analysis reveals a recution in the overall innovation efficiency of listed logistics enterprises over 5 years. The changes in total factor productivity and technological progress efficiency of all listed logistics enterprises are synchronized, with most enterprises exhibiting higher technological progress efficiency compared to comprehensive technical efficiency. The total factor productivity of logistics enterprise innovation is mainly affected by comprehensive technical efficiency.     

2005年-2011年间我国矿业生产效率分析——基于DEA模型的Malmqusit指数实证分析

本文采用了2005年至2011年共7年的相关投入产出指标,使用数据包络分析的Malmqusit指数模型,对矿业的Malmqusit生产率指数进行测度,认为我国矿业的生产效率除2008-2009年间外均存在上升的趋势;然后对其进行RD分解,得到综合技术效率变动、技术进步、纯技术效率变动、规模报酬变动四个不同的指标值,认为生产效率改进的主要原因是技术进步效率的提升,而综合技术效率变动、纯技术效率变动、规模报酬则拖累了生产效率,随后分析了四个不同指标值的经济含义。     

Technical efficiency measures for dairy farms using panel data: A comparison of alternative model specifications

This article examines the impact of fixed effects production functions vis-à-vis stochastic production frontiers on technical efficiency measures. An unbalanced panel consisting of 96 Vermont dairy farmers for the 1971–1984 period was used in the analysis. The models examined incorporated both time-variant and time-invariant technical efficiency. The major source of variation in efficiency levels across models stemmed from the assumption made concerning the distribution of the one-sided term in the stochastic frontiers. In general, the fixed effects technique was found superior to the stochastic production frontier methodology. Despite the fact that the results of various statistical tests revealed the superiority of some specifications over others, the overall conclusion of the study is that the efficiency analysis was fairly consistent throughout all the models considered.     

基于SBM和Malmquist指数的我国物流业能源效率评价

基于2003-2017年我国30个省(市、区)的面板数据,通过SBM模型和Malmquist指数,从静态和动态两个视角分析我国物流业能源效率。研究发现,就静态角度而言,我国物流业能源总体效率为0.62,还处于较低的水平,各地区之间差异明显,在观测期内东部沿海地区一直处于全国领先水平,西南地区效率最低。从动态角度来看,我国Malmquist指数均值为0.988,说明物流能源全要素生产率下降了1.2%,下降的原因是技术效率与技术进步共同作用的结果;全国八大区域中除北部沿海、东部沿海和南部沿海的Malmquist指数呈上升趋势外,其余地区均呈现不同程度的下降,技术进步是导致区域差异的主要原因。为此,提出优化物流产业结构、提高物流技术水平、因地制宜出台相关物流政策等措施,可进一步提升我国物流业能源效率。     

Inference in dynamic stochastic frontier models

An important issue in models of technical efficiency measurement concerns the temporal behaviour of inefficiency. Consideration of dynamic models is necessary but inference in such models is complicated. In this paper we propose a stochastic frontier model that allows for technical inefficiency effects and dynamic technical inefficiency, and use Bayesian inference procedures organized around data augmentation techniques to provide inferences. Also provided are firm‐specific efficiency measures. The new methods are applied to a panel of large US commercial banks over the period 1989–2000. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficiency evaluation of Chinese regional industrial systems using a dynamic two-stage DEA approach

Industrial air pollution control recently becomes a major policy issue in China. Performnce evaluation can examine policy effectiveness and provide decesion support for industrial development. A regional industrial system in China contains production and abatement stages. Within this structure, the capacity of industrial waste gas treatment can be treated as a carry-over variable. More precisely, it is a desirable output of the abatement stage in the previous period but an input to the abatement stage in the current period. Using this framework, this study establishes a dynamic two-stage data envelopment analysis model to explore the efficiencies of regional industrial systems in China. This model provides measures of the overall, period, stage, and period stage efficiencies. Based on empirical data from 2007 to 2015, it is concluded that (1) the carry-over variable capacity of industrial waste gas treatment has significant influences on the operational efficiency scores of regional industrial systems, especially in the abatement stage; (2) there exist distinct geographic characteristics of inefficiencies in the regional industrial systems; (3) the average period efficiency of the abatement stage was lower than that of the production stage during China's 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006–2010); however, the reverse happens during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011–2015); and 4) industrial structure and economic development level are the key influencing factors of regional industrial efficiencies. This study entails important implications for policy makers in terms of industrial waste gas treatment and revelant contextual factors.     

