Measuring and relating aggregate and subaggregate total factor productivity change without neoclassical assumptions

This article considers the relation between total factor productivity measures for individual production units and those for aggregates such as industries, sectors or economies. This topic has been treated in a number of influential publications, such as Hulten (1978), Gollop (1979) and Jorgenson et al. (1987). What distinguishes this article from other publications in this area is that I deliberately avoid the making of all kinds of (neoclassical) structural and behavioural assumptions, such as the existence of production frontiers with certain properties, or optimizing behaviour of the production units. In addition, I also treat dynamic ensembles of production units, characterized by entry and exit. Thus, a greater level of generality is achieved from which the earlier results follow as special cases.     

Measuring total factor productivity,technical change and the rate of returns to research and development

This paper examines the relationship between research and development expenditures and total factor productivity using establishment level (or micro) data. The confidential data are taken from the U.S. Bureau of the Census Annual Survey of Manufacturers and other Census surveys. Several measures of total factor productivity are considered as are several variables that proxy for technical knowledge. The latter include research and development expenditures by the firm, the accumulated research expenditures of the industry, and new equipment purchases. We find that there is a statistically significant relationship among above measures of technical expertise and a broad measure of total factor productivity.The refereeing process of this paper was handled through N.R. Adam.     

Measuring productivity in the public sector: some conceptual problems

In many sectors of the economy, governments either provide various services at no cost or at highly subsidized prices. Examples are the health, education and general government sectors. The paper analyzes three possible general methods to measure the price and quantity of nonmarket government outputs. If quantity information on nonmarket outputs is available, then the first two methods of price valuation rely on either purchaser based valuations or on cost based valuations. If little or no information on the quantity of nonmarket outputs produced is available, then the method recommended in the System of National Accounts 1993 must be used, where aggregate output growth is set equal to aggregate input growth. The paper also discusses various methods of adjusting for quality change.     

Applying efficiency measurement techniques to the measurement of productivity change

Deterministic frontier analysis (DFA), stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), and data envelopment analysis (DEA) are alternative analytical techniques designed to measure the efficiency of producers. All three techniques were originally developed within a cross-sectional context, in which the objective is to compare the efficiencies of producers. More recently all three techniques have been extended for use in a panel data context. In the latter context it is possible to measure productivity change, and to decompose measured productivity change into its sources, one of which is efficiency change. However when efficiency measurement techniques, particularly SFA, have been applied to panel data, it has infrequently been made clear what the objective of the analysis is: the measurement of efficiency, which may vary through time as well as across producers, or the measurement and decomposition of productivity change. In this paper I explore the use of each technique in a panel data context. I find DFA and DEA to have achieved a more satisfactory reorientation toward productivity measurement than SFA has.     

Transfer pricing: Technical and productivity change within the firm

Use of transfer prices is regarded by many writers as an efficient means of management of multidivisional firms. Its use in effect creates an internal market for the firm. However, its value as a management technique isknown to be subject to a number of limitations of the type discussed in the general economic theory of market failure. Nevertheless, two important limitations of transfer pricing have been neglected in the literature: (1) imputed profit/loss based on optimal transfer prices can be a poor guide to the economic value of a division to a firm when market transaction costs are important (for instance, even if a division shows an imputed loss, it may not be optimal to dispose of it), and (2) transfer pricing can retard technical change, innovation and productivity enhancement within a division to the detriment of the firm as a whole. Both aspects are examined here.     

A novel decomposition of aggregate total factor productivity change

Journal of Productivity Analysis - An industry is an ensemble of individual firms (decision making units) which may or may not interact with each other. Similarly, an economy is an ensemble of...     

