How does public spending affect technical efficiency? Some evidence from 15 European countries

The relationship between government size and economic growth has been widely debated. Revisiting the subject from a distinct angle with respect to the mainstream approach, we provide an empirical analysis of the impact of government size on technical efficiency. The aim of this paper is to estimate the impact of public sector's size and of public expenditure components on 15 European countries’ technical efficiency from 1996 to 2014 by using a True Random Effect model. Using the total public expenditure as a proxy for the government size we estimate simultaneously national optimal production function and technical efficiency by controlling for income distribution and institutional quality. Our main findings show that the effect of public sector's size on efficiency is positive while the type of public expenditures may have both positive and negative impact. In more details, results suggest that education and health expenditures have a positive effect on technical efficiency, while others have a negative impact.     

中国商业银行业的全要素 生产率增长及其分解——基于24家银行面板数据的实证分析

本文收集了2003-2010年24家商业银行的非平衡面板数据,首先通过构建随机前沿生产模型,对中国银行业的技术效率进行测算,然后利用TFP分解模型对商业银行TFP增长的驱动因素及其演变过程进行了系统分析。研究发现,整体来说,中国银行业的全要素生产率在所有年份均实现了明显的增长。相对而言,国有大型商业银行在研究初期并没有显示出明显的优势,但随着时间的推移,其TFP增长率开始不断上升,并逐渐赶超中小型银行。通过对TFP增长率的分解计算,技术效率变化和要素配置效率变化对中国银行业TFP增长具有较强的拉动作用,技术进步的影响并不明显,而规模效率变化的负面作用最为显著。     

Productivity and efficiency of Vietnamese banking system: new evidence using Färe-Primont index analysis

This article aims to provide a clearer view on the recent evolutions of the Vietnamese banking system that can be useful to public authority when taking restructuring decisions. This article focuses on the evolution of productivity of Vietnamese banks over the period 2008 to 2012, and on the evolution of the different components of this productivity: technical change, pure technical efficiency and mix and scale efficiency. The methodology draws from very recent developments in index theory in the design of multiplicative-complete economically ideal indexes, using Färe-Primont productivity indexes to measure productivity. This methodology is applied to a balanced panel of Vietnamese banks. The results complement observations usually made on the recent development of the Vietnamese banking system. They show that the State Bank of Vietnam’s restructuring policy cannot focus only on either the insufficient size of banks or a better management of these banks in terms of the mix of outputs. Both must be considered simultaneously, not only through bank mergers but also in setting management criteria in line with criteria defined internationally.     

Effect of public subsidies on farm technical efficiency: a meta-analysis of empirical results

Investigating the impact of public subsidies on farm technical efficiency is becoming a critical issue in applied agricultural policy analysis. This article presents a meta-analysis of empirical results on this issue, based on data gathered from a systematic literature review. We find that, in the empirical literature, subsidies are commonly negatively associated with farm technical efficiency. Meta-regression estimation results show that the direction (significantly negative, significantly positive or non-significant) of the observed effects is sensitive to the way subsidies are modelled in the empirical studies.     

我国全要素生产率变化解构及区域收敛性分析

笔者利用Malmquist生产力指数将1991年~2007年间中国29个省(自治区、直辖市)的全要素增长率按照构成分解为技术变动和技术效率变动,并对区域技术效率的收敛性进行了分析。结果表明:(1)以1997年为界限,东部、中部和西部三大区域的全要素生产率和技术变动均呈现先升后降的趋势,而技术效率在整个研究期间都是逐步降低的。(2)技术变动解释了全要素增长率区域差异的75%,技术效率变动则解释了剩余的25%。1997年之前的全要素生产率及其构成因素的变化有利于缩小地区生产差距,1997年之后则成为区域差距扩大的重要原因之一。(3)29个省份之间以及三大区域内部各省份之间的技术效率随时间变化均呈现出明显的发散趋势。     

Efficiency and performance in gas distribution. Evidence from Brazil

This article analyses the current state of the gas distribution industry in Brazil, by identifying the main factors that determine its efficiency. In order to test the performance of the industry, we have calculated the firms’ technical efficiency during the period 2001–2009. We analyse whether some economic and technological factors as consumer density, load factor or regulation, among others, have affected the performance of this industry. We show that companies serving markets with different customer characteristics (diversification) have reached higher levels of efficiency and evolved faster. Moreover, the private ownership and price cap regulation are more efficient in relation to public ownership and cost of service regulation. These findings are important to support the improvement of the regulation of gas distribution in the Brazilian states.     

中国制造业上市公司创新行为对企业技术效率的影响研究

以2006-2008年的51家制造业上市公司为样本,运用DEA-Tobit模型,分别检验了研发投入和专利产出对企业技术效率的影响。实证结果表明:R&D经费投入对技术效率具有显著的积极影响;研发人员投入对技术效率的当期效应和长期效应均为正相关,但只在累积效应模型中通过了显著性检验;发明专利对样本企业的技术效率具有显著的积极影响,并具有明显的滞后性;实用新型专利对样本企业的技术效率具有显著的负效应,同时存在明显的滞后性;外观设计专利对样本企业的技术效率具有负效应,但不显著。结果启示,可以通过制定合理的研发战略来提升企业的自主创新能力,这是企业提高技术效率的重要途径之一。     

Human capital effects on technical inefficiency: a stochastic frontier analysis across industries of the Greek economy

In this paper we examine the impact of human capital on technical inefficiency. A stochastic production frontier is simultaneously estimated with a technical inefficiency model using data from one-digit industries of the Greek economy, for the period 2000–2005. The results indicate a significantly negative impact of human capital on technical inefficiency, which is comparatively lower in magnitude for the sector of public services. The most efficient industries of the Greek economy are those of Education, Financial intermediation and Real estate, renting & business activities. The highest contribution of human capital on technical efficiency is observed in the industries of Health, Education and Real estate, renting & business activities.     

The effect of land tenure governance on technical efficiency: evidence from three provinces in eastern China

This study aims to identify the mechanisms through which land tenure governance affects the technical efficiency of grain production in an integrated framework and to examine the impacts of the public governance, village self-governance, and relational governance of land tenure on the technical efficiency of contracted land and rented-in land. Farm-level survey data collected from Liaoning, Jiangxi, and Jiangsu provinces covering the years of 2014 and 2015 is used for the empirical analysis. The findings indicate that (i) public governance associated with land certification significantly increases the technical efficiency of grain production; (ii) village self-governance and administrative land reallocations can serve as substitutes for the land rental market in optimizing the distribution of land resources and improving technical efficiency; and (iii) compared to multi-year transfer contracts, both annual and open-ended transfer contracts have negative impacts on technical efficiency.     

Productivity growth in passenger-bus transportation: A heteroskedastic error component model with unbalanced panel data

This paper considers an econometric approach to measure total factor productivity (TFP) growth and technical change (TC) for 31 publicly-owned passenger-bus companies in India during 1983–1987. A translog variable cost function is used to represent the production technology. Firm heterogeneity is incorporated in the cost function using an error component model with firm-specific variances. TFP growth is decomposed into TC and economies of scale components. The TC component is further decomposed into pure, non-neutral, scale, and quasi-fixed factors/network components. An ownership group-wise comparison reveals that the public undertakings exhibit the highest rate of productivity growth, followed by the units operated by the state and local governments. The main source of TFP growth for the public undertakings and government-operated units is economies of scale, while the main source of falling TFP growth for corporations is technological regress.     

Business Civilization in Decline

Technological change is modeled as endogenous in the sense that it is affected by economic, behavioral, and institutional variables. Technological change is especially affected by changes in relative input prices and their level, of