Bank Efficiency, Risk-Based Capital, and Real Estate Exposure: The Credit Crunch Revisited

The turbulent real estate market during the early 1990s coincided with the implementation of risk-based capital standards for commercial banks. In this study we use non-parametric linear programming techniques to identify the lost real estate lending due to bank inefficiency. Inefficiency may arise from one of three sources: risk-based capital standards which constrain bank real estate lending, inefficiency stemming from managerial oversight of real estate lending, and scale inefficiency which arises from banks not operating at constant returns to scale. The results indicate that the lost real estate lending associated with risk-based capital standards averaged 2.7% of total bank assets. However, banks could compensate by exercising better managerial oversight of real estate lending and by operating at constant returns to scale.     

Can the small dairy farm remain competitive in US agriculture?

Smaller dairy farms in the US are observed to have higher costs than larger farms, and whether those higher costs are due to technology or inefficiency has implications for policy to address the small farm. If high cost of production on smaller farms is due to a higher cost frontier, then to make small farms competitive would require research to devise and design technology that is suitable for small farms. If instead high cost is due to inefficiency, then educational approaches are needed to ensure small dairy farms use technology efficiently. To determine the cause of higher costs on small farms, the cost of milk production by farm size was decomposed into frontier and efficiency components with a stochastic cost curve using data on USA dairy farms. Although the frontier cost of production decreases with farm size, that cost reduction is not as pronounced as a cost curve that includes inefficiency. The higher cost of production on many smaller farms is caused by inefficiency rather than technology.     

Radial and non-radial decompositions of Luenberger productivity indicator with an illustrative application

Viewing slacks as one possible source of inefficiency, and that inputs have differential importance in the production process, this paper develops, based on the directional Russell measure of inefficiency, the non-radial Luenberger indicator. This indicator is then shown as the sum of the individual input-specific Luenberger indicators. The Luenberger indicator and its various input-specific indicators are also then shown as the composite measure of efficiency change and technical change. This decomposition enables the researcher to empirically examine the contributions of each factor input towards the productivity change and its components—efficiency change and technical change. Our proposed decomposition scheme is then empirically illustrated to analyze the eco-productivity performance behavior of the 22 OECD countries during the period 1995-2004. Our results indicate that first, the productivity change estimates yielded from the non-radial Luenberger indicator are different from those yielded from its radial counterpart, when slacks are present; second, most of these countries are found experiencing productivity growth due to technical progress alone; and finally, as regards the order of input-specific contributions towards productivity growth, capital contributes the most, followed by savings in emissions and labor, respectively.     

Profit efficiency among Bangladeshi rice farmers

Production inefficiency is usually analyzed by its three components—technical, allocative, and scale efficiency. In this study, we provide a direct measure of production efficiency of the Bangladeshi rice farmers using a stochastic profit frontier and inefficiency effects model. The data, which are for 1996, include seven conventional inputs and several other background factors affecting production of modern or high yielding varieties (HYVs) of rice spread across 21 villages in three agro-ecological regions of Bangladesh. The results show that there are high levels of inefficiency in modern rice cultivation. The mean level of profit efficiency is 77% suggesting that an estimated 23% of the profit is lost due to a combination of technical, allocative and scale inefficiency in modern rice production. The efficiency differences are explained largely by infrastructure, soil fertility, experience, extension services, tenancy and share of non-agricultural income.     

Competitiveness and technical efficiency: Determinants in the groundnut oil sector of India

India imports about half of its domestic consumption needs of edible oils. Groundnuts are a major source of edible oils in India. One of the central problems of groundnut production and processing is huge inefficiencies due to an uncertain production environment owing to rainfed cultivation, the low resource base of smallholder farmers and processors, and the low adoption rates of improved technology. This paper addresses critical issues that impair the groundnut sector’s international competitiveness and efficiency. The paper uses primary data collected from Indian farmers and processors of groundnuts to measure efficiency, and it suggests policies for reducing yield gaps and increasing efficiency. Specific policies suggested from the study are (a) the harnessing of improved varieties with attributes like drought tolerance, high oil content, high productivity for large-scale seed multiplication and distribution by public and private agencies; (b) viable village seed banks and seed networks through cycles of post-rainy season seed multiplication to meet the seed requirements in the rainy season and vice versa; (c) adoption of low-cost technologies to increase profitability and reduce risk; (d) oilseed clusters to facilitate scale and scope economies in processing units; and (e) capital subsidies to accelerate technological upgrading to shed inefficiency in the processing sector. The expected gains in efficiency in the production and processing of oilseeds are expected to result in producer and consumer gains which would justify the proposed incentives for seeds and for technological upgrading in the processing sector.     

Disparity in Production Efficiency of China's TVEs Across Regions: A Stochastic Frontier Production Function Approach

This study aims to empirically examine the changes in production efficiencies of China's township and village enterprises (TVEs) between 1988 and 1993 with particular reference to the spatial disparity of these changes. The stochastic frontier production model, which incorporates inefficiency effects, is adopted in the study. Findings of this study indicate that the technical production efficiency of China's TVEs had, on average, declined between the six years under study. Furthermore, the findings also suggest that the industrial performance of China's TVEs (in terms of production efficiency), like the development.     