基于价值创造的公司经营价值评估方法

公司经营价值评估方法主要有经济增加值法和自由现金流量折现法。经济增加值法能够从逻辑上说明公司经营价值的源泉,自由现金流量折现法能够较好地说明公司经营价值的本质。而基于价值创造基础的公司经营价值的评估方法综合上述两种方法的优点,不仅有利于理解价值的本质,更有利于理解价值的源泉,因此能够更好地帮助投资者实现价值管理和价值投资的目标。     

以区域整体发展原则促进乡村建设的持续发展

通过对城市化加速时期村庄建设的综合分析 ,提出在新的经济增长方式下 ,要遵循区域整体发展原则 ,构筑合理高效的城乡体系 ,以实现乡村建设的持续发展     

Measuring productivity of research in economics: A cross-country study using DEA

We measure productivity in leading edge economic research by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) for a sample of 21 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Publications in ten top journals of economics from 1980 to 1998 are taken as the research output. Inputs are measured by R&D expenditure, the number of universities with economics departments and (as an uncontrollable variable) population. Under constant returns-to-scale, the US emerges as the only efficient country. Under variable returns-to-scale, the efficiency frontier is defined by the US, Ireland and New Zealand. With the exception of the US, all countries in our sample display increasing returns-to-scale, and thus have the potential to raise their efficiency by scaling up their research activities.     

Measuring dynamics and structural change of time-dependent socio-economic networks

This paper addresses the issue of measuring temporal dynamics of complex socio-economic relational systems, represented as time-dependent networks. Network dynamics is first splitted into a structural component, accounting for changes in the network topology, and a non-structural component, accounting for permutation of vertex labels. A quantitative measure of the dynamics and its components is then proposed and it is shown how it can be used to investigate and interpret the time evolution of networks. A real example is discussed, pertaining to the dynamics of a subnetwork of the Italian corporate board network.     

The change in productivity of Chinese state enterprises, 1983–1987

This study estimates the change in productivity of Chinese state enterprises during 1983–1987 using a panel data set of 403 firms. A new approach to productivity measurement is used. Under this approach, the production functions can differ arbitrarily across firms, important given the heterogeneity of the sample. The resulting coefficients estimate the marginal products of each factor as well as overall productivity growth. The results suggest Chinese productivity increased by 4.6% per year, with about half of this growth due to the rapidly improving education of the labor force.     

以"实用原则"建立自动分拣系统——访日本株式会社冈村制作所中国地区总监张国民

日本株式会社冈村制作所（以下简称“冈村”）成立于1945年，是一家以先进技术为主导的生产性集团公司，下设物流部等五大事业部。冈村以其在飞机、汽车制造领域积累的生产技术为基础，不断开发出应用于物流系统的各种设备，供应日本国内及海外市场的需求。在提供各种物流设备的同时，冈村还为客户提供从现状调查分析、系统设计、设备制造，到施工、调试、售后服务的整体解决方案。     

Econometric estimation of distance functions and associated measures of productivity and efficiency change

Multi-input multi-output production technologies can be represented using distance functions. Econometric estimation of these functions typically involves factoring out one of the outputs or inputs and estimating the resulting equation using maximum likelihood methods. A problem with this approach is that the outputs or inputs that are not factored out may be correlated with the composite error term. Fernandez et al. (J Econ 98:47–79, 2000) show how to solve this so-called ‘endogeneity problem’ using Bayesian methods. In this paper I use the approach to estimate an output distance function and an associated index of total factor productivity (TFP) change. The TFP index is a new index that satisfies most, if not all, economically-relevant axioms from index number theory. It can also be exhaustively decomposed into a measure of technical change and various measures of efficiency change. I illustrate the methodology using state-level data on U.S. agricultural input and output quantities (no prices are needed). Results are summarized in terms of the characteristics (e.g., means) of estimated probability density functions for measures of TFP change, technical change and efficiency change.     

