The Measurement of Dynamic Productive Efficiency

Measuring dynamic productive efficiency from observed input-output data raises several new issues which are absent in the static production frontier studies. The adjustment cost approach is developed here as an interface between the static and the dynamic frontier studies, and the non-parametric method of Farrell developed for static efficiency is extended for the specification of a dynamic production frontier.     

Estimating technical change by nonparametric methods

A nonparametric method using dynamic data envelopment analysis is developed here to specify and estimate a dynamic production frontier. By this technique technological progress measured by the time shift of the production frontier and the scale economies measured by increasing returns to scale are estimated from the observed input output data, which may sometimes be nonstationary. An application to US computer industry exhibits substantial technological progress and scale economies over the period 1987–1998.     

Analysis of environmental efficiency variations: A nutrient balance approach

Recent literature has argued that environmental efficiency (EE), which is built on the materials balance (MB) principle, is more suitable than other EE measures in situations where the law of mass conversation regulates production processes. In addition, the MB-based EE method is particularly useful in analysing possible trade-offs between cost and environmental performance. Identifying determinants of MB-based EE can provide useful information to decision makers but there are very few empirical investigations into this issue. This article proposes the use of data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis techniques to analyse variation in MB-based EE. Specifically, the article develops a stochastic nutrient frontier and nutrient inefficiency model to analyse determinants of MB-based EE. The empirical study applies both techniques to investigate MB-based EE of 96 rice farms in South Korea. The size of land, fertiliser consumption intensity, cost allocative efficiency, and the share of owned land out of total land are found to be correlated with MB-based EE. The results confirm the presence of a trade-off between MB-based EE and cost allocative efficiency and this finding, favouring policy interventions to help farms simultaneously achieve cost efficiency and MP-based EE.     

技术效率、资本深化与地区差异——基于随机前沿模型的中国地区收敛分析

本文提出了基于随机前沿生产函数的地区增长差异分析框架,将各地区劳均产出差距分解为劳均资本差异、经济规模差异和全要素生产率差异三个部分。利用改革时期的省级数据,本文发现尽管要素投入仍然是中国经济增长的主要源泉,但全要素生产率是造成地区差异的重要原因,在地区劳均产出差异中的贡献份额不断提高,将成为今后中国地区增长差异的主要决定力量。而且,1990年以来中国地区全要素生产率呈现出绝对发散趋势,严重的技术扩散壁垒加剧了体制转轨过程中的“马太效应”,短期内地区差距不会随经济发展而缩小,政府需要通过适当的政策对地区发展进行调节,尤其要促进地区间技术扩散,使各地区更好地分享技术创新和体制创新的成果。     

测度政府技术效率的模型与方法比较研究

技术效率是在产出规模不变,市场价格不变的条件下,按照既定的要素投入比例所能达到的最小生产成本占实际生产成本的百分比。政府技术效率是广义的政府绩效或效率的一个部分,它是政府提供公共服务过程中能够测度的政府投入与政府产出之间的比例关系。测度政府技术效率主要的模型与方法有非参数前沿法和参数前沿法。非参数前沿法主要包括数据包络法分析（DEA）和自由处置包（FDH）,而参数前沿法主要包括随机前沿法（SFA）、模糊边界法（TFA）和确定性前沿法（DFA）。通过建立模型科学对政府技术效率进行评估与测度可提高政府各个方面的科学性和有效性,从而促进政府技术效率的提高。     

Adjustment of inputs and measurement of technical efficiency: A dynamic panel data analysis of the Egyptian manufacturing sectors

The purpose of this article is to construct a dynamic stochastic production frontier incorporating the sluggish adjustment of inputs, to measure the speed of adjustment of output, and to compare the technical efficiency estimates from this dynamic model to those from a static model. By assuming instantaneous adjustment of all inputs, a static model may underestimate technical efficiency of a production unit in the short-run. However, in this article I show that under the assumption of similar adjustment speed for all inputs, a linear partial adjustment scheme for output characterizes the dynamic production frontier. The dynamic frontier with time-invariant technical efficiency is estimated using the system GMM (generalized method of moments) estimator. Applying the model and estimation method on a panel data set spanning 9?years of data on private manufacturing establishments in Egypt, I find that (1) the speed of adjustment of output is significantly lower than unity, (2) the static model underestimates technical efficiency by 4.5 percentage points on average, and (3) the ranking of production units based on their technical efficiency measures changes when the lagged adjustment process of inputs is taken into account.     

