Economic Efficiency and Productivity Growth in the Post-Privatization Chilean Hydroelectric Industry

Chiles hydroelectric industry was privatized in 1985, but required to operate within a regulatory framework designed to achieve a competitive outcome. A centralized dispatch center was established to ensure production at minimum cost, subject to constraints on minimum release and minimum reservoir stock. A reluctance to rapidly reduce the industry work force may also have existed. We develop a constrained cost-minimization model for thermal and hydro generation to obtain the shadow price of water and to determine the qualitative effect of these constraints on allocative efficiency. Using panel data from 1986–1997, we assess the economic efficiency of the hydro industry by estimating a stochastic distance frontier and price equations from the dual cost-minimization problem. We find dramatic increases in technical change and productivity change, with positive efficiency change for all years but the last. We also observe a dramatic decline in allocative inefficiencies over our sample period. The share of hydro generation from run-of-river and thermal plants relative to reservoir plants has increased, presumably in reaction to the water release and reservoir stock constraints, reducing the relative over-utilization of capital to water from the pre-1985 regime. Further, the over-utilization of labor to capital and water has fallen over time. However, considerable allocative inefficiencies remain, consistent with our finding of industry-wide scale economies. Substantial cost savings would result if technical and allocative efficiency were eliminated.JEL Classification: L94, D24     

运用功能评价理论,确立多元成本计算模式

在市场经济中 ,企业成本计算不仅要提供满足内部管理所需的成本数据 ,还要提供满足国家宏观管理要求的财务成本数据。采用多元成本计算模式是满足这一要求的必要条件。在理论上 ,多元成本计算模式可以是各种成本计算方法之间进行任一组合所建立的一组特定的成本计算模式 ,但这些模式对某一特定企业是否适用 ,还需要借助功能评价理论加以确定。     

Estimating Capital Inputs for Productivity Measurement: An Overview of U.S. Concepts and Methods

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes measures of multifactor productivity, which are patterned after the Solow residual. Inputs of capital must be aggregated with inputs of labor. The theory requires a measure of the capital service flow, a rather abstract notion which is rarely observable. The BLS procedures for capital measurement are summarized, and the rationale for these procedures is explored. Implicit measures of capital services are derived from data on property income and data on historical investments which are detailed as to type of asset.     

Relative Performance of U.S. and Japanese Electricity Distribution: An Application of Stochastic Frontier Analysis

This paper estimates and compares the technical efficiency of the U.S. and Japanese electric utilities during the period 1982–1997 using a stochastic frontier analysis. Our focus is on electricity distribution services of major investor-owned utilities. We employ translog input distance functions to represent the technology of electricity distribution. Empirical results show that after controlling for environmental variables, on average, the Japanese electric utilities are more efficient. It is shown, however, that some U.S. utilities are as efficient as the most efficient Japanese utilities, indicating that the estimated frontier is not necessarily dominated by Japanese utilities.An erratum to this article can be found at     

价值工程及其功能成本法在内部控制机制分析中的应用

价值工程是分析内部控制有效性的一种定量方法,其基于最低的成本提供最好的内控,在分析时要针对企业的实际情况来展开内部控制相关的评价,以更好地服务于内部控制的发展。我们通过运用功能成本法这种价值分析方法来对内部控制机制进行价值分析,通过降低循环成本和增加循环有效性来提高内部控制机制的价值。     

External Interaction,Innovation and Productivity: An Application of the Innovation Value Chain to Ireland

Abstract

This paper analyses the innovation value chain for the Irish Community Innovation Survey (CIS): 2004–2006. In estimating innovation and productivity simultaneously, it extends the CDM methodology to include a range of external knowledge sources. Feedback effects are found to be vital, with more productive firms being more innovative and vice versa. External knowledge sources affect the innovation decision but not innovation performance, thus pointing to the primacy of internal processes for the crucial task of knowledge exploitation. There is evidence of dichotomous knowledge sourcing in Ireland, with some firms sourcing from market and others, especially high-technology businesses, from non-market agents.

External interaction, innovation et productivité extérieure: une application de la chaîne de valeur de l'innovation à l'Irlande

La présente communication analyse la chaîne de valeur d'innovation pour le CIS : 2004–2006 irlandais. En estimant l'innovation et la productivité simultanément, elle procède au développement de la méthodologie CDM, en incorporant un éventail de sources de connaissances extérieures. Il s'avère que les effets de la rétroaction sont essentiels, les entreprises les plus productives étant plus innovantes et vice-versa. Des sources de connaissances externes affectent les décisions sur l'innovation, mais non pas les performances de l'innovation, en soulignant ainsi l'importance primordiale des procédés internes pour la tâche essentielle de l'exploitation des connaissances. On a relevé des traces des sourçage dichotomique des connaissances en Irlande, certaines entreprises s'approvisionnant directement sur le marché, d'autres, notamment dans le secteur des technologies de pointe, s'inspirant d'agents extérieurs au marché.

Interacción, innovación y productividad externas: una aplicación de la cadena de valor de la innovación en Irlanda

En este trabajo se analiza la cadena de valor de la innovación de Irish CIS: 2004–2006. Al estimar simultáneamente la innovación y la productividad, se amplía la metodología CDM para abarcar una serie de fuentes externas de conocimiento. En este análisis se concluyó que los efectos de la realimentación son vitales, dado que más firmas productivas son más innovadoras y viceversa. Las fuentes externas de conocimiento afectan las decisiones de innovación y no el rendimiento asociado con la innovación y, por consiguiente, se señala el predominio de los procesos internos para la tarea crucial de explotación del conocimiento. En Irlanda, hay evidencias de obtención dicotómica del conocimiento, con algunas firmas que lo obtienen en el mercado y otras, en especial las empresas de alta tecnología, a través de agentes fuera del mercado.

     

Measuring the Impact of Price-Induced Innovation on Technological Progress: Application to the U.S. Food Processing and Distribution Sector

A model of price-induced innovation is presented incorporating long-run prices as arguments in the production function serving the role of stimulating firms to seek innovations. The empirical application examines the production structure and technological progress of the U.S. food processing and distribution sector for the period 1948–1991. The empirical model separates scarcity, innovation, and exogenous technical change responses in analyzing the Morishima elasticities for input combinations and multifactor input biases. The results suggest significant structural changes occurring in the food processing and distribution sector since 1980. Focusing on multifactor input bias, results suggest that there are no wide changes in technical change patterns over the last forty years. However, Morishima elasticity results suggest a more varied pattern of technical change between inputs. The price-induced technical progress has a dominant contribution on input decisions compared with the exogenous technical change.     

会计盈余功用理论的拓展研究——以盈余质量与资本配置效率为视角

以2004年-2007年沪深两市的上市公司为研究样本,在Richardson和Verdi研究的基础上,对盈余质量影响资本配置效率的路径模式和作用机理进行更为深入的分析.研究结果表明,盈余质量的改善一方面能直接提高上市公司的资本配置效率,另一方面则能够通过降低代理成本间接促进上市公司资本配置效率的提高,盈余质量对资本配置效率的这种影响在过度投资公司中表现尤为明显.