Analysis of regional productivity growth in China: A generalized metafrontier MPI approach

This paper analyzes the dynamics of China's productivity for the period 1996–2004 with a newly developed methodology — generalized metafrontier Malmquist productivity index (gMMPI). Implementing the gMMPI, this paper reviews the inequality of the coastal and non-coastal provinces, as well as the latent impact of scale efficiency change (SEC) for China. Using provincial data for the years 1996–2004, the empirical results are as follows. On average, China demonstrates an annual 3.191% productivity change, which is lower than 4.729% for the conventional MPI and accounts for about 26.508% of output growth over the period 1996–2004. Most of this change is propelled by technical progress, while a fraction is driven by the adjustment in production scale, and the efficiency change has an adverse effect. Furthermore, regional inequality is also found in this empirical work, and the productivity change of the coastal region is actually stronger than that of the non-coastal region. This paper also casts some focus on the China Western Development policy. Indeed, we do not find any outstanding achievement from the policy in the sample period, except that the west region sustained its rate of productivity change after 2000. Moreover, the SEC is found to be trivial in the advanced coastal region, but plays an important role in the relatively laggard non-coastal region. The implication of the positive SEC in the non-coastal region means that China's Western Development policy will improve the scale efficiency and the TFP growth of the west region.     

我国城市医院经营效率影响因素分析——基于省际面板数据的随机前沿分析

本文利用2003年-2008年我国31个省市自治区医院的面板数据,运用随机前沿模型（SFA）及一阶段估计方法对我国城市医院经营效率的影响因素进行分析。研究结果表明,药品收入比例、卫生技术人员占医院工作人员总人数比例、三级医院占医院总数比例、二级医院占医院总数比例均对医院效率造成影响。而且,通过东、中、西部地区子样本分析得出,在不同地区医院效率及其影响因素之间存在差别,地理因素也应该考虑在医疗改革的政策制定中。因此,医院体制改革应考虑地区间差异,优先改革对一地区造成突出影响的因素。     

China's Spatial Disparity Within the Context of Industrial Production Efficiency: A Macro Study by the Data-Envelopment Analysis (DEA) System

Regional disparity and production efficiency are two important and closely related issues in contemporary China. These issues are closely related because the increased degree of disparity in development across the provinces in recent years can, to a large extent, be attributed to the disparity in production efficiency across the provinces. The objective of this study is to re-examine China's production efficiency at the macro level by using the data-envelopment analysis system (DEA). Findings of this study suggest that pure technical industrial production efficiency across the provinces had, on average, deteriorated in 1991 when compared to the beginning of the reform period.     

基于DEA-Malmquist模型的中国沿海省份科技创新效率研究

构建科技创新效率评价指标体系,运用DEA-BCC模型静态分析2021年中国沿海11个省份科技创新效率水平,对非DEA有效省份进行原因分析,并运用Malmquist指数,动态分析2011—2021年中国沿海11个省份科技创新效率的时空变化。研究发现：从静态分析看,2021年中国沿海省份科技创新效率整体较高,其中东部地区海洋经济圈科技创新效率水平最高,南部地区海洋经济圈科技创新效率最弱;纯规模效率是影响沿海省份能否处于DEA有效状态重要因素;从动态分析看,评价期内中国沿海省份科技创新整体处上升状态,Malmquist指数呈“下降-上升-下降-上升”循坏变化;三大海洋经济圈从北往南依次为1.064、1.037、1.032,呈“北高南低”的空间布局,综合技术效率、纯技术效率是决定科技创新效率空间布局的关键因素。基于此,提出坚持市场需求导向,强化企业科技创新主体地位、优化科研资源投入,提升科技市场活力、打破区域限制,实现沿海科技创新协调发展等建议。     

Efficiency measurement and decomposition for the Chinese state-owned commercial banks at the provincial level

This study adopts a bank production function approach to the measurement of efficiency of the Chinese state-owned commercial banking groups at the provincial level from 1998 to 2003. Applying Data Envelopment Analysis and efficiency decomposition analysis, this paper for the first time presents detailed empirical evidence on the technical efficiencies of the Chinese state-owned commercial banks across both the provinces and banking groups. The empirical evidence has revealed limited effects of the banking reform programmes and highlighted the need to encourage spatial competition and corporate governance reform across Chinese provinces and to take differential strategies to further improve operational efficiency at the provincial branch level.     

