Efficiency comparisons between two estimators based on matrix determinant Kantorovich-type inequalities

We first establish two matrix determinant Kantorovich-type inequalities. Then, based on these two and other inequalities, we introduce new efficiency criteria and present their upper bounds to make efficiency comparisons between the ordinary least squares estimator and the best linear unbiased estimator in the general linear model. We provide numerical examples to examine the upper bounds of some new and old efficiency criteria. Received: June 1999     

Efficiency and productivity change in Ukrainian health care

The study analyses technical efficiency and efficiency change of 193 community hospitals and polyclinics across Ukraine, for the years 1997–2001. These facilities are a subset of the medical institutions in rural Ukraine; they are identical w.r.t. their function in the health system and share the same departmental structure. The data comprise the number of beds in the hospitals, the number of staff employed in the hospitals as well as the polyclinics connected to the hospitals, the number of inpatient and outpatient admissions as well as the number of surgical procedures, lab tests, X-rays performed and the number of deaths and deaths after surgery. Because of the known sensitivity of traditional nonparametric frontier estimators to outlier observations, we employ an order-m estimator, a robust technique, to assess the efficiency of these health care providers as well as changes of their productivity time. The efficiency scores are calculated with an output-oriented model; they are close to unity for hospitals whereas polyclinics seem somewhat less efficient. The Malmquist-indices averaged over all observations are close to unity indicating that productivity does not change over during our observation period. But, depending on the period and the region, substantial deviations from unity can be observed.

IPO高抑价之谜：“租金分配观”还是“定价效率观”？——基于2005-2012年数据

对中国IPO极高的抑价现象存在两种不同的解释——“定价效率观”和“租金分配观”。以2005—2012年A股IPO公司作为样本,对这两种观点进行检验,结果表明：“租金分配观”只在2005-2008年成立,在2009-2012年不成立;“定价效率观”则能更好地解释2005年实施询价配售制度以来中国IPO抑价率的变化。     

Economic reforms,efficiency and productivity in Chinese banking

This paper analyzes the impact of banking reforms on efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) change in Chinese banking industry. Using an input distance function, we find that joint-equity banks are more efficient than wholly state-owned banks (WSOBs). Furthermore, both WSOBs and joint-equity banks are found to be operating slightly below their optimal size, suggesting potential advantages in expansion of their businesses. Overall, TFP growth was 4.4% per annum for the sample period 1993–2002. Joint-equity banks experienced much higher growth in TFP (5.5% per annum) compared to the WSOBs (1.4% per annum).      

中国私营企业的生产率表现和投资效率

本文利用第一次全国经济普查数据系统地研究中国私营企业的生产率表现和投资效率问题。样本分析表明,东部地区材料和机械设备制造业的私营企业在劳动生产率和资本生产率上都明显领先于其他地区,然而这种优势主要集中表现在规模较大的企业上。生产函数的估计结果显示各地区大部分行业的资本弹性稳定地处于0.2—0.3之间。对生产率方差的分解表明,地区和行业内部近90%的生产率差异来自TFP的差异,劳均资本的差异只占贡献来源的13%左右。虽然行业间生产率差异的主要来源还是TFP,但地区间的生产率差异则主要来源于劳均资本的差异。资本边际产出在地区间和行业间的不均衡分布意味着部门间存在资本配置的非效率。我们通过模拟实验发现,省际间资本重置给私营制造业带来的潜在产出增长效果比行业间的资本重置更加明显,这意味着私营制造业资本的地区间流动障碍比行业间障碍更为严重。     

Less debt,more schooling? Evidence from cross-country micro data

Soaring levels of public debt in low-income countries are fuelling concerns about their ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, such as free access to primary education. In the late 1990s and 2000s, international financial institutions introduced a series of debt relief initiatives aimed to restore debt sustainability among highly indebted countries. This study examines the impact of these initiatives on primary school attendance. We exploit the temporal variation in the implementation of these policies, in combination with individual-level data from 177 Demographic and Health Surveys covering more than 1.5 million school-age children from 44 low-income countries to implement difference-in-differences and spatial difference-in-discontinuity estimators. Results suggest that debt relief initiatives, by freeing up additional public resources, have significantly contributed to increasing primary school attendance in heavily indebted countries. Impact heterogeneity analysis also shows that debt relief has been effective at reducing wealth-based, intergenerational, religious, ethnic and spatial inequalities in education. Our results provide robust evidence to assert that debt relief, in combination with other financing sources, can contribute to improving educational outcomes in highly indebted poor countries.     

商品流通与产业升级的关系研究：理论与实证

商品流通与产业升级是两个密切联系的概念,商品流通对产业升级的影响主要是通过对社会财富的增量与存量调整来实现的。本文通过建立基于新兴古典经济学的理论模型,分析商品流通的发展所引起的交易效率的提高对产业升级的影响,然后利用我国的经验数据对两者进行协整分析、误差修正模型检验和因果关系检验。结果表明:我国的商品流通与产业升级之间存在长、短期稳定的正向关系,通过G ranger因果关系检验,我国的商品流通的发展是产业升级的G ranger原因,而反之却不成立。     

我国社会保障制度的公平与效率选择

社会保障制度是社会经济稳步、持续、高效发展 ,人民生活安定、安全、稳步提高 ,社会政治及其他事业改革能够顺利实施 ,取得成效的基础和保证。任何一个社会要想实现以上目标 ,就必须抓紧、抓好社会保障制度的建立、健全和不断完善。而在社会保障制度的建立过程中 ,必须处理好的关键问题是公平与效率的关系。在社会保障制度的不同层面 ,合理选择公平与效率的侧重点 ,以保证在经济健康发展的条件下 ,人民生活稳定、安全、持续提高     

货币政策的目标、效能与协调运用

货币政策的目标是多元化的，如价格稳定、经济增长等。通过货币政策的调整可以发挥其调节经济的效能。在货币政策协调过程中，运用好与其它社会经济政策的关系，对于提高宏观调控的科学性大有裨益。