Energy efficiency and production technology heterogeneity in China: A meta-frontier DEA approach

The heterogeneities of production technology among provinces in China cause difficulties for unbiased evaluation of energy efficiency. Using meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, this paper proposes a new method for measuring energy efficiency by considering the “technology gap” and analyzes it as a discrete source of energy inefficiency. This empirical study has three major findings: Firstly, the energy efficiency and technology gap are significantly different in the east, central and west, and most provinces in the east maintain high energy efficiency and advanced production technology, while energy efficiency in the west is on the contrary. Secondly, both the technology gap and management related to energy utilization are important sources of energy inefficiency in the central and the west provinces, and the effect of the technology gap is more obvious. Finally, though overall energy efficiency in China is not high by relative standards and significant regional difference exists, potential energy-saving strategies have been discovered in recent years.     

CONSUMPTION (IN)EFFICIENCY AND FINANCIAL ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

Consumption may be inefficient when a household cannot choose the optimal bundle of goods at a minimum cost. After discussing alternative approaches, this paper proposes the use of money metric indirect utility function motivated by Feenstra and Varian in measuring consumption inefficiency. Then, Bamoul–Tobin transactions demand for money model is extended to show how household ability to manage its income, expenditure and financial accounts may affect consumption inefficiency. Results of the stochastic cost frontier approach, which is employed in estimation and the prediction of the European Union household consumption inefficiency, suggest that household expenditure performance is partly explained by the changes in the consumption efficiency and the efficiency is not independent of financial account management.     

Size Does Matter: Technical and Scale Efficiency in Indian State Tax Jurisdictions

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to measure tax efficiency in 15Indian states from 1980/81 to 1992/93. Tax efficiency is shown to be conditional on state gross domestic product (SDP), agriculture's share in state SDP,and a poverty index. The considerable remaining efficiency differences areattributable to the small size of some tax jurisdiction rather than to technical inefficiency. Multilateral Malmquist tax indices show that six of the states were consistently efficient, while three were consistently inefficient. Tax efficiency grew at an average annual rate of 3.9% until 1986/87, but growth ceased after that date for all but two states.     

中国有色金属工业生产效率评价

利用2006—2010年我国省际面板数据,利用数据包络分析方法,从静态和动态两个角度,对我国29个省(自治区、直辖市)有色金属工业的生产效率进行了实证分析。静态分析结果表明:我国有色金属工业的生产效率整体偏低,受地方经济发达程度的影响较显著;整个行业的无效率主要来自于纯技术无效率,且行业的地区发展极不平衡,行业抵抗突发性经济危机的能力较脆弱;有色金属工业生产效率的省际差异逐渐拉大,个别省份的生产效率极低。利用Malmquist生产率指数进行的动态研究结果表明:2006—2010年期间,受技术进步这一主动力的影响,我国有色金属工业生产率总体上处于上升状态;技术效率和技术进步两个因素的交相波动决定了整个行业的生产率水平呈波动上升态势。     

The behaviour of expected short-term real interest rates in the UK

The existence of persistent technical inefficiency offers the opportunity for a ‘free lunch’ not typically implied by the neoclassical theory of the firm. When external effects are related to the use of particular inputs, reduction of persistent technically inefficient levels of input use represents a means of reducing external impacts. An important example is found in agriculture where substantial environmental impacts are generated by particular inputs. Within this context, this paper considers the usefulness of data envelopment analysis (DEA) for estimation of potential input reductions and assessment of potential reductions of environmental impacts of agricultural inputs. An application for French cereal production provides estimates that indicate that substantial potential exists for reduction of input use and environmental impacts.     

长江三角洲城市群科技服务业效率评价

根据科技服务业内涵,将其划分为五大细分行业,以长江三角洲城市群为主要研究对象,使用2010-2016年投入与产出数据,建立超效率DEA模型,并运用视窗分析评价长江三角洲城市群五大细分科技服务业发展效率。研究结果表明：规模无效是导致各区域科技服务业综合技术效率未达到有效的共性因素;我国科技服务业需要优化投入产出结构,扩大规模效应;长江三角洲城市群科技服务业综合技术效率水平及趋势具有显著差异。据此,分别对全国及长江三角洲城市群五大细分科技服务业发展提出改进对策。〖JP〗     

Comparing French and US hospital technologies: a directional input distance function approach

French and US hospital technologies are compared using directional input distance functions. The aggregation properties of the directional distance function allow comparison of hospital industry-level performance as well as standard firm-level performance with regard to productive efficiency. In addition, the underlying constituents of efficiency?–?in the short run, congestion and technical inefficiency, and in the long run, scale inefficiency?–?are analysed by decomposing the overall measure. By virtue of using the directional distance function, it is also possible to obtain an estimate of a lower bound on allocative inefficiency. It is found that French and US hospitals use quite different technologies. Long run scale inefficiencies cause most of the French hospitals’?inefficiency, while short run technical inefficiency is the main source of overall productive inefficiency in the US hospitals.     

