Ecological Benchmarking to Explore Alternative Fishing Schemes to Protect Endangered Species by Substitution: The Danish Demersal Fishery in the North Sea

The cod stock in the North Sea is threatened by overexploitation. To recover this fishing stock, pressure needs to be reduced. This implies that catch compositions with small amounts of cod are preferred by public policy makers. The present analysis assesses the technological efficiency of fishing trips in terms of the substitution possibilities away from cod by considering landings of cod as an undesirable output. A conservative non-parametric frontier technology approach imposing minimal assumptions and based on directional distance functions is applied to explore alternative fishing activities for Danish gill netters operating in the North Sea with the goal of reducing cod catches. Since performance on different fishing trips may be influenced by the operating environment, a four-stage approach is applied to correct for exogenous factors (Fried et al., J Product Anal 12(3):249–267, 1999). The corrected directional distance function efficiency scores reveal the behavioural inefficiencies, i.e., prospects for decreasing the catch of cod while catch of other species are increased.      

The structure of production of the Spanish telecommunications sector

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical measures of the returns to scale coefficients, substitution elasticities between capital and labor, their marginal productivities, and the profitability of inputs in the Spanish telecommunications industry. The results of this study indicate that constant returns to scale can strongly be rejected and that the profitability indices of both factors have risen consistently since 1974. Furthermore, it concludes that the company is relatively overcapitalized, a result generally consistent with the Averch-Johnson effect for rate of return regulated monopolies.The author wishes to thank Dr. Boris Bravo-Ureta and Dr. Emilio Pagoulatos for thoughtful comments on an earlier draft. She is also indebted to an anonymous referee for valuable suggestions and to Telefónica de España for providing the data necessary for this study.     

Policies for the development of knowledge-intensive local production systems

Starting from the empirical literature concerning the analysisof industrial districts, this paper focuses on the importanceof industrial policies in supporting the development and consolidationof local production systems. Here, institutions and marketsare envisaged as equally important for long-term performance.The objective is to propose a conceptual framework for the formulationof public policies that places organisational learning at thecentre of interest.     

On the existence of a regulated production function

This paper examines the generalization of the regulated production function. It characterizes the set of admissible regulatory constraints that are compatible with the existence of a regulated production function in a sufficiently weak framework to encompass the usual rate-of-return constraints à la Averch and Johnson and value constraints.     

基于生产函数的黑龙江垦区农业资源配置实证研究

利用黑龙江垦区农业近十几年的统计数据,构建黑龙江垦区农业柯布一道格拉斯生产函数和索洛方程,核算农业技术进步水平,考察资本、劳动、土地、技术对于黑龙江垦区农业总产值贡献的大小,结合黑龙江垦区农业发展的实际,分析黑龙江垦区农业资源配置现状和存在问题,对黑龙江垦区农业资源的合理配置及农业发展提出政策建议。     

Return to Dollar, Generalized Distance Function and the Fisher Productivity Index

Exploring the duality between a return to dollar definition of profit and the generalized distance function we establish the relationship between the Laspeyres, Paasche and Fisher productivity indexes and their alternative Malmquist indexes counterparts. By proceeding this way, we propose a consistent decomposition of these productivity indexes into two mutually exclusive components. A technical component represented by the Malmquist index and an economical component which can be identified with the contribution that allocative criteria make to productivity change. With regard to the Fisher index, we indicate how researchers can further decompose the Malmquist technical component rendering explicit the sources of productivity change. We also show how the proposed model can be implemented by means of Data Envelopment Analysis techniques, and illustrate the empirical process with an example data set.     

Evolving techniques in production function identification illustrated in the case of the US dairy

We estimate production technologies of major dairy producing regions in the U.S. The simultaneity and sample selection biases are carefully corrected following the recent development in the literature. The commonly applied control function approaches are found to be misleading in correcting for biases of coefficient estimates on flexible and quasi-fixed input variables. We show that the emerging dairy regions have relatively higher aggregate productivity than traditional regions. Dynamic decomposition results indicate that surviving farms play a more important role in regional productivity growth than entering and exiting farms. Farm- and regional-level driving forces of farm productivity are also examined.     