基于随机前沿分析法的中国沿海区域经济效率评价

中国经济发展速度举世瞩目,而发展效率一直为人们所诟病.文章以东南沿海四省一市为研究样本,运用随机前沿分析法对经济效率及其影响因素进行实证分析.研究结果表明,广东省的技术效率在绝大多数年份都高于沿海其他省市,直至2008年金融危机,长三角的平均技术效率值呈上升趋势并超过广东.文章认为这主要源于第三产业自身技术效率递减以及FDI是一种次优的制度安排,对本土企业具有挤出效应.     

Does market-oriented reform increase energy rebound effect? Evidence from China's regional development

The actual energy savings from efficiency improvement may be less than expectations because of behavior response of micro-units, which is named as rebound effect. For producers, the magnitude of such response depends on the operating flexibility. However, the precise; role of operating flexibility in rebound effect is still unknown because of difficulties in measuring operating flexibility. Over the past four decades, the Chinese government has implemented a wide range of reforms aiming at market-oriented transition, which increase operating flexibility of micro-units. It is natural to be questioned whether China's market-oriented reform increases energy rebound effect. In this study, we aim to explore the impacts of marketization on rebound effect. Using partially linear functional-coefficient panel data model to avoid prior criteria in model specification and smooth the change of rebound effect across regions, we found that about 20% of originally expected energy conservation from energy efficiency improvement would be rebounded in 2013. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that in line with China's uneven reform across regions, coastal provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Tianjin, Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangdong, have larger rebound effects, which may be connected with their larger operating flexibility. The findings can enhance our understanding on the mechanisms of rebound effect as behavior responses. We also anticipate our paper to provide knowledge and broader implications toward optimal policy designs alongside China's ongoing market-oriented reforms.     

The regional effects of macroeconomic shocks in China

The extent and persistence of the inequality of regional output is an important policy issue in China and its sources have been the subject of considerable empirical research. Yet we have relatively little empirical knowledge of the effects on the regional distribution of output of shocks to national macroeconomic variables such as GDP and investment. This is an important gap in the empirical literature since much government macroeconomic policy seeks to influence GDP using instruments such as investment expenditure. It is likely that such national shocks will have differential regional impacts and so affect the regional output distribution. Policy-makers need to know the sign, size and timing of such effects before making policy decisions at the national level. We simulate the effects of aggregate shocks on individual provinces' GDP within the framework of a vector autoregressive (VAR) model restricted in a manner following Lastrapes (Economics Letters, 2005). We use annual data from 1980 to 2012 to estimate the model which includes 28 of China's provinces and simulate the effects on provincial outputs of shocks to aggregate output and investment. We find great diversity of effects across the provinces with discernible geographic patterns. There is evidence that output shocks benefit coastal provinces with developed industrial structure, export-exposure and less reliance on SOEs; the opposite is found for the effects of an investment shock and we conjecture that this is likely to have been the result of the strong bias in central government investment policy in favour of the interior provinces during a substantial part of our sample period.     