我国工业企业绿色技术创新 效率及其区域差异研究 ——基于共同前沿理论和DEA模型

在引入工业“三废”和CO2等指标的情况下,本文基于共同前沿理论,利用规模报酬不变和可变的DEA模型测度分析2003-2010年各省份企业绿色科技研发、成果转化效率以及区域间的技术差距,并对无效率值进行分解,最后检验两阶段效率的影响因素。研究表明：①考察期内中国企业两阶段绿色创新效率偏低,且均呈现下降趋势,各阶段纯技术效率持续减少是其主要原因。与传统效率相比,绿色效率值更低,绿色与传统成果转化效率省际排名间呈现显著的正相关性,表明经济效率不高省份在技术环境效应转化中依然落后。②各省份、区域间效率差异明显,TGR值显示,东部地区两阶段创新技术水平均高于中西部,且存在差距继续扩大的风险。大多数东部省份两阶段无效率主要受制于企业管理水平低下,而生产技术差距和管理无效率则是中西部省份的共同制约因素。③国有经济比重、外商投资和技术交易环境对科技研发效率的提升具有积极影响,企业规模则起阻滞作用。技术交易环境优化显著促进成果转化效率的提升,而企业规模和国有经济比重具有负影响。     

Multi-equation modelling of desirable and undesirable outputs satisfying the materials balance

The key feature when modelling joint production of intended outputs and unintended residuals is that the latter stem from the use of material inputs. A multi-equation model building on the factorially determined multi-output model of classical production theory satisfies the materials balance that tells us that the mass contained in inputs cannot disappear, but must turn up in the desirable outputs or end up as residuals. In this model, potentially complex technical relationships are simplified to express each of the intended outputs and the residuals as functions of the same set of inputs. Serious problems with the single-equation models most often found in the literature are demonstrated. Abatement activity in the form of end of pipe is added, and an optimal planning solution is derived using the concept of an environmental damage function for the impact of discharge of residuals into the natural environment. It is shown that the traditional environmental policy instruments, like direct regulation restricting the amount of undesirable residuals discharged to the environment, a Pigou tax on pollutants, and cap and trade, all function well. Extending the multi-equation model to allow for inefficiency, three efficiency measures are introduced: desirable output efficiency, residuals efficiency, and abatement efficiency. It is conjectured that these measures can be estimated independently using the DEA model.     

Allocative and scale efficiency among maize farmers in Zambia: a zero efficiency stochastic frontier approach

The commonly used stochastic frontier model assumes that all firms are inefficient. In this specification, inefficiency is non-negative, and the probability of inefficiency being exactly zero is also zero. To the extent that efficiency varies widely across farms in under-developed economies, it is important to employ techniques that account for both inefficiency and full efficiency to ensure unbiased efficiency estimates. In this study, we employ a zero-inefficiency stochastic frontier model to examine allocative efficiency and scale economies, as well as key determinants of efficiency among Zambian maize farmers. The results show that, unlike the stochastic frontier model, the zero-inefficiency stochastic frontier model successfully allows for both fully efficient and inefficient firms to be accounted for in the estimation procedure. The estimates also reveal the presence of scale economies, with the zero-inefficiency stochastic frontier model better predicting scale efficiency compared to the stochastic frontier model. The findings also show that inefficiency is explained by the level of education, access to extension services, distance to markets and access to credit.     

A model for technical inefficiency effects in a stochastic frontier production function for panel data

A stochastic frontier production function is defined for panel data on firms, in which the non-negative technical inefficiency effects are assumed to be a function of firm-specific variables and time. The inefficiency effects are assumed to be independently distributed as truncations of normal distributions with constant variance, but with means which are a linear function of observable variables. This panel data model is an extension of recently proposed models for inefficiency effects in stochastic frontiers for cross-sectional data. An empirical application of the model is obtained using up to ten years of data on paddy farmers from an Indian village. The null hypotheses, that the inefficiency effects are not stochastic or do not depend on the farmer-specific variables and time of observation, are rejected for these data.     

Measuring the productive efficiency of a group of firms

While the conventional Farrell-Färe approach to efficiency measurement can identify the most inefficient firms, it fails to consider the efficiency of a group of firms thoroughly. This paper introduces efficiency measures that can be used to find the efficiency of a group of firms and pinpoint whether the group inefficiency is due to inefficiency inside or outside individual firms. Furthermore, a new way of finding the revenue maximum shadow price vector is introduced to compute the allocative efficiency of individual firms when price data are not available.     

Efficiency of hospitals in Germany: a DEA-bootstrap approach

Various attempts to assess the performance of German hospitals have generated a wide range of estimates regarding their efficiency. These attempts were based on different, often rather small data sets consisting of heterogeneous hospitals; the techniques applied range from simple benchmarking approaches to studies which employ Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Some studies report ‘dramatic differences in efficiency’ and propose savings potentials of 50%; others find an average efficiency in excess of 95% and characterize almost 75% of their observations as fully efficient. This study presents results for two datasets representative of two segments of the German hospital system. These segments comprise all hospitals that have one internal medicine and one surgery department; the hospitals are located in the old federal states of Germany. None of the hospitals provides tertiary care. DEA can be applied because all hospitals offer a comparable quality and range of services. The results were estimated with a DEA-bootstrapping procedure and suggest an average bias–corrected efficiency of around 80%.     

DEA efficiency profiles of U.S. banks operating internationally

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to analyze the 1987 and 1992 input/output efficiency of U.S. banks operating internationally. In 1987, banks belatedly began to acknowledge with huge writeoffs the crisis in lending to less-developed countries (LDCs). Some 20% of the banks were identified as inefficient in each year, and approximately 50-60% of the total inputs/outputs of inefficient banks were excessive/deficient, with inputs proportionately more so than outputs. In 1987, the herd instinct that had led to the LDC loan crisis caused DEA's empirical “best practice” production frontier to identify as efficient banks that were financial “bad practice” banks. However, by 1992, normalcy had returned and DEA best practice banks were also financial good practice banks. Overall, it was found that management should focus on overall efficiency, but with particular attention to inputs, especially cash and real capital, and to foreign loans among the outputs.     

A ‘technically level playing-field’ profit efficiency analysis of enforced competition between publicly funded institutions

The study demonstrates how recent advances in the data envelopment analysis (DEA) of profit efficiency, and in combining DEA and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to measure producer performance, can be used to obtain a ‘technically level playing-field’ profit efficiency performance measure. A three-stage analysis is used to provide an empirical investigation of public-sector universities facing regulatory pressures to attain both profit efficiency and output quality. Stage one employs directional distance function analysis to decompose DEA profit efficiency measures into technical and allocative components. As these performance measures incorporate the impacts of managerial inefficiency, the operating environment and luck (statistical noise), stage two applies SFA to total (radial and non-radial) slacks to obtain a degree of disentanglement from the latter two impacts. The stage-two results are used to define a common environment and common luck scenario, thus permitting university producers’ inputs to be adjusted so as to reflect operation within this more level playing-field scenario. Stage three recomputes the first-stage DEA for this scenario, to yield an (input-focused) ‘technically level playing-field’ measure of profit efficiency that unifies the regulatory financial audit and output-quality indicators in a single, best-practice-benchmarked, performance measure.     

基于创新创业的区域创新效率时空特征研究

本文利用2014-2019年30个省级行政区的面板数据,从创新创业促进创新效率的理论机制出发,根据创新创业的目标导向构建测度创新效率的指标体系,分别利用DEA模型和超效率DEA模型来评估省域创新效率。研究发现：省域创新效率呈U形发展趋势,总体上呈上升趋势,创新创业能有效提升创新效率。省域间创新效率存在差异,但DEA无效的原因不同。东部地区创新效率较高,其它依次是西部地区、中部地区和东北地区。为了进一步地提升创新效率,在加大创新创业投入,改善营商环境的同时,要加强创新创业的联动。     

Farm household efficiency in Bangladesh: a comparison of stochastic frontier and DEA methods

This study compares estimates of technical efficiency obtained from the stochastic frontier approach and the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach using farm-level survey data for rice farmers in Bangladesh. Technical inefficiency effects are modelled as a function of farm-specific socioeconomic factors, environmental factors and irrigation infrastructure. The results from both the approaches indicate that efficiency is significantly influenced by the factors measuring environmental degradation and irrigation infrastructure.     

Monopoly capital and capitalist inefficiency

This paper examines the arguments and assertions of Baran’s and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order (1966) by assessing the degree of economic efficiency or inefficiency in how surplus value and economic surplus were created by 16 major capitalist economies during the 2000s using data envelopment analysis (DEA). After assigning a score to the degree of economic efficiency/inefficiency for each country, one can then assess which factors influence the degree of efficiency/inefficiency. This paper finds empirical support for many of the arguments put forth by the authors, Baran and Sweezy, as well as others regarding the inefficiency of the use of some forms of economic activity to help absorb economic surplus and to create surplus value.     

Managerial efficiency in Taiwan bank branches: A network DEA

Taiwan's banking industry remains highly fragmented and competitive after a series of financial liberalization and restructuring. With the enforcement of these fiscal policies, domestic banking institutions face a more dynamic, increasingly intense and highly competitive environment even as the banking industry's overall efficiency has gradually been enhanced. This structural change has further forced individual banking institutions, especially state-owned banks, to inspect the performance of their branches and identify improvement directions so as to gain further competitive advantages. To conduct a valid, fair and reliable evaluation on Taiwan's bank branches, we integrate a two-stage series performance model and fuzzy multiobjective model. A new scheme that considers the complementation of production and intermediation activities within a branch and overcomes the shortage of the traditional network DEA methodology about DMUs cannot be assessed on a common base. The results indicate that the overall performances of mixed ownership bank branches are superior to those of state-owned bank branches, representing that the advantages of banking privatization have some remedial effects for improving the managerial inefficiency of state-owned banks. In addition, the sensitivity analysis and decision-making matrix herein help bank management to identify branches' efficiency, weakness, and directions for improvement.