Decomposing profit change: Konüs,Bennet and Luenberger indicators

We introduce complementary decompositions of profit change that, relying on the duality between the profit function and the directional distance function, shed light on the different sources of profit growth including measures of technical efficiency, allocative efficiency and technological change. Our decompositions extend the literature on Konüs and Bennet quantity and price indicators to profit change. The first decomposition is ‘exact’ in the sense of Diewert, by completely exhausting the sources of profit change into profit inefficiency change (including technical and allocative inefficiency change), technological change, and output and input price change. The second decomposition equates the Bennet quantity indicator to a productivity measure represented by the Luenberger indicator plus allocative inefficiency change. We deem it ‘complete’ because in contrast to the existing literature, it retains the information on allocative inefficiency change while preventing the existence of residual terms capturing price variations, whose meaningful interpretation has not been addressed until now. Our proposed solution takes advantage of the flexibility of the directional distance function when choosing a suitable directional vector. All decompositions have the same structural form and therefore their components can be compared to each other vis-à-vis, providing alternative measures of equivalent sources of profit growth.     

Exploring a Regional Technical Efficiency Frontier in the Former USSR

Using 1971–90 panel data from a Siberian province, two econometric methods are used side by side to examine technical inefficiency with a suggestion as to how the methods might be used in sequence. Estimates derived from a random effects method reveal that technical inefficiency is both substantial and not time invariant. Results using either a random or fixed effects method suggest that existing estimates of technical inefficiency in centrally planned economies may be biased downward because of the choice of the estimation method. Using either method, the increasing technical inefficiency found is likely to be one cause of the decline in the performance of centrally planned economies and their regions.     

Efficiency measurement with multiple outputs and multiple inputs

This paper discusses modeling technical and allocative inefficiencies in both cost minimizing and profit maximizing frameworks with special emphasis on multiple inputs and multiple outputs. Both primal and dual models are considered for this purpose. In the primal approach we use a separable output and input function (the constant elasticity of transformation output function and Cobb-Douglas input function). The dual models assume translog cost or profit functions. Technical inefficiency is assumed to be random in the cross-sectional models, and fixed firm-specific parameter in the panel data models. Allocative inefficiencies are always treated as input-specific parameters. We derive exact relations linking technical inefficiency and allocative inefficiencies to cost and profit when the underlying technology is represented by a flexible functional form such as the translog. It is shown that appending a one-sided homoscedastic error term to model technical inefficiency, or neglecting technical inefficiency altogether in a translog profit tunciton results in model misspecification and inconsistent parameter estimates.     

A Production Model With Firm-Specific Temporal Variation in Technical Inefficiency: With Application to Spanish Dairy Farms

This paper introduces a stochastic frontier production model which accommodates firm-specific temporal variation in technical inefficiency. Unlike Cornwell, Schmidt and Sickles (1990), technical inefficiency is not modeled through the intercept of the production frontier, but through an error component model. The proposed model is a generalization of the Battese and Coelli (1992) model, which imposed a common temporal pattern upon all firms. In our application involving Spanish dairy farms, we find that the new model is preferred to the Battese and Coelli (1992) model on the basis of the likelihood ratio test. Results provide a new source of information on the different patterns of technical inefficiency change among the 82 farms in the sample.     

Estimating DEA technical and allocative inefficiency using aggregate cost or revenue data

In this paper, we address the question of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) evaluation of efficiency when aggregate cost or revenue data must be used. We show that the DEA technical inefficiency measure using total revenues as the single output variable or total costs as the single input variable equals the aggregate technical and allocative inefficiency. We employ this result to estimate allocative inefficiency and construct statistical tests of the null hypothesis of no allocative inefficiency analogous to those of the null hypothesis of no scale inefficiency. We illustrate our method using revenue and personnel data for the top U.S. public accounting firms over 1995–1998. Our empirical results indicate the existence of statistically significant allocative inefficiency in the public accounting industry.