Pseudolikelihood estimation of the stochastic frontier model

Stochastic frontier analysis is a popular tool to assess firm performance. Almost universally it has been applied using maximum likelihood (ML) estimation. An alternative approach, pseudolikelihood (PL) estimation, which decouples estimation of the error component structure and the production frontier, has been adopted in both the non-parametric and panel data settings. To date, no formal comparison has yet to be conducted comparing these methods in a standard, parametric cross-sectional framework. We produce a comparison of these two competing methods using Monte Carlo simulations. Our results indicate that PL estimation enjoys almost identical performance to ML estimation across a range of scenarios and performance metrics, and for certain metrics, outperforms ML estimation when the distribution of inefficiency is incorrectly specified.     

Embodied HANPP: Mapping the spatial disconnect between global biomass production and consumption

Biomass trade results in a growing spatial disconnect between environmental impacts due to biomass production and the places where biomass is being consumed. The pressure on ecosystems resulting from the production of traded biomass, however, is highly variable between regions and products. We use the concept of embodied human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) to map the spatial disconnect between net-producing and net-consuming regions. Embodied HANPP comprises total biomass withdrawals and land use induced changes in productivity resulting from the provision of biomass products. International net transfers of embodied HANPP are of global significance, amounting to 1.7 PgC/year. Sparsely populated regions are mainly net producers, densely populated regions net consumers, independent of development status. Biomass consumption and trade are expected to surge over the next decades, suggesting a need to sustainably manage supply and demand of products of ecosystems on a global level.     

Productivity and environmental regulation: the effect of the nitrates directive in the French pig sector

This paper measures the ensuing changes in productivity in the French pig sector following the introduction of the European regulation addressing water pollution by nitrates from agriculture. Productivity is measured using the Malmquist–Luenberger index. The sources of changes in productivity observed are examined by breaking down this index into its technical progress and efficiency components. The results show that in the early stages, increases in productivity were stimulated by increased efficiency, before being driven by technical progress. The estimations regarding the sources of efficiency gains for the farms in the sample (technical efficiency, efficiency of scale and environmental efficiency) are then used to estimate the indirect costs and benefits (or negative costs) linked to the introduction of the environmental regulation controlling the disposal of organic manure and the management of nitrogen surplus from pig farms. The existence of a “win-win” effect as regards the Porter hypothesis relation between efficiency and environmental regulation is highlighted for the French pig sector.      

The knowledge production of ‘R’ and ‘D’

Many studies investigate the relationship between R&D and patents applying knowledge production functions. Using aggregated R&D may underestimate the productivity of ‘R’, as mainly ‘R’ but not ‘D’ leads to patents. Disaggregating ‘R’ and ‘D’ shows a significant premium of ‘R’ towards patenting.     

基于KMV模型的我国中小上市公司信用风险研究

经过提高股权价值波动率精确度的KMV模型对我国中小上市公司有很强的识别信用风险状况的能力,我们可以通过设定两条信用预警线,来监控中小上市公司的信用危机.文章研究发现,资产规模对信用风险有显著影响,2004年之后资产规模与违约风险显著负相关,总资产小于3亿元的小公司抗风险能力最差.股权分置改革引起了中小上市公司信用风险短时间的波动,是2006年中小上市公司违约风险变大的重要原因.     

Productivity growth and environmental regulations - accounting for undesirable outputs: Analysis of China's thirty provincial regions using the Malmquist-Luenberger index

This paper employs the Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) productivity index to evaluate China's growth in total factor productivity (TFP), incorporating undesirable outputs, during the period from 1989 to 2008. The ML productivity index and its components (technical and efficiency changes) are derived from the directional distance function which gives credit for an increase in good outputs and for reductions in undesirable outputs. The average annual ML productivity growth, accounting for undesirable outputs, is 2.46%, whereas the value of the traditional Malmquist productivity index is 4.84%, showing that the true TFP growth in China is overestimated if undesirable outputs are ignored. We explore the strictness in enforcing environmental regulations and its impact on improvements in ML productivity. The results show that, the enforcement of environmental regulations in China is, in general, far below the levels achieved in the best performing regions, and that the more stringent enforcement of environmental regulations would help to improve ML productivity growth in China.     

Comment on “C.E.S. production functions in the light of the Cambridge critique”

The controversy revived in Bertram Schefold’s paper is based on three common assumptions: (1) the underlying techniques are linear (2) perfect competition obtains (3) the economy operates in a putty-putty context. The consequences of dropping these assumptions are discussed, and the relation between nonlinearity and the error due to the use of an “imprecise” production function is examined.     