我国玉米加工业技术效率的实证分析——以4个玉米主产省为例

文章运用数据包络分析法（DEA）对1998—2005年我国4个玉米主产省（吉林、辽宁、山东、河北）玉米加工业的技术效率及其分解进行了实证分析。结果表明,玉米加工业的综合技术效率是由纯技术效率和规模效率共同作用的结果;4个玉米主产省玉米加工业的平均技术效率水平较低,而且各子行业（淀粉及其制品业、饲料加工业、酒精制造业、白酒制造业）的技术效率值差距较大;但从1998—2005年技术效率的变化来看,玉米加工业的技术效率呈上升的趋势。     

我国农村医疗卫生资源效率——基于省际面板数据的研究

文章利用数据包络分析方法对我国除京沪以外的29个省市自治区在2009-2012年农村医疗卫生投入的面板数据进行效率分析,并对农村医疗卫生资源投入的全要素Malmquist生产率指数进行了计算和分解。结果表明,29个省市自治区中的17个在四年中为DEA有效,东部与西部农村卫生资源效率较高,而中部各省份效率值偏低。我国应当从政策扶植、科技扶持和人才扶植等各方面有针对性的提高我国农村医疗卫生事业的生产效率。     

基于DEA模型的高技术产业省际创新效率分析

基于《2011年中国高技术产业统计年鉴》数据,利用DEA基本模型,对我国25个省、市、自治区2007-2010年的创新活动效率进行评价,结果表明:全国各省市区创新活动的效率普遍不高,DEA有效省市区只有5个;20个DEA无效省市区中大约有50%存在投入冗余现象,有60%存在产出不足。为提高我国省际创新活动的效率,缩小地区间创新效率的差异,应强化政府引导作用,完善R&D人才激励机制,加强地区间的R&D合作,提高企业自主创新能力。     

Are there spillover effects between coastal and noncoastal regions in China?

A major policy debate in China starting in the Mao era and carrying through the Deng area involves the tradeoff between equity and efficiency in regional growth policies. In this paper, we explore whether there are regional growth spillover effects promised by Deng's policy of favoring initial industrial development in coastal provinces. A stated objective of these policies was the spread of coastal provinces' growth inland. We review the theoretical underpinnings of such effects and test for them with panel data for the period 1981–1998. We also test whether any spread effects are equally distributed over inland provinces. We find that spillover effects have not been sufficient to reduce disparities across Chinese provinces in the short run.     

The impacts of market power on power grid efficiency: Evidence from China

Since 1980s, China has experienced a series of reforms to support the development of electricity industry, and the latest one is in 2015. The essence of this new reform is to improve efficiency and lower energy cost. However, China's electricity market has its particularity. The “provinces as entities” is the main regulation frame in China's electricity sector. The operation of the electricity industry can be seen as a game result and interest compromise between the local government and grid companies, and this “win-win exchange” regulation failure leads to grid market power. The profit mode of the grid enterprises will be gradually changed with the deepening of new electricity reform. How to regulate electricity transmission and distribution sector and improve grid efficiency becomes a crucial problem to address. This paper aims to examine the relationship between market power and power grid efficiency. We calculate the unconditional and conditional efficiency of grid companies by applying a conditional slack-based measure (SBM) model. The empirical results show that grid efficiency is at a low level and the indicators differ among provinces and regions. Moreover, market power indeed has significant negative effects on power grid efficiency. These findings provide some insightful references for the future development of China's power industry and electricity reform.     

Productivity growth, technological progress, and efficiency change in chinese agriculture after rural economic reforms: A DEA approach

This study applies a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to analyze total factor productivity, technology, and efficiency changes in Chinese agricultural production from 1984 to 1993. Twenty-nine provinces in China were classified into advanced-technology and low-technology categories. The Malmquist (1953) productivity measures were decomposed into two components: technical change index and efficiency change index. The results show that total factor productivity has risen in most provinces for both technology categories during the 1984–1993 period. Technical progress was mostly attributed to Chinese agricultural productivity growth after the rural economic reforms. The deterioration in technical efficiency in many provinces indicates China has great potential to increase productivity through improved technical efficiency. Enhancing rural education and research and development (R&D) in agriculture may also help farmers to improve technical efficiency and productivity in agricultural production.     

