Parametric Decomposition of a Generalized Malmquist Productivity Index

This paper provides a parametric decomposition of a generalized Malmquist productivity index which takes into account scale economies. Unlike Balk (2001), the contribution of scale economies to productivity change is evaluated without recourse to scale efficiency measures, which are neither bounded for globally increasing, decreasing, or constant returns to scale technologies nor for ray-homogeneous technologies. An empirical application using panel data from Spanish savings banks is included. This application shows the advantages of the suggested method compared to Balk's approach. The results show an increase of total factor productivity which can be mainly attributed to technical progress and the positive effect of returns to scale.     

Efficiency and Global Scale Characteristics on the “No Free Lunch” Assumption Only

In a production technology, the type of returns to scale (RTS) associated with an efficient decision making unit (DMU) is indicative of the direction of marginal rescaling that the DMU should undertake in order to improve its productivity. In this paper a concept of global returns to scale (GRS) is developed as an indicator of the direction in which the most productive scale size (MPSS) of an efficient DMU is achieved. The GRS classes are useful in assisting strategic decisions like those involving mergers of units or splitting into smaller firms. The two characterisations, RTS and GRS, are the same in a convex technology but generally different in a non-convex one. It is shown that, in a non-convex technology, the well-known method of testing RTS proposed by Färe et al. is in fact testing for GRS and not RTS. Further, while there are three types of RTS: constant, decreasing and increasing (CRS, DRS and IRS, respectively), the classification according to GRS includes the fourth type of sub-constant GRS, which describes a DMU able to achieve its MPSS by both reducing and increasing the scale of operations. The notion of GRS is applicable to a wide range of technologies, including the free disposal hull (FDH) and all polyhedral technologies used in data envelopment analysis (DEA).     

Stable cost sharing in production allocation games

Suppose that a group of agents have demands for some good. Every agent owns a technology which allows them to produce the good, with these technologies varying in their effectiveness. If all technologies exhibit increasing returns to scale (IRS) then it is always efficient to centralize production of the good, whereas efficiency in the case of decreasing returns to scale (DRS) typically requires to spread production. We search for stable cost allocations while differentiating allocations with homogeneous prices, in which all units produced are traded at the same price, from allocations with heterogeneous prices. For the respective cases of IRS or DRS, it is shown that there always exist stable cost sharing rules with homogeneous prices. Finally, in the general framework (under which there may exist no stable allocation at all) we provide a sufficient condition for the existence of stable allocations with homogeneous prices. This condition is shown to be both necessary and sufficient in problems with unitary demands.     

Measuring digitization: A growth and welfare multiplier

Digitization encapsulates the social transformation triggered by the mass adoption of digital technologies that generate, process and transfer information. The digitization index introduces a global measure of national performance reflecting ubiquity, affordability, reliability, speed, usability and skills. Output and welfare rise with the index while manifesting increasing returns to scale some implications for ICT public policy are drawn from these findings.     

On Returns to Scale under Weight Restrictions in Data Envelopment Analysis

Weextend the concept of returns to scale in Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA) to the weight restriction environments. By the additionof weight restrictions, the status of returns to scale, i.e., increasing, constant and decreasing may suffer a change. Wefirst define ``returns to scale' under weight restrictions andpropose a method for identifying the status of returns to scale.Then, it is demonstrated that the region of the most productivescale size (MPSS) will usually be narrowed by this addition.For an inefficient decision making unit (DMU), a simple rulefor determining the status of returns to scale of its projectedDMU will be presented. An empirical study compares the resultsof the proposed method with those of the BCC model and demonstratesthe change in the MPSS for both models.     

Implementation of marginal cost pricing equilibrium allocations with transfers in economies with increasing returns to scale

This paper considers implementation of marginal cost pricing equilibrium allocations with transfers for production economies with increasing returns to scale. We present a mechanism whose Nash equilibrium allocations coincide with the set of marginal cost pricing equilibrium allocations with transfers that characterizes Pareto efficient allocations for economies with non-convex production technologies. We allow production sets and preferences to be unknown to the planner. The mechanism has some nice properties such as feasibility, continuity, and finite-dimension of message space. Furthermore, it works not only for three or more agents, but also for two-agent economies.     