Scale and efficiency measurement using a semiparametric stochastic frontier model: evidence from the U.S. commercial banks

In this paper, we use the local maximum likelihood (LML) method proposed by Kumbhakar et al. (J Econom, 2007) to estimate stochastic cost frontier models for a sample of 3,691 U.S. commercial banks. This method relaxes several deficiencies in the econometric estimation of frontier functions. In particular, we relax the assumption that all banks share the same production technology and provide bank-specific measures of returns to scale and cost inefficiency. The LML method is applied to estimate the cost frontiers in which a truncated normal distribution is used to model technical inefficiency. This formulation allows the cost frontier, inefficiency effects and heteroskedasticity in both noise and inefficiency components to be quite flexible.      

HUMAN CAPITAL AND CONVERGENCE: A PRODUCTION‐FRONTIER APPROACH*

Using nonparametric, production‐frontier methods, we decompose labor productivity growth into components attributable to technological change (shifts in the world production frontier), technological catch‐up (movements toward or away from the frontier), and physical and human capital accumulation (movements along the frontier). We find that (1) technological change is decidedly nonneutral, (2) productivity growth is driven primarily by physical and human capital accumulation, (3) the increased international dispersion of productivity is explained primarily by physical capital accumulation, and (4) international polarization (the shift from a unimodal to a bimodal distribution) is brought about primarily by efficiency changes (technological catch‐up).     

Innovation and Performance: Benchmarking Australian Firms

This article empirically analyses the link between innovation and performance using a sample of large Australian firms, with a specific aim of developing benchmarking tools. Innovation is measured by firms' investment in R&D and applications for patents, trademarks and designs. An innovation index is constructed to provide one method of benchmarking. The index incorporates a firm's innovative activities into a single figure after accounting for firm size. The index provides a ranking of the most innovative firms in Australia. A second method of benchmarking uses a stochastic production frontier. This type of analysis identifies the firms which are located closest to a ‘best practice innovation frontier’.     

政府科技投入与企业技术创新效率的耦合协调度——以北京市为例

分析了政府科技投入与企业技术创新效率的耦合协调机理。利用2005—2014年北京的统计数据,采用综合指数法和随机前沿分析法分别测度了北京的政府科技投入综合水平和企业技术创新效率,并利用构建的耦合协调度模型测度并评价了两者的协调状况。结果显示:2005—2014年期间北京的政府科技投入综合水平呈逐年提高趋势,企业技术创新效率呈"N"型发展趋势,两者的耦合协调度呈波动上升态势,其中2009年出现波谷,从2013年开始达到高度协调状态。     

Distance to Frontier and New Import Growth

In a panel‐data study involving product‐level import data for 48 developing countries that underwent substantial trade liberalization between 1989 and 2001, this study finds that the growth of trade in new goods imported following major trade liberalization is related to the state of technology that existed just before liberalization. The study develops two new measures of the extensive margin. Findings indicate that greater is the distance of a country from the world technology frontier, the faster is its growth of new goods imports. This indicates a higher cost of trade protection for countries further away from the world technology frontier.     

企业竞争优势的本源分析——同质生产要素使用价值量动态性

企业竞争优势决定于构成企业的生产要素和环境影响。企业所处的环境由区域空间即地理空间、经济空间、人文空间单元,以及经济时段单元构成。在不同的区域空间,不同的经济时段单元中,同质生产要素有不同的使用价值量,在时和空单元组合变化时,生产要素的使用价值量也是动态变化的。本文通过建立数理模型对其进行逻辑论证,并经过实证验证,提出了企业竞争优势的本源是企业生产要素构成优势和时空环境引致的企业优势的动态变化。使对企业竞争优势的研究从资源论、环境论和能力论的单一视角,扩展到了多维,从静态拓展到了动态,从总体的优势研究,逐步向比较优势、竞争力等研究方向细化,进入理论研究的国际前沿。     

Public and private inputs in aggregate production and growth: a cross-country efficiency approach

In a cross section of OECD countries, we replace the macroeconomic production function by a production possibility frontier, total factor productivity being the composite effect of efficiency scores and possibility frontier changes. We consider, for the periods 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 one output – GDP per worker – and three inputs – human capital, public physical capital per worker and private physical capital per worker. We use a semi-parametric analysis, computing Malmquist productivity indexes, and we also resort to stochastic frontier analysis. Results show that private capital is important for growth, although public and human capital also contribute positively. A governance indicator, a nondiscretionary input, explains inefficiency. Better governance helps countries to achieve a better performance. Nonparametric and parametric results coincide rather closely on the movements of the countries vis-à-vis the possibility frontier and on their relative distances to the frontier.     