中国省际高技术产业创新效率评价研究——基于超效率DEA模型和Malmquist指数法

基于中国29个省区市2014-2018年高技术产业的面板数据,首先采用超效率DEA模型对各省市生产效率进行测算,进而构建DEA-Malmquist模型对各省市综合生产率指数进行计算和分解.结果表明:中国高技术产业创新效率的总体水平较高,但是超过一半的省市区要素投入结构不合理,而且主要分布在中部和西部地区,创新效率存在较大的区域差异;中国高技术产业的全要素生产率指数平均值大于1,很多省份存在规模效率不高的问题,导致创新效率呈现N型的回调震动形态,技术进步和技术效率是全要素生产率提高的主要动力.因此,为了进一步提高我国高技术产业创新效率,需要注意保持高技术产业的技术水平和技术效率,尤其要注重高技术产业科技资源的优化配置,提升高技术产业创新资源的管理水平.     

The Focus Efficiency of U.S. Hospitals

Hospital productivity has been a research topic for over two decades. Whereas much has been learned regarding cost, technical, scale, and allocative efficiency as well as the impact that weakly disposable inputs/outputs have on hospital behavior, we expand on this research by examining size and service offering, or focus, efficiency at the metropolitan area level for US hospitals. By using an extension of the Free Coordination Hull (FCH), we are able to determine whether hospitals in our sample could become more efficient if they provided more services (reduce inefficiency due to too narrow a focus) or fewer services (reduce inefficiency due to too broad a focus). Our results suggest that findings vary among the hospital markets. This approach could be used by policy makers and managers in order to reduce costs by sharing services, reducing services in hospitals, or expanding services in hospitals. Findings from a study such as this should aid reform programs by providing more information on the sources of hospital inefficiency.     

Firm Efficiency Differences and Distribution in the Kenyan Manufacturing Sector

Abstract: This article provides empirical evidence on technical efficiency differences and efficiency distribution for three Kenyan manufacturing subsectors, namely food, metal and textile, using an unbalanced panel data covering two periods. Econometric production frontiers are estimated for each subsector in each period. The confidence predictions for these efficiencies were, however, found to be quite wide. The results indicate variation of technical efficiency estimates of the sampled firms in each period. The technical efficiency distribution for each subsector changed not only in relation to itself, but also in relation to the other subsectors across the two periods of analysis. The efficiency distribution of the firms for both food and textile (metal) subsectors improved (declined) during the study period but with the food subsector firms remaining relatively inefficient. The improvement of the technical efficiency distribution for both the textile and food subsectors is an indication of intra‐plant improvement during the period of analysis. The decline of the technical efficiency distribution for the metal subsector suggests that the market orientation during the structural reform period did not promote firm efficiencies or the firms were slow in responding to the reforms.     

Carbon emission efficiency in China: A spatial panel data analysis

Regional cooperation has become a new direction for China development. Indeed, carbon emission reduction is especially important to combat Climate change. In this paper, we use Direction Distance Function to estimate the overall carbon emission efficiency. We empirically estimate the spatial Moran'I and LISA cluster in China from 2005 to 2016. Our results show carbon emission efficiency presents the spatial pattern of gradually decreasing in “Eastern, Central, Western” and symmetrical distribution in “Southern, Central, Northern” of China. High efficiency spatial cluster areas mainly concentrate on the mid-east coastal provinces, which technical level and policies are better than those of the inland among the factors influencing carbo emission efficiency, energy structure, technology and urbanization have a significant impact. This paper will provide some scientific support to solve cooperation between province to combat carbon emission.     

Do Inland Provinces Benefit from Coastal Foreign Direct Investment in China?

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China is heavily concentrated in the coastal regions. Do inland provinces benefit from coastal FDI? We use a provincial‐level panel dataset and employ the fixed‐effects instrumental variables regression technique to investigate the interregional spillovers from coastal FDI to inland provinces. The study finds that, on average, coastal FDI has a negative impact on the economic growth of inland provinces. In addition, depending on the different trade activities engaged in (i.e. whether processing trade or ordinary trade), coastal FDI has different impacts on the economic growth of inland provinces.