The evolution of scale economies in US banking

Continued consolidation of the US banking industry and a general increase in the size of banks have prompted some policymakers to consider policies that discourage banks from getting larger, including explicit caps on bank size. However, limits on the size of banks could entail economic costs if they prevent banks from achieving economies of scale. This paper presents new estimates of returns to scale for US banks based on nonparametric, local‐linear estimation of bank cost, revenue, and profit functions. We report estimates for both 2006 and 2015 to compare returns to scale some 7 years after the financial crisis and 5 years after enactment of the Dodd–Frank Act with returns to scale before the crisis. We find that a high percentage of banks faced increasing returns to scale in cost in both years, including most of the 10 largest bank holding companies. Also, while returns to scale in revenue and profit vary more across banks, we find evidence that the largest four banks operate under increasing returns to scale.     

抗密钥泄漏技术研究综述

为了清晰地认识具有自保护功能的密码系统,对现有的几种抗密钥泄漏技术进行研究。从时间和核心技术两个角度对向前安全,密钥隔离,入侵回弹和代理重加密进行系统的分析,给出其研究的发展历程、核心技术和研究现状,并指出进一步需要研究的问题。文章对迅速全面把握抗密钥技术研究动态具有重要参考意义。     

Accumulation, Technical Progress, and Increasing Returns in the Economic Growth of East Asia

Adopting homothetic variable returns to scale functional specifications, this study identifies the returns to scale in the aggregate production functions of four East Asian newly industrialized economies–Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan–and the Group of Five economies based on a maximum likelihood estimation. The study finds evidence of increasing returns in the early developmental stage of the East Asian economies. Separating out the scale contribution from the non-scale factor contributions, the decomposition of the sources of East Asian economic growth differs significantly from the conventional constant returns to scale results, indicating that the role of technical progress is overestimated when constant returns to scale is assumed.     

Returns to scale effect in labour productivity growth

Economists acknowledge that technical progress and growth in capital inputs increase labour productivity (LP). However, less focus is given to the realization that changes in labour input alone could also affect LP. Because this effect disappears when the short-run technology exhibits constant returns to scale, we call it the returns to scale effect. We decompose growth in LP into three contributing factors: (1) technical progress, (2) capital input growth and the (3) returns to scale effect. We propose theoretical measures for these three components and show that they coincide with the index number formulae consisting of prices and quantities of inputs and outputs. Subsequently, we apply the results of our decomposition to US industry data for 1987–2009. LP in the services sector is shown to grow much slower than that in the goods sector during the 1987–1995 productivity slowdown period. We conclude that the returns to scale effect can considerably explain the gap in LP growth between the two industry groups.     

A multiproduct Symmetric Generalized McFadden cost function

This paper introduces a flexible multiproduct cost function that permits zero values of one or more of the outputs and can impose restrictions quite easily, if not automatically satisfied, to ensure global concavity property. It satisfies linear homogeneity (in prices) property and is flexible in the output space. Thus the function is ideal for estimating, for example, economies of scope, cost complementarity, product-specific returns to scale, etc., without worrying about zero values of output(s) and extrapolations to points far from the point of approximation. As an empirical application, we use panel data (1978–1985) on 12 Finnish foundry plants to estimate technical progress, overall returns to scale, product-specific returns to scale and economies of scope.     

Spatial externalities and agglomeration in a competitive industry

We introduce spatial spillovers as an externality in the production function of competitive firms operating within a finite spatial domain under adjustment costs. Spillovers may attenuate with distance and the overall externality could contain positive and negative components with the overall effect being positive. We show that when the spatial externality is not internalized by firms, spatial agglomerations may emerge endogenously in a competitive equilibrium. The result does not require increasing returns at the private or the social level, increasing marginal productivity of private capital with respect to the externality, or location advantages. In fact agglomerations may emerge with decreasing returns to scale, declining marginal productivity of private capital with respect to the externality, and no location advantage. The result depends on the interactions between the structures of production technology and spatial effects as shown in the paper. No agglomerations emerge at the social optimum when spillovers are internalized and diminishing returns both from the private and the social point of view prevail. Numerical experiments with Cobb–Douglas and CES technologies and an isoelastic demand confirm our theoretical predictions.     