中国国有、私营和外资工业企业地区间效率差异研究

根据中国30个省份工业企业2001~2011年的面板数据,基于Fre-Primont TFP指数DEA方法,测算各省份国有、私营和外资企业的综合效率、TFP增长及其分解要素,对其发展模式进行类别划分。结果表明,外资和私营企业的综合效率均值始终高于国有企业;工业企业表现出不同的效率优势,私营企业的优势在于技术效率和规模效率,国有企业的优势在于技术效率水平低但增长趋势显著,外资企业的优势在于范围经济效率;在研究期内TFP增长均产生了大幅增长,主要原因在于整体技术进步水平的大幅提高。进入高效高速发展模式省份最多的是外资企业,其次依次是私营和国有企业,三类企业地区间两极分化趋势明显。     

基于DEA三阶段模型的中国高新技术产业效率研究

采用三阶段DEA模型分析法,研究2010年我国31个地区高新技术产业效率。研究结果显示:环境和随机干扰因素对我国高新技术产业效率影响显著,虚高了综合技术效率水平,且对中西部地区影响较大;规模效率不足是制约综合技术效率水平主因,但其提升空间相对较大,全国26个非综合技术有效地区规模效率递增率高达100%,因此,加大规模投入是综合技术效率水平提升的首选途径。区域差异明显主要反映在中西部与东部地区之间,全国高新技术产业综合技术效率水平总体呈东、中、西高低排列,其中,中西部地区规模效率的巨大鸿沟是其综合技术效率不足的根源。     

Dynamic efficiency of primary education in Brazil: Socioeconomic and infrastructure influence on school performance

Brazilian educational indicators have shown virtually no improvement since 2000, according to national and international evaluations. However, there are large disparities among schools, even in the poorest regions. This work evaluates efficiency of primary education in Brazilian schools using a dynamic DEA model, taking into account school differences in the socioeconomic levels of its students. Dynamic modelling is made possible by the inclusion of an infrastructure index as a carry-over between periods. Results are based on three model specifications that differ on their treatment of the socioeconomic variable. Efficiency distributions of these models are not statistically equal, but the general conclusions are convergent. They show almost no evolution on school efficiency between 2007 and 2015, but indicate possible efficiency improvements by investments in school infrastructure.     

Assessing the influence of external factors on agricultural production in Brazil

This article uses 2017 Brazilian agricultural census data (aggregated at county level) to evaluate the impact of external factors on agricultural efficiency in Brazil. The external factors are defined as access to credit, participation in cooperatives, proportion of literacy, technical assistance, and environmental production practices. All variables are transformed as the log of the municipal (county) rank. The response variable is defined as the free disposal hull (FDH) conditional ratio and a one-inflated beta regression is estimated. The results show that in counties where the FDH ratio is equal to 1, cooperatives have the biggest impact on efficiency, and where the FDH ratio is not equal to 1, environmental practices, which are most often associated with technology, have the largest effect on efficiency. Finally, the regions that are expected to see the largest gains in efficiency with increases in external factors are the Northeastern and the Northern regions of Brazil.     

Efficiency evaluation of the regional high-tech industry in China: A new framework based on meta-frontier dynamic DEA analysis

This paper proposes a new framework based on the combination of the dynamic DEA, meta-frontier analysis theory, and truncated regression model, and then focuses on the efficiency evaluation of regional high-tech industries in China. For all of the overall technical efficiency, technical efficiency, and scale efficiency scores, the east area is always in the lead, with the central and west areas obviously lagging behind. The eastern area has the highest technology level, whereas the west and central areas fall behind in turn. However, the meta-technology ratio of the west area has rapidly increased and presents a trend of catching up with the east. The variables of GRP per capital, total exports and imports, highway mileage per capita, and ratio of tertiary industry to GRP have positive relationships with technical efficiency, and the time trend exhibits a negative coefficient.     

我国国际机场运营效率研究——基于DEA模型的评估与优化

运用DEA模型评估我国30家国际机场的效率,并从投入和产出上指出了无效机场的优化路径。实证结果显示,机场在总体上运营稳定,但大部分仍处于无效生产前沿面上。导致机场运营无效率的原因包括纯技术和规模两方面,其中前者是东部地区机场无效的主要原因,而后者则是中西部机场无效的最大根源。机场效率的优化会因其规模报酬特征而异。最后针对不同类型机场给出了提高效率的建议。     

Relationships between technical efficiency and subsidies for Czech farms: A two-stage robust approach

Subsidies for agriculture in the European Union have been a matter of debate for a long time. However, even after many years of debate, it remains unclear whether the subsidies have a positive or negative effect on farm efficiency. We propose a robust two-stage framework to study the subsidies-effect to farm technical efficiency while controlling farm heterogeneity. First, technical efficiency scores are computed using a modern robust data envelopment analysis model. Then, a quantile regression model is applied to explain the relationship between technical efficiency and the total subsidies and other commonly used explanatory variables. In the empirical part, we analyze a sample of Czech farms during the period from 2010 to 2015. It is revealed that the subsidies-effect is negative and varies based on the technical efficiency of the farm. Higher efficient farms face a less distorting effect than lower efficient farms.     