Incorporating ancillary measures of process and quality change into a superlative productivity index

One of the persistent problems plaguing the measurement of productivity and output is accounting for changes in product quality. A similar problem arises in attempting to explain shifts in a production function using information on changes in the characteristics of the production process itself. We consider these problems under a behavioral model in which the firm chooses a profit-maximizing bundle of input/output/process characteristics as well as the profit maximizing levels of input and output. This view of quality change is similar to the endogenous design index advocated by Triplett [1983] for industrial prices and the endogenous quality indexes analyzed by Pollak [1983] for consumer prices. We show how a price-characteristics locus can be used to adjust the Tornqvist output- and input-oriented multifactor productivity indexes of Caves, Christensen and Diewert [1982] for changes in input, output and process characteristics. To show the applicability of the methodology to services, we apply the results in the framework of the commercial banking measurement of Fixler [1988] to measure the impact of bank branching on multifactor productivity.The refereeing process of this paper was handled through R. Färe.     

Determining the contribution of technical change, efficiency change and scale change to productivity growth in the privatized English and Welsh water and sewerage industry: 1985–2000

The water and sewerage industry of England and Wales was privatized in 1989 and subjected to a new regime of environmental, water quality and RPI+K price cap regulation. This paper estimates a quality-adjusted input distance function, with stochastic frontier techniques in order to estimate productivity growth rates for the period 1985–2000. Productivity is decomposed so as to account for the impact of technical change, efficiency change, and scale change. Compared with earlier studies by Saal and Parker [(2000) Managerial Decision Econ 21(6):253–268, (2001) J Regul Econ 20(1): 61–90], these estimates allow a more careful consideration of how and whether privatization and the new regulatory regime affected productivity growth in the industry. Strikingly, they suggest that while technical change improved after privatization, productivity growth did not improve, and this was attributable to efficiency losses as firms appear to have struggled to keep up with technical advances after privatization. Moreover, the results also suggest that the excessive scale of the WaSCs contributed negatively to productivity growth.     

寻租理论对会计寻租研究的启示

本文根据寻祖理论的基本思想和研究方法,结合会计理论和会计实务的特点,探讨了会计寻租的内涵、会计寻租理论体系的基本框架构建、会计寻租研究四要素以及会计寻租研究方法。     

Undesirable outputs and a primal Divisia productivity index based on the directional output distance function

Despite their great popularity, all the conventional Divisia productivity indexes ignore undesirable outputs. The purpose of this study is to fill in this gap by proposing a primal Divisia-type productivity index that is valid in the presence of undesirable outputs. The new productivity index is derived by total differentiation of the directional output distance function with respect to a time trend and referred to as the Divisia–Luenberger productivity index. We also empirically compare the Divisia–Luenberger productivity index and a representative of the conventional Divisia productivity indexes–the radial-output-distance-function-based Feng and Serletis (2010) productivity index–using aggregate data on 15 OECD countries over the period 1981–2000. Our empirical results show that failure to take into account undesirable outputs not only leads to misleading rankings of countries both in terms of productivity growth and in terms of technological change, but also results in wrong conclusions concerning efficiency change.     

坚定品牌路线不动摇——访DEXIONCHINA／上海晓宝仓储系统设备有限公司总经理徐惠祥

上海晓宝仓储系统设备有限公司的前身为成立于1997年7月的上海晓宝企业发展有限公司晓宝仓储设备分公司,于2002年6月转制,成为国内最大的仓储物流系统设备制造商之一.1997年至2002年曾与Dexion公司在中国合作,为了进一步拓展国内外市场,2008年5月21日经上海市政府批准与Dexion公司合并.     

Dynamics of productivity in higher education: cross-european evidence based on bootstrapped Malmquist indices

This study examines patterns of productivity change in a large set of 266 public higher education institutions (HEIs) in 7 European countries across the time period 2001–2005. We adopt consistent bootstrap estimation procedures to obtain confidence intervals for Malmquist indices of HEI productivity and their components. Consequently, we are able to assess the statistical significance of changes in HEI productivity, efficiency and technology. Our results suggest that, assessed vis-à-vis a common ‘European’ frontier, HEI productivity rose on average by 4 % annually. Statistically significant changes in productivity were registered in 90 % of observations on the institutions in our sample, but statistically significant annual improvements in overall productivity took place in only 56 % of cases. There are considerable national differences, with German, Italian and Swiss HEIs performing better in terms of productivity change than HEIs from the other countries examined.