业务流程的失效分析

业务流程不仅是一个技术一经济系统,还是一个具有社会性的复杂动态系统。在此基础上．在分析业务流程失效原因．包括业务流程的内、外部环境．业务流程的要素和业务流程的结构等方面。在流程变革之前进行流程失效分析是至关重要的,它可以防止单纯依靠的流程技术分析工具可能导致的纯技术模式缺陷．避免过度强调流程变革的方法论．     

A new method to decompose profit efficiency: an application to US commercial banks

We propose a new method to estimate profit efficiency which makes explicit how revenue and cost efficiencies contribute to overall profit efficiency. Using data from US commercial banks from 2001 to 2010, we find that losses due to profit inefficiency represent about 3.5% of banks’ equity of which 1% is due to revenue inefficiency and 2.4% to cost inefficiency. Revenue efficiency changes affect more overall profit efficiency than equivalent cost efficiency changes. In contrast to previous studies, but in line with economic intuition, we find that while revenue and cost efficiencies tend to be negatively correlated, both correlate positively with profit efficiency.     

The directional profit efficiency measure: on why profit inefficiency is either technical or allocative

The directional distance function encompasses Shephard’s input and output distance functions and also allows nonradial projections of the assessed firm onto the frontier of the technology in a preassigned direction. However, the criteria underlying the choice of its associated directional vector are numerous. When market prices are observed and firms have a profit maximizing behavior, it seems natural to choose as the directional vector that projecting inefficient firms towards profit maximizing benchmarks. Based on that choice of directional vector, we introduce the directional profit efficiency measure and show that, in this general setting, profit inefficiency can be categorized as either technical, for firms situated within the interior of the technology, or allocative, for firms lying on the frontier. We implement and illustrate the analytical model by way of Data Envelopment Analysis techniques, and introduce the necessary optimization programs for profit inefficiency measurement.     

Technical Inefficiency Effects Among Paddy Farmers in the Villages of the ‘Office du Niger’, Mali,West Africa

A stochastic frontier production function incorporating a model for technical inefficiency effects (Battese and Coelli, 1995) is applied to field data on paddy farmers from 29 villages in the Office du Niger in Mali. Four conventional factors (land, labor, fertilizer and machinery) are considered as inputs of production. The technical inefficiency effects in the stochastic frontier were related to firm-specific variables, institutional factors, social organisation, ecological considerations and health factors. Data were obtained from an economic survey conducted during two consecutive agricultural seasons (1989 and 1990) on 844 farms of the Office du Niger. The null hypothesis of the absence of technical inefficiency effects was rejected. A supportive institutional environment and a coherent organisation of land use were the best correlates of technically efficiency. The social environment was also found to contribute to technical efficiency of the paddy farmers: within the village, the greater the degree of ethnic cohesion, the greater the efficiency of the farmers. Health status of households had an effect in that healthy families tended to be more technically efficient than unhealthy ones. Farmers with more extensive sorghum cultivation were less efficient as paddy farmers. These results may help agricultural policy makers formulate strategies. Technical efficiency may be improved by intensifying agricultural training regarding one specific crop and, through the control of parasitic diseases which place a burden on family households.     

Profit efficiency in the European Union banking industry: a directional technology distance function approach

We employ the directional technology distance function approach and present estimates of profit efficiency in the 25 European Union (EU) member states over the period 1998–2008. This method decomposes profit efficiency into its technical and allocative components. We investigate potential efficiency differences across the old EU region and the new EU member states, across countries and across banks of different size. Our results indicate a significant level of profit inefficiency for the EU region, which is predominantly attributed to allocative inefficiency. Our findings also suggest that banks operating in the old EU region are, on average, more profit efficient than credit institutions in the new EU member states. Overall, we observe considerable variation of efficiency scores across countries and different patterns in efficiency change over time, as well as a negative relationship between bank size and efficiency.     

Parametric estimation of inefficiency in cargo handling in Spanish ports

Port workers services have been usually heavily regulated and reserved exclusively for a special kind of workers, dockworkers, which seems to have been the cause of serious inefficiencies worldwide. During the eighties, law reforms have been introduced to solve this problem. In this paper we analyze and decompose efficiency in cargo handling operations in 19 Spanish ports from 1990 to 1998. The method chosen is that of the parametric estimation of both allocative and technical inefficiency using panel data and a quadratic cost function. Results show that although inefficiency has decreased overall, there has been over utilization of labor regarding capital, and technical inefficiency. This supports the need of further consideration of other aspects including competition.