外商直接投资和经济增长的关系研究

理论研究普遍认为外商直接投资对经济增长产生了积极的影响,但对外商直接投资如何影响新兴工业化国家的发展过程的具体机制却研究甚少。本文从新兴工业化国家的视角提出并验证了有关外商直接投资对经济增长作用的两个假设:(1)外商直接投资有利于减小国内生产的非效率,是提高生产技术效率的推动器;(2)外商直接投资有利于加快国内技术进步,是生产前沿的移动器。因为这种双重作用,所以外商直接投资是新兴工业化国家赶超世界发达国家的一个重要因素。中国过去几十年经济快速的发展为验证这两个假设提供了一个理想的范例。     

农户小麦生产的技术效率分析——以河南省为例

本文使用2005—2008年河南省农户微观层面的截面数据,运用参数方法测算了近年河南省农户小麦生产的技术效率和规模报酬。结果表明:2005—2008年河南省小麦生产的技术效率呈递增趋势,平均技术效率在0.77～0.87之间,且生产处在规模报酬递增的阶段。     

Nonparametric measurement of the overall shift in the technology frontier: an application to multiple-output agricultural production data in the Brazilian Amazon

This article develops a simple, but informative, approach to measure technical changes by applying the Malmquist index framework using data envelopment analysis (DEA). A set of directional vectors is used to capture complete information regarding the overall shift in the technology frontier; we then visualize the DEA frontiers in the output space. This approach deals with the problems of sample dependence and non-circularity of technical change measures. It allows us to measure output-by-output technical change. Furthermore, the geometric mean of the technical change measures derived using this approach satisfies circularity. The application of Malmquist indices to the panel datasets of agricultural production in the Brazilian Amazon during the period 1975–1995 indicates a non-Hicks-neutral technical change, with intersection of frontiers during both the 1975–1985 and the 1985–1995 sub-periods. We find moderate progress in cattle production and annual crops, and a decline in perennial crops (bananas). Technological progress is a modest 0.7% during the period 1975–1995 on average. In addition, comparisons with the sample-dependent measures in the preceding studies demonstrate that these indices are usually sensitive to the distribution of actual sampled data points.     

Estimation of technical inefficiency in manufacturing industry

An extension of the method of estimation of technical ineficiency is presented based on the stochastic production frontier approach. A derivation of the estimation procedure is given and the technique applied at the industry level. The choice of production function is considered and empirical results pertaining to Australia and the UK are presented.     

中国不同行业全球价值链位置对创新效率的影响

关注中国各行业全球价值链位置对创新性效率的影响,基于新古典经济理论提出假设,采用非竞争性投入产出法计算中国19个代表性行业在全球价值链中的位置及变化趋势,测算其整体创新效率。进一步将创新效率分解为技术进步指数、规模效率指数、纯技术效率指数,通过观察分解变量值揭示行业差异。结果表明：研发阶段,处于全球价值链上游的行业,行业技术前沿水平上升,行业整体向前沿靠近的程度降低;生产阶段,处于全球价值链上游的行业,行业技术前沿水平下降,行业整体向前沿靠近的程度上升。     

Trade, technology transfer and national efficiency in developing countries

This paper simultaneously explores the determinants of the developing countries’ production frontier and these countries’ ‘efficiency’ in using the available resources and technology. In doing so it allows for the transfer of (industrial country) technology in determining the frontier and for international trade's influence on absorptive capacity and national efficiency levels. Stochastic frontier analysis is used to model the production frontier for 57 developing countries for the period 1970-1998, to measure cross-country and temporal differences in efficiency levels and to explain the differences in efficiency levels. The results indicate significant differences in efficiency levels across countries and regions and movement over time, and an important influence of trade and trade policy in raising output both through technology improvements embodied in imported capital goods and by inducing efficiency improvements.     

Measuring total productivity change

This paper examines several ways of measuring the aggregate rate of technical change: with the aggregate production function; in a disaggregated framework of the multisector model; and with the net social production possibility frontier or the generalized factor price frontier. Conditions under which all three approaches are mutually compatible are determined.