The economics of industrial R & D

The relationship between research and commercial operation is examined in terms of production using a simple Cobb-Douglas production function, where output is expressed in terms of inputs of labour, capital and‘technical progress’. The model was tested in a single company environment by multiple regression analysis of output as the dependent variable on various measures of research, labour and capital. The results of the regression analysis are in full agreement with the model as outlined and the assumption that output is dependent simultaneously on labour, capital and the cumulative research investment.     

A DEA estimation of a lower bound for firms’ allocative efficiency without information on price data

In this paper, we estimate a lower bound for the sum of firms’ allocative efficiencies in the absence of information on prices. For this purpose, we only estimate technical efficiency at both the firm and the industry level using a directional distance function and choosing a relevant direction. Our result relies on the decomposition of overall inefficiency into technical and allocative inefficiency at both the firm and the industry level. The convexity of a technology induces a transfer from both total technical inefficiency and part of allocative inefficiency at the firm level to technical inefficiency solely at the industry level. The remaining firms’ allocative inefficiency could be counted at the industry level. Hence, the difference between technical inefficiencies at both levels can be interpreted as a lower bound for the sum of allocative inefficiency in the industry. We show how to implement this bound in a DEA framework.     

企业理论的演进逻辑及其发展方向

现代企业理论强调资本所有权(产权)的决定作用,因而企业治理遵循“资本雇佣劳动”的逻辑。但这一逻辑越来越受到理论和实践两方面的挑战,客观上需要一个替代的企业理论。实际上,一些新的“资本”范畴的提出,预示着新的企业理论的发展方向。纵观企业理论发展的历史,我们发现有其自身发展规律:物质资本的所有权决定论—资本所有权逻辑的否定—资本所有权逻辑的回归。这是一个完整的“否定之否定”的过程。企业理论的这一发展规律从企业理论中“市场”与“生产”的关系看,理论重心经历了“市场交易合约”到“生产中的资源”,再到“市场交易与生产结合”的过程。企业理论发展逻辑的最后一个环节尚处于萌芽之中,需要我们加以深入研究。     

Information technology and its changing roles to economic growth and productivity in Australia

In this paper we describe our investigation of the role of investment in information technology (IT) on economic output and productivity in Australia over a period of about four decades. The framework used in this paper is the aggregate production function, where IT capital is considered as a separate input of production along with non-IT capital and labour. The empirical results from the study indicate the evidence of robust technical progress in the Australian economy in the 1990s. IT capital had a significant impact on output, labour productivity and technical progress in the 1990s. In recent years, however, the contribution of IT capital on output and labour productivity has slowed down. Regaining the IT capital productivity therefore remains as a key challenge for Australia, especially in the context of greater IT investment in the future.     

Too small to be beautiful? The farm size and productivity relationship in Bangladesh

This paper examines the agricultural productivity-farm size relationship in the context of Bangladesh. Features of Bangladesh’s agriculture help overcome several limitations in testing the inverse farm-size productivity relationship in other developing country settings. A Stochastic Production Frontier (SPF) model is applied using data from three rounds of a household panel survey to simultaneously estimate the production frontier and the technical inefficiency functions. The ‘correlated random effects’ approach is used to control for unobserved heterogeneous household effects. Methodologically, the results suggest that SPF models that ignore the inefficiency function are likely mis-specified, and may result in misleading conclusions on the farm size-productivity relationship. Empirically, the findings confirm that the farm size and productivity relationship is negative, but with the inverse relationship diminishing over time. Total factor productivity growth, driven by technical change, is found to have been robust across the sample. Across farm size groups, the relatively larger farmers experienced faster technical change, which helped them to catch up and narrow the productivity gap with the smaller farmers.     

回购合同项目的经济评价与优化

在回购合同模式下,伊朗政府拥有油气的所有权,合同者可以选择现金或购回一定数量的油气作为回收的成本和报酬.回购合同的主要经济参数包括政府优先油比例、项目收益率(ROR)、成本回收期、报酬费回收期、资本成本上限等.合同者的项目收益率是在签订合同时明确规定的,这一指标对产量和投资都非常敏感.政府优先油的比例也是回购合同项目经济评价和业务谈判的重要参数.实现合同者预计的项目收益率的最低油价是拐点油价,项目的拐点油价越高,合同者的经济风险就越大.延长成本回收期和在工程施工可行的情况下尽可能将投资提前是回购合同项目优化的重要途径.合同者要在合理范围内力争获得较大的投资额度,即较大的资本成本上限,同时要在设计上提出较为保守的目标(MDP)产量.     