Interpreting and Testing the Scaling Property in Models where Inefficiency Depends on Firm Characteristics

Let u ≥ 0 be technical inefficiency, let z be a set of variables that affect u, and let δ be the parameters of this relationship. The model satisfies the scaling property if u(z, δ) can be written as a scaling function h(z, δ) times a random variable u* that does not depend on z. This property implies that changes in z affect the scale but not the shape of u(z,δ). This paper reviews the existing literature and identifies models that do and do not have the scaling property. It also discusses practical advantages of the scaling property. The paper shows how to test the hypothesis of scaling, and other interesting hypotheses, in the context of the model of Wang, Journal of Productivity Analysis, 2002. Finally, two empirical examples are given.     

Measuring technical and scale inefficiencies in the beer industry: Nonparametric and parametric evidence

Two alternative approaches of efficiency measurement, nonparametric and statistical, are employed to calculate three types of efficiency indexes for the U.S. beer industry over the period 1950–1986. The results indicate that the beer industry was operating at a high level of pure technical efficiency over that period. The mean value of this efficiency measure is 93.7 percent based on the nonparametric approach and 87.5 percent based on the statistical approach. The two approaches yield dissimilar values and sources for overall technical inefficiency. The overall technical efficiency index computed under the nonparametric approach stands at 91.10 percent and the observed inefficiency is found to be more due to pure technical inefficiency than to scale inefficiency. Using the statistical approach, the beer industry is found to be less overall technically efficient (68.42 percent) than indicated by the nonparametric methodology and the observed inefficiency is found to be primarily contributed to by scale inefficiency.     

Ownership structure and cost efficiency: A study of publicly owned passenger-bus transportation companies in India

This paper estimates the determinants of cost inefficiency of several publicly operated passenger-bus transportation companies in India in terms of their ownership structure as well as other firm-specific characteristics. A panel data on publicly operated passenger-bus transportation companies is used to estimate a translog cost system with inefficiency. Inefficiency is specified in such a way that both its mean and variance are firm- and time-specific. For the estimation of production technology and cost inefficiency we have used a multi-step estimation procedure instead of the single-step maximum likelihood (ML) method. In the first step we estimate the translog cost system with heteroskedastic cost function without using any distributional assumptions on the error terms. The second stage uses the ML method to estimate the parameters associated with inefficiency, conditional on the parameter estimates obtained from the first stage. Finally, the residual of the cost function is decomposed to obtain firm-and time-specific measures of cost inefficiency, with ownership type and other firm-specific characteristics as explanatory variables.Financial support of the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station is gratefully acknowledged.     

Estimating Technological Change Using a Stochastic Frontier Production Function Framework: Evidence from U.S. Firm-Level Data

This paper presents a methodology for estimating an index of technological change using firm-level data in a stochastic frontier production function model that takes into account time-varying technical inefficiency. In contrast to the Solow divisia index approach, econometric estimation of the index with panel data allows the researcher to separate technical progress from the stochastic measurement error. Applying the econometric methodology to a panel of 908 publicly-traded U.S. firms from the COMPUSTAT database, we find evidence of a significant downturn in general technological change for the period, 1970– 1989, whereas the divisia index methodology applied to the same data shows stagnation. When the sample is divided into Manufacturing, Services, and Miscellaneous categories we find that estimates of technological change for the three groups display markedly different stochastic behavior and that the Services group is the source of the downturn.     