A Social-accounting-matrix-based Long-term Model for a Gulf Cooperation Council Country: the Kuwaiti Case

A social-accounting-matrix-based long-term economy-wide model for a typical oil-producing Gulf country is constructed and used to simulate the development path of the Kuwaiti economy up to 2015. The model represents a flexible tool that captures the common structural features, economic problems and policy issues facing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. From a technical point of view, the model is in the structuralist computable general equilibrium tradition with static within-period and dynamic interperiod components. The model is solved every 5 years with a flexible parameter adjustment scheme, and a dynamic mechanism to update the capital stock, population size, labour force profile and financial assets held abroad.     

中国高技术产业技术创新三阶段特征及其演变

基于投入产出分析的逻辑思路建立技术创新三阶段模型,运用链式网络DEA方法测量我国高技术产业技术创新三阶段效率,通过技术创新效率的动态变化观察高技术产业技术创新演变规律。研究发现,1996~2011年我国高技术产业技术开发阶段经历了整体上类似“U”形的变化,源于技术开发阶段的投入增多、企业重视力度加大;技术转化阶段滞后于技术开发阶段近两年的变化时期,主要起因于纯技术无效率、技术开发阶段和产业化阶段的脱节;产业化阶段滞后于技术开发阶段近5年的变化时期和技术转化阶段近3年的变化时期,主要由于产业化阶段作为技术开发和技术转化的下游阶段,偏低的技术转化率必然导致最终的产业化率极低,但改进的空间很大。     

Estimating the multi-period efficiency of high-tech research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: A dynamic slacks-based measure

Although a large amount of past research has studied the measurement of institutional research and development (R&D) efficiency, there has been limited dynamic empirical investigation of this topic. This study differs from previous studies in its consideration of R&D capital stock, which is defined as a carry-over activity between two consecutive periods. To further test high-tech institutes’ R&D performance in the pre-reform and post-reform periods, we evaluate a panel of 29 high-tech institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for 2011–2017 with a dynamic slacks-based measure. (a) The empirical value of the average overall efficiency is 0.5559, and the clustering analysis shows that institutes operating above the average overall efficiency level follow an increasing and then decreasing trend, while those operating below the average overall efficiency level follow a decreasing and then increasing trend. (b) The efficiency of low-performing institutes has increased from 0.2259 in the pre-reform period to 0.2727 in the post-reform period, which does not reflect the efficiency improvements of high-performing institutes. (c) High-tech institutes selected as pilot institutes have an average efficiency level of 0.6524, which is higher than that of non-pilot institutes (0.4765), indicating the benchmarking effect of pilots. (d) The types of pilot institutes can be ordered as follows: feature institutes > centres of excellence > innovative academies. (e) The total-factor input efficiency level has decreased in the post-reform period. Only the total-factor efficiency of high-quality papers has increased in the post-reform period (by 0.0094).     

Technical efficiency in competing panel data models: a study of Norwegian grain farming

Estimation of technical efficiency is widely used in empirical research using both cross-sectional and panel data. Although several stochastic frontier models for panel data are available, only a few of them are normally applied in empirical research. In this article we chose a broad selection of such models based on different assumptions and specifications of heterogeneity, heteroskedasticity and technical inefficiency. We applied these models to a single dataset from Norwegian grain farmers for the period 2004–2008. We also introduced a new model that disentangles firm effects from persistent (time-invariant) and residual (time-varying) technical inefficiency. We found that efficiency results are quite sensitive to how inefficiency is modeled and interpreted. Consequently, we recommend that future empirical research should pay more attention to modeling and interpreting inefficiency as well as to the assumptions underlying each model when using panel data.     

A new approach to estimating a profit frontier using the censored stochastic frontier model

The translog profit functional form is widely used to study technical efficiency for banks. Although this functional form is known as being flexible, it is not applicable to those banks incurring economic losses. The recently developed approach, i.e., the censored stochastic frontier model (CSFM), by Tsay et al. (2013) appears to be superior to existing approaches, since CSFM does not need to transform negative profit into positive profit before taking the natural logarithm. The transformation with respect to the profit variable tends to bias the parameter estimates of the profit frontier and the subsequent profit efficiency measure. We show that the parameter estimates of CSFM have the desirable statistical properties. Moreover, empirical results reveal that the mean profit efficiency of CSFM is more robust than those models using transformed profits across the sub-periods 1991–1998 and 1999–2009.