中国城市集聚与扩散的转换规模及最优规模研究

以我国211个主要地级及地级以上城市为研究对象,其中包括除拉萨以外的30个省会城市、5个计划单列城市以及176个地级市.收集了1989-2003年及2000-2005年各城市的连续时间序列数据,构建了城市集聚与扩散的Panel-data模型,并运用该模型分别估算了各城市的相对规模收益和相对外部成本,然后通过收益与成本的对比分析,判断城市发展所处的阶段,找出城市以集聚为主向以扩散为主转换的城市规模.研究发现:目前,除上海市处于扩散阶段外,我国其它城市都处于以集聚为主的发展阶段,且在这些城市中,绝大部分城市的规模收益的增长速度要快于其外部成本.     

Patent-based investment funds as innovation intermediaries for SMEs: In-depth analysis of reciprocal interactions,motives and fallacies

SMEs and academic spin-offs play an important role in generating innovations but face resource and competency constraints that have implications for commercializing their technologies. In two in-depth case studies we analyze how patent-based investment funds (PBIFs), operating as innovation intermediaries, help overcome these constraints. In contrast to other patent intermediaries, PBIFs acquire patents and patentable inventions at an early stage of technology development when access to capital is particularly critical. They invest in the technological and legal advancement of their portfolio, which is mostly conducted in close interaction with the technology-providing SMEs and their original inventors. These PBIFs not only provide high added-value in the course of technology commercialization but also operate international networks to facilitate the commercialization of SMEs' technologies at an international scale. Although PBIFs are a promising new agent in the heterogeneous field of innovation intermediaries, their commercialization results and the actual rate of returns are not yet well established.     

Productive Efficiency of the Swine Industry in Hawaii: Stochastic Frontier vs. Data Envelopment Analysis

Improving productive efficiency is an increasingly important determinant of the future of the swine industry in Hawaii. This paper examines the productive efficiency of a sample of swine producers in Hawaii by estimating a stochastic frontier production function and the constant returns to scale (CRS) and variable returns to scale (VRS) output-oriented DEA models. The technical efficiency estimates obtained from the two frontier techniques are compared. The scale properties are also examined under the two approaches. The industry's potential for increasing production through improved efficiency is also discussed.     

On the estimation of returns to scale, technical progress and monopolistic markups

A number of theoretical results on estimating returns to scale, technical progress and monopolistic markups are derived when there are multiple outputs and inputs. The choice of value added versus gross output and problems that arise in aggregation across sectors of an economy are also considered. Using US data on manufacturing, evidence is found of increasing returns to scale across all levels of aggregation. Technical progress is typically found to be insignificant implying that economic growth has been driven by increasing returns to scale rather than technical progress. Such findings have important implications for the macroeconomic modeling of economic fluctuations.     

The translog production function: Some evidence from establishment data

This paper uses cross-section data from individual establishments to estimate directly, i.e., without using side conditions, translog functions for 44 four-digit ISIC Chilean manufacturing industries. Main results are: (1) The null hypothesis that the production function is Cobb-Douglas cannot be rejected for 39 out of 44 four-digit ISIC industries. (2) The null hypothesis of constant returns to scale cannot be rejected for 35 out of 44 industries; the remaining 9 sectors show evidence of increasing returns to scale.     

Managerial Technologies, Ethics and Managing

ABSTRACT   This paper engages with a key element of Legge's work: the relationship between the technical and the moral in the application of managerial technologies, and how managers manage these different layers of meaning. Taking business planning and performance measurement as an example of managerial technologies, these are analysed for the extent to which they allow for an engagement with an ethical position, using Legge's (1978 ) characterization of the role of managerial technologies originally identified in Power, Innovation and Problem Solving in Personnel Management . The inter-related elements of the technical, the ethical and the practical are then used to explore how managers construct the meaning of management and their implications for Legge's more recent deontological and teleological ethical framework.