Spillovers,integrated production and the theory of the firm

Recent econometric literature has demonstrated the existence of significant technological spillovers within and around groups of advanced (R&D-intensive) firms. I demonstrate thatcompetence blocks of advanced firms operate as technical universities and research institutes, unintentionally providing free educational and research services, often in areas where such services are not supplied by existing educational institutions or where the nature of competence makes traditional educational institutions incapable of supplying them. I demonstrate that the competence that diffuses from such competence blocks is botheconomic andtechnological, that it only diffuses under particular market circumstances, notably characterized by competition, and that the outcomes are typically experimental.Integrated production is an organizational technique to coordinate complex production in mechanical engineering industry within firms and over specialized consultants and subcontractors in the market. Such organizational competence is typically tacit and difficult to communicate outside its production context. Hence, such a production organization often functions as a competence block that spills knowhow throughout the industry. This organizational form is also very useful in illustrating the nature of the firm, the nature of the organizational competence that forms the backbone of western industrial technology and how that competence generates economic growth through the intermediation of firms. I use Swedish aircraft industry as a case illustration.     

公司治理与技术创新关系的实证研究--基于中国省级区域面板数据

采用中国省级面板数据在区域层面对公司治理水平与技术创新之间的关系进行实证研究的结果表明：在控制了地区资本存量、人力资本存量、经济外向性、外商投资、信贷规模以及技术产出效率的差异之后,省级股东治理指数与省级R＆D资本存量之间存在显著的负相关关系,而省级经理层治理指数与省级R＆D技术创新资本积累却有显著的正相关关系。此外,随着地区生产要素投入和生产总值的增加、对外开放程度和技术效率的提升,地区经理层治理的影响不断增强,技术创新促进的效果也更加明显。     

Production functions and distributions of unit factor productivities: Uncovering the link

We derive a reversible “endogenous technology choice transform,” according to which firm-level production functions and distributions of unit factor productivities are two sides of the same coin. The Cobb–Douglas function relates to Pareto distributions, and the CES to Weibull distributions.     

Puzzles in the economic institutions of capitalism: production coordination, contracting and work organisation in the Irish linen trade, 1750-1850

Pre-Famine Ireland is a byword for market failure and path dependence.Production of flax yarn and linen cloth was highly regulatedand coordinated by the market rather than by firms. Contemporarypolitical economists suggested that these institutional featuresprovided evidence of organisational inefficiency. The historicalevidence suggests that they were a rational response to transactionand production costs. The Irish case provides a test of thehypotheses that firms emerge to reduce the cost of market transactions.It suggests that institutions other than the firm can modifytransaction costs, coordination of production can affect bothtransaction and production costs, and that agents choose betweenmarket and firm coordination given technology and factor prices.Finally, centralisation of production was driven by technology.     

风险视角下的政府与市场关系

政府与市场的划分,取决于人类生活所同时面临的两种不同性质的风险。损失风险属于公共风险,归政府治理;机会风险属于私人风险,归市场治理。市场经济就是风险经济。市场机制就是在一定的制度环境下,市场主体自主地将自己的产权与他人进行交换的风险机制。我国深化经济体制改革的任务,就是向市场注入风险机制,解决制度环境、市场主体、产权制度、行政垄断等问题。     

Shadow prices of environmental outputs and production efficiency of household-level paper recycling units in Vietnam

The production efficiency and shadow prices of three environmental outputs (BOD, COD, and SS) of 63 household-level paper-recycling units, from a recycling craft village in Vietnam, are assessed A two-stage procedure, linear programming and stochastic estimation, is used to estimate output distance function. Social capital as a production factor and environmental outputs are included in the output distance function. Results indicate that production efficiencies could potentially be improved by 28%. There is a substantial variation in the shadow prices of environmental outputs among the production units of different types of paper products. Furthermore, the average shadow prices of the three environmental outputs are all positive. This indicates a potential for improving environmental quality though introducing pollution-prevention methods to paper-recycling production processes in Vietnam (e.g., recirculation of wastewater), and suggests that it may be inappropriate to restrict the shadow prices of environmental outputs to be non-positive for the analysis of some production processes.