要素资本平衡表:一种新的内部资产负债表

企业是由一些生产要素组合而成的一个开放性系统。会计作为国际通用的商业语言,尚有很大空间可以改进。资产负债表不仅可以根据时间长短和资产流动性列示其内容,而且可根据企业核心业务和竞争力,以及生产要素资本列示其资产财务状况。企业要素资本包括人力资本、财务货币资本、实物资源资本、技术资本、信息资本和知识资本,使用财务理论定义技术、信息和知识,描述其内容构成,研发和设计要素资本平衡表,可为企业财务管理提供新的工具。新要素资本会计是美国智力资本会计的改进。中国企业最缺少的是技术,其次是知识和信息。要素资本平衡表不仅是一种内部资产负债表,而且可作为企业绩效评价和测算竞争力的新财务工具。     

The long-run impact of Information and Communication Technology on economic output: The case of Australia

This paper investigates the cointegration and causal relationships between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and economic output in Australia using data for about five decades. The framework used in this paper is the single-sector aggregate production function, which is the first comprehensive approach of this kind to include ICT and non-ICT capital and other factors to examine long-run Granger causality. The empirical evidence points to a cointegration relationship between ICT capital and output, and implies that ICT capital Granger causes economic output and multifactor productivity, as does non-ICT capital.     

中国煤矿安全监督低效:官商勾结还是权利滥用

中国煤矿事故频发的根源不在于政策缺失,而是制度落实困难;多级委托—代理关系下的监督人权利滥用是煤矿安全监督低效的制度根源。本文分析表明:如果只有官商勾结或权利滥用是可能的,委托人可以通过消除非官方活动的物质基础或动机来阻止官商勾结或权利滥用;当监督人权利滥用时,则不存在委托人对限制监督人自由选择权与激励机制间的权衡,政府政策设计的核心是降低监督人的自由选择权;监督人的权利滥用导致监督人和矿长的最优激励合约依组织结构和监督技术效率变化而变化。监督人的权利滥用为官商勾结奠定了基础,权利滥用有利于矿长而非监督人,监督人的权利滥用为矿长主动的官商勾结提供了激励。权利滥用而非官商勾结才是中国煤矿事故频发的根本原因,防止监督人权利滥用是解决中国煤矿事故频发的关键所在。     

国防人力资本对国防工业企业产出贡献度的实证分析

本文主要研究国防人力资本对国防工业产出的增长效应,以及其对国防产出的贡献度.本文借鉴C-D生产函数、Lucas舶的人力资本模型以及二元经济理论,把国防人力资本作为影响国防工业产出的要素纳入到国防工业生产增长的实证分析模型中,从理论上分析国防工业企业中国防人力资本对国防工业产出的贡献度,用实证分析模型进行数理分析.通过分析国防工业产出增长与劳动力投入、物质资本投入、人力资本投入之间的关系,提出建立实证分析模型以及分析该模型的合理性及其现实意义,并建议加强国防工业企业中国防人力资本投入.     

风险投资进入时机对企业生产效率的影响研究

本文从风险投资进入时间及风险投资投资期限两个角度考察了风险投资进入时机对企业生产效率的影响,并进一步从企业异质性角度分析了这一影响的差异。研究发现,风险投资进入时间越早,越能有效提升企业生产效率,但是风险投资投资期限与企业生产效率呈U型关系;从企业异质性角度来看,对非高新技术企业而言,风险投资投资期限与企业生产效率的U型关系不明显。为验证结论的稳健性,本文采用更换被解释变量、增加遗漏关键变量及Heckman两步法进一步研究,结论维持不变。这一研究为风险投资如何更好地服务实体经济提供了理论支撑。     

论现代化工企业的资本经营

资本经营即对企业可以支配的资源和生产要素进行运筹、谋划和优化配置。资本经营相对于生产经营来说是一种全新的理念，资本经营是企业走外部成长道路的主要途径。文章初步论述现代化工企业资本经营的意义、资本经营的方式和战略选择。     

Production Efficiency and Discriminatory Hiring Practices in the National Hockey League: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

This paper studies the production process in the National Hockey League (NHL) and attempts to identify the sources of production inefficiency, including potential inefficiencies associated with preferences for, or against French-Canadians. Employing the method of stochastic frontier estimation, it is shown that production inefficiencies are prevalent in the NHL and can, in part, be traced to differences in coaching ability, team ownership, local sports competition, and management experience. In addition, it is found that teams with unusually high (or low) numbers of French-Canadian players tended to be less efficient, implying that discriminating hiring practices are costly.Jel Classifications: D21, J71, L83     

企业边界的多种变化及其原因

企业边界普遍发生着显著变化。探索企业边界变化的原因有助于对企业性质的进一步理解。企业边界可以由企业内运用知识的规模决定，也可以由交易效率与生产效率的相对比较决定。信息技术节约交易费用，因而强化了企业间按照生产效率的分工，而知识交易效率的低下，导致越来越具有知识经验仓库性质的现代企业扩大着边界。交易费用论作为分析方法，对解释企业性质仍是有效的。