Cost efficiency of Slovenian water distribution utilities: an application of stochastic frontier methods

This study estimates cost inefficiency and economies of scale of Slovenian water distribution utilities over the 1997–2003 period by employing several different stochastic frontier methods. The results indicate that significant cost inefficiencies are present in the utilities. An introduction of incentive-based price regulation scheme might help resolve this problem. However, the inefficiency scores obtained from different cost frontier models are not found to be robust. The levels of inefficiency estimates as well as the rankings depend on the econometric specification of the model. The established lack of robustness can be at least partly explained by different ability of the models to separate unobserved heterogeneity from inefficiency. Newly proposed true fixed effects model (Greene, J Econom 126:269–303, 2005; J Prod Anal 23(1):7–32, 2005) appears to perform better than the conventional panel data models with respect to distinguishing between unobserved heterogeneity and inefficiency. On the other hand, different models produce fairly robust results with respect to estimates of economies of output density, customer density and economies of scale. The optimal size of a company is found to closely corresponds to the sample median. Economies of scale are found in small-sized utilities, while large companies exhibit diseconomies of scale.

Comparisons of Economic Inefficiency Between Output and Input Measures of Technical Inefficiency Using the Fourier Flexible Cost Function

The current paper constructs a Fourier flexible cost function, which is commonly known to be a more general function form than the typical translog form, and can globally approximate a true (but unknown) cost function. Both allocative and technical inefficiencies are considered using the Fourier function in the context of the parametric approach. The former is modeled using shadow input prices and the latter is formulated either by adding an extra term of scale parameter (when the Farrell's (1957) input technical inefficiency is assumed), or by correcting all the terms involving output quantities by a scale parameter (when the Farrell's output technical inefficiency is assumed). It is found that sample banks could save up to 23% of total costs, within the range of 3 and 69% uncovered by the previous works, in which allocative inefficiency plays a more important role than technical inefficiency. Furthermore, the cost of misallocated labor input alone constitutes more than 80% of total allocative inefficiency. Financial deregulation starting from 1991 in Taiwan appears to have improved economic efficiency of the banking industry.     

Estimation of stochastic frontier production functions with input-oriented technical efficiency

This paper deals with estimation of input-oriented (IO) technical inefficiency using a stochastic production frontier model. Econometrically the model is similar to a class of models that arise in specifying technical inefficiency in cost-minimizing and profit-maximizing frameworks. The standard maximum likelihood (ML) method that is used to estimate output-oriented (OO) technical efficiency cannot be applied to estimate these models. We use a simulated ML approach to estimate the IO production function and compare results from the IO and OO models, mainly to emphasize the point that estimated efficiency, returns to scale, technical change, etc., differ depending on whether one uses the model with IO or OO technical inefficiency.     

Profitability and Efficiency in the U.S. Life Insurance Industry

This study explores the relationship between cost inefficiency and profitability in the U.S. life insurance industry. Earnings have particular importance to life insurance companies because earnings and capital determine the viability of the insurer. Since the life insurance industry is mature and highly competitive, cost efficiency may be the main driver of profitability. We derive cost efficiency using the stochastic frontier (SF) method allowing the mean inefficiency to vary with organizational form and the outputs. In addition, the estimation of the cost efficiency measure takes into account the underlying accounting concepts that generate the data and, consequently, the product mix (long-duration policies vs. short-duration policies) to avoid distorted estimates. Our results suggest that cost inefficiency in the life insurance industry is substantial relative to earnings, and that inefficiency is negatively associated with profitability measures such as the return on equity. The analysis of inefficiency and organizational form suggest that stock (shareholder-owned) companies are as efficient and profitable as mutual (policyholder-owned) companies.     

Separating Technical Change from Time-Varying Technical Inefficiency in the Absence of Distributional Assumptions

This paper proposes an alternative model for separating technical change from time-varying technical inefficiency. The proposed formulation uses the general index, developed by Baltagi and Griffin (1988), to model technical change in the production frontier function and a quadratic function of time, as in Cornwell, Schmidt and Sickles (1990), to capture the temporal pattern of technical inefficiency. In such a setting, all parameters associated with the rate of technical change and the temporal pattern of technical inefficiency are identified separately. Moreover, the proposed formulation is independent of any distributional assumption concerning the one-sided error term associated with technical inefficiency, and it can be estimated in a single stage with non-linear FGLS. Empirical results based on a translog production frontier, and estimates of technical inefficiency and technical change are presented for the UK dairy sector over the period 1982–1992.