THE USEFULNESS OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION IN THE MEASUREMENT OF TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES

ABSTRACT ** :  The study of the performance of agricultural cooperatives has become increasingly important in recent years, due to the significant role that they have in the agricultural food sector. In this context, the present study has a double aim: On one hand to use the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique in order to measure the efficiency of agricultural cooperatives, and on the other hand, to analyse if this technique is complementary to the traditional economic and financial ratio analysis. In order to achieve these objectives, an empirical study is carried out using the data of 247 observations made over a horizontal time span of three accounting years (2001–2003). The results show that the efficiency measures obtained by means of the DEA technique are an appropriate complement to the economic analysis of agricultural cooperatives.     

Dept and input misallocation of agricultural supply and marketing cooperatives

Kim and Maksimovic provide an empirical model to examine the effect of dept on a firm. Their model is adopted to examine agricultural supply and marketing cooperatives. Using a short-run variable cost function, we find firm efficiency decreases as dept increases. A US$1 increase in indebtedness increases total short-run variable costs by US$0.0167 or roughly 1.67% Dept tends to shift input usage away from labour inputs. A test developed by Conrad and Unger is applied to determine whether the agricultural supply and marketing cooperatives are at a long-run equilibrium capacity. It is found that most of the cooperatives were overinvested in capacity. However,dept does not explain this overinvestment. Finally,the effect of dept on total productivity over the study period is examined. It is found that dept has had a small positive impact on total factor productivity growth. Scale economics and non-optimal capacity had large impacts on total factor productivity. Although dept is associated with short-run misallocation of resources, we find little evidence that dept is associated with long -run suboptimal capacity.     

Sulphur emissions and productivity growth in industrialised countries

Abstract ** :  In this paper, we examine the relationship between economic and environmental performance. More specifically, we analyse the impact of SO2 reduction in the eighties (1980–1992) on productivity growth, technical efficiency and technological progress for a set of 12 OECD countries. Our timeframe roughly corresponds to the adoption and implementation of the First Sulphur Protocol signed in 1985. First, we estimate an output based Malmquist productivity index using distance functions derived from successive DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) frontiers. This index is decomposed in two components namely technical and efficiency change. Second, we regress the change in productivity and its two components on a set of explanatory variables including annual variations in SO2 emissions. The results indicate that reductions in SO2 do not seem to have had a significant impact on productivity growth. The decomposition into efficiency and technology changes suggests that two countervailing effects may explain this result. On one hand, SO2 cutbacks adversely affect efficiency but on the other hand, they stimulate technical change .     

环境约束下中国与世界主要国家技术效率和生产率的测度与比较

运用含非期望产出的超效率SBM(slack based measure)模型和GML(global Malmquist-Luenberger)指数,对中国与世界主要国家1991—2016年的分别在考虑和不考虑环境约束下的技术效率和全要素生产率进行测度与比较。研究发现,不考虑环境约束的测度结果忽略了一国发展所造成的污染损失,导致技术效率与生产率被高估;中国的技术效率在考虑环境因素后显著下降,总效率排名从样本中的第16位下降至第40位。时间趋势上,中国的环境效率与技术效率的差距呈现先扩大后缩小,且近年来有逐渐趋同的态势;动态视角上,不考虑环境约束时中国的全要素生产率变化总体呈现增长趋势,但在考虑环境因素后中国的环境全要素生产率转变为下降趋势,这其中,技术进步的下降是影响环境全要素生产率变化的主要因素。     

Productivity and efficiency change and shareholder value: evidence from the Spanish banking sector

Productivity change and shareholder value have been analysed in the banking sector in the last few years, although it should be noted that these two important aspects have been studied separately. In this regard, the main contribution of our study is to link these two lines of research by verifying whether those banks characterized by higher levels of efficiency and productivity change have a higher shareholder value. To measure changes in efficiency and productivity we use the Malmquist nonparametric technique, which is calculated from Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) linear programming approach. The Malmquist total factor productivity index enables separation of the ‘catching up’ effect, i.e. changes over time in technical efficiency, from ‘technological change’, i.e. the shift of best practice frontier over time due to technological progress. Our results for a sample of listed Spanish banks in the period 2000 to 2004 confirm that those banks with higher efficiency and productivity changes have a higher shareholder value, even after controlling for the impact of traditional measures of performance, such as return on assets.     

Environmental spillover effects on firm productivity and efficiency: An analysis of agri-food business in Southeast Spain

Spillover effects are treated as the influence of knowledge and innovation diffusion on an economic activity, but their analysis related to environmental practices within firms is still quite scarce. This study investigates the effect of environmental practices and related spillovers on productivity and efficiency in agri-food firms located in Southeast Spain. The low investment in research and development actions in comparison with the industrial sector, together with the relatively recent application of environmental requirements and the heterogeneity of environmental controls within firms have led to important changes in the organisation and management of their productive activity. These features are especially related to the implications that location and clustering factors have on environmental knowledge and innovation diffusion. Taking environmental management practices as knowledge of capital, we propose a specific analysis that evaluates the impacts of both environmental investment and spillover on the production function. The results indicate the relationship between productivity improvement and environmental practices, also showing the presence of positive spillovers. In a second-stage analysis, the incidence of environmental variables on the individual technical efficiency of firms is also determined. On the whole, the empirical analysis provides evidence of the links between environmental practices spillovers and economic performance.     

Productivity growth and environmental regulations - accounting for undesirable outputs: Analysis of China's thirty provincial regions using the Malmquist-Luenberger index

This paper employs the Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) productivity index to evaluate China's growth in total factor productivity (TFP), incorporating undesirable outputs, during the period from 1989 to 2008. The ML productivity index and its components (technical and efficiency changes) are derived from the directional distance function which gives credit for an increase in good outputs and for reductions in undesirable outputs. The average annual ML productivity growth, accounting for undesirable outputs, is 2.46%, whereas the value of the traditional Malmquist productivity index is 4.84%, showing that the true TFP growth in China is overestimated if undesirable outputs are ignored. We explore the strictness in enforcing environmental regulations and its impact on improvements in ML productivity. The results show that, the enforcement of environmental regulations in China is, in general, far below the levels achieved in the best performing regions, and that the more stringent enforcement of environmental regulations would help to improve ML productivity growth in China.     

Productivity Trends in Australian and New Zealand Manufacturing

The purpose of this article is to study relative trends in total factor productivity (TFP) between the Australian and New Zealand manufacturing sectors from 1986 to 1996. Since 1984 both economies have undergone major structural changes with varying degrees of speed and intensity. We use the Malmquist index to measure TFP growth and decompose it into an efficiency change and a technical change component. This decomposition provides extra insight on assessing relative productivity trends during a period of economic reform. The results indicate the Australian manufacturing sector exhibits better rates of individual factor productivity performance while multifactor productivity is estimated to be higher in New Zealand manufacturing. TFP growth in New Zealand is driven by technical rather than efficiency change. In fact, the New Zealand manufacturing average rate of efficiency change is estimated to be negative over the sample period.     

Efficiency change,technological change and capital accumulation in Italian regions: a sectoral study

This paper examines the sources of labour productivity in the Italian regions during the period 1980–2004. Five economic sectors are investigated using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and taking into account productive specialisation and sector inefficiencies. Labour productivity change is decomposed into five components by means of Malmquist productivity indices: intra-sector efficiency change, composition efficiency change, input-biased technical change, magnitude component technical change and capital accumulation. Using bootstrap procedure, the components of labour productivity changes are statistically tested. Efficiency analysis shows that productive specialisation is not a source of inefficiency and efficiency gains can be obtained by sector-specific policies. Thus, it is possible to obtain improvements in efficiency in each sector of activity rather than reallocating resources among sectors. The results of the decomposition by sectors reveal heterogeneous sources of growth. The total economy has shown evidence of non-neutral technical change and, it has been found that agriculture, industry and construction experienced capital using technical change. The analysis of the decomposition of the labour productivity growth is complemented by an analysis of β-convergence.     

Investigating productivity change and hospital size: a nonparametric frontier approach

The study obtains measures of the productive efficiency of ‘larger’ and ‘smaller’ Northern Ireland hospitals during the 1986–92 pre-Trust period. The measures provide insights into how these hospitals were responding to the pressures for increased efficiency prior to Trust status. They also constitute a useful benchmark for evaluating productivity change under the post-1992 Trust status environment. A nonparametric frontier approach is used to measure productivity change and to decompose this into technical change (or shifts in the best practice frontier) and efficiency change (or change in how far a hospital is from the frontier). The latter change in efficiency is also decomposed into changes in scale efficiency, pure technical efficiency and input congestion. The findings indicate that smaller hospitals, starting from a less efficient base, achieved greater productivity gains than larger hospitals over 1986–92. For smaller hospitals, this was due to progressive shifts in the best practice frontier outweighing a substantial decline in efficiency. This decline was found to be due to a deterioration in scale efficiency over the period. The results overall support the current policy view that larger hospitals are more efficient than smaller hospitals in providing health care services.     

总需求、国际贸易与我国省际生产率变化——基于省际面板数据的研究

全要素生产率的提高是促进经济持续增长的重要原因,对生产率的研究,主要是从供给方面展开的,本文试图从需求角度研究全要素生产率变动的原因。理论上看,总需求通过影响技术创新、技术选择、规模经济效益和要素的使用效率等途径引起生产率的变化,国际贸易则通过促进分工深化、产生技术溢出等促进生产率的提高。然后,本文采用数据包络分析方法测算了中国省际全要素生产率变化,并将其分解为技术效率的变化和技术进步。结果发现中国改革开放以来全要素生产率增长主要是技术进步的结果,技术效率的作用很小。在测算和分解的基础上,利用省际面板数据,就总需求和国际贸易对生产率增长的影响作了实证分析,发现最终消费和资本形成对技术进步和全要素生产率的提高作用显著,出口对生产率增长的作用不显著,进口显著地促进了省际全要素生产率增长和技术进步。     

Dynamic environmental performance analysis: A Malmquist index approach

This article presents a general framework for dynamic environmental performance analysis by generalizing the approach proposed by Kuosmanen and Kortelainen [Kuosmanen, T., Kortelainen, M., 2005. Measuring Eco-Efficiency of Production with Data Envelopment Analysis. Journal of Industrial Ecology 9(4), 59-72.] from a static to a dynamic setting. For this purpose we construct an environmental performance index (EPI) by applying frontier efficiency techniques and a Malmquist index approach. Compared to other dynamic environmental productivity and efficiency analysis approaches based on these methods, our approach builds on the standard definition of eco-efficiency as it is presented in the ecological economics literature. Recognizing the importance to analyze the sources of environmental performance changes, we show how changes in overall environmental performance can be decomposed into changes in relative eco-efficiency and shifts in environmental technology, respectively. We apply the presented technique at the macro level to dynamic environmental performance analysis of 20 member states of the European Union in 1990-2003. According to the results, environmental technical change mostly explains the improvement in overall environmental performance, while relative eco-efficiency change has been minor for most countries during the sample period.     

Productivity in the tourism industry

This paper analyzes the efficiency of a Portuguese public-owned hotel chain, Enatur. It applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate total factor productivity (TFP) change, while breaking it down into technical efficiency and technological change. The benchmarking procedure used is an internal one, which compares hotels with each other. For the period 1999–2001, the hotels are ranked according to their total productivity change. It is concluded that some hotels experienced productivity growth, while others faced a decline. Some implications beneficial for managerial policies were drawn from this study.     

Productivity and efficiency at english football clubs: a random coefficient approach

This paper analyzes productivity and efficiency of English professional football clubs from 1981–1982 to 2010–2011, using a random coefficient stochastic distance frontier (SDF) model. Our Bayes factor analysis indicates that this model is strongly favored over the commonly used fixed coefficient SDF model. Our empirical results show that clubs in our sample operate at different levels of technical efficiency and technical change. Our further analysis using ordered logistic regression suggests that technical efficiency is more important than technical change in predicting whether clubs in our sample are promoted or relegated.     

Total factor productivity in the Lithuanian family farms after accession to the EU: application of the bias-corrected Malmquist indices

The non-parametric measures of efficiency and productivity do not enable to fathom the underlying technology changes in terms of input saving and consumption. However, the bias-corrected Malmquist productivity index offers a remedy to this shortcoming. This paper, thus, employed the bias-corrected Malmquist productivity index to measurement of the total factor productivity changes in the Lithuanian family farms. The paper employed the Malmquist productivity indices to measure the technical changes (TCs) in terms of input-saving or input-use. Specifically, a sample of 200 family farms was used for the analysis. The research period covered years 2004–2009. The three farming types were considered, namely crop, livestock, and mixed farming. The analysis indicted that crop farming was peculiar with land-using and asset-saving TC, whereas labour-using and intermediate consumption saving TCs were observed only for certain combinations of inputs. As for livestock farms these generally experienced intermediate consumption and asset saving TCs against all the remaining inputs, whereas labour-saving and land-using TC varied with the reference inputs. Finally, mixed farms can be considered as those peculiar with increasing land use and decreasing capital consumption. Labour-using and intermediate consumption saving TCs did also hold for most of the analysed factors. The Lithuanian agricultural sector has not been analysed by the means of the bias-corrected Malmquist indices. Furthermore, there is a gap in the literature on the efficiency and total factor productivity in the Lithuanian farms in general. The present study, therefore, presents insights on the technology change based on non-parametric estimates.     

COMPARATIVE EFFICIENCY OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES AND CONVENTIONAL FIRMS IN A SAMPLE OF QUASI‐TWIN COMPANIES

The resilience of cooperatives and their positive contribution to employment in times of crisis is well established. However, their overall economic performance relative to conventional firms is still controversial, casting doubt on the ability of this alternative organizational form to govern the fundamental drivers of productivity. To shed new light on the issue, we study the comparative technical efficiency of agricultural cooperatives (ACs) and conventional firms (CFs), drawing on a unique data set comprising all wine‐producing companies in Sardinia (Italy) from 2004 to 2009. Due to the similarity of the habitats in which the firms operate and the careful measurement of several key inputs, the observed units are ‘twins’ in all non‐organizational respects, providing an ideal setting for comparison. Having generated efficiency scores through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we regressed the scores on external covariates and ownership type using a pooled truncated maximum likelihood formulation. Our findings, which survive correction for spatial correlations, indicate that cooperatives are less technically efficient than their capitalist counterparts and struggle more to adapt to extreme weather fluctuations. Both results are particularly worrying in light of the main challenges facing the wine industry in the near future: liberalization of EU planting rights and climate change.     

中国区域创新型绿色发展效率测度及其影响因素

根据研发驱动理论,通过构建包含R&D投入的超效率DEA—SBM模型,分别测算2001—2017年中国不同区域传统型、创新型绿色发展效率及绿色全要素生产率,并借助广义最小二乘法(GLS)模型对区域创新型绿色发展效率影响因素进行实证分析。结果显示：①创新要素下中国及四大经济区域创新型绿色发展效率均高于传统要素下传统型绿色发展效率,呈波动上升趋势,且逐渐收敛。东部地区创新型绿色发展效率最高,西部、东北部地区有所提升,而中部地区并未得到较大提升;②2001—2017年全国创新型绿色全要素生产率呈波动上升趋势,其变化趋势与技术进步变化趋势一致,技术进步是促进其增长的主要因素;③各区域经济发展水平与创新型绿色发展效率正相关,城镇化水平、FDI与全国创新型绿色发展效率正相关,而产业结构和环境规制起负向影响作用。R&D投入规模、R&D投入强度、R&D投入成果与区域创新型绿色发展效率的关系,在全国及四大经济区域有不同的表现。     

Does Environmental Protection Lead to Slower Productivity Growth in the Chemical Industry?

Efficiency and productivity growth is measured at the three-digit SIC level for six chemical industries for 1988–1993. The directional distance function is used to measure the lost chemical manufacturing output and the overproduction of toxic chemical releases. Total factor productivity growth is decomposed into a product of efficiency change and technical change. Accounting for toxic chemical releases, productivity grows at anannual rate of between 2.4% and 6.9%. We find no evidence that environmental protection measures reduce productivity growth.     

CATCHING‐UP AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS OF THE ASEAN ECONOMIES

Total factor productivity growth of the five ASEAN founding members is estimated by decomposing total factor productivity growth into technical efficiency and technological progress. By using the stochastic frontier model with individual‐specific temporal pattern of technical efficiency for the period of 1981–2003, the present paper identifies the unique temporal pattern of productivity changes in each country, to analyze the relationship between country characteristics and the inherent efficiency and productivity changes. The empirical results indicate that over the study period, growth in Singapore and Malaysia was largely driven by both technological progress and input accumulation, whereas growth in Thailand was induced by an improvement in technical efficiency and through input accumulation.     

On the stability of the cooperative type of organization

The stability of producer cooperatives in market economies is analyzed in a dynamic context. It is shown that, when permitted to hire wage laborers, a producer cooperative, even if its labor productivity is higher than in an otherwise equivalent capitalist firm, is likely to lose its cooperative character because members' personal income will be maximized when “expensive” members are replaced by “inexpensive” wage-laborers. Producer cooperatives will maintain their organizational character best when they operate in a marginal industry where cooperation enhances members' productivity so that their earnings exceed their opportunity wages. In general, competitive markets for membership are not a sufficient condition to prevent the transformation of cooperatives into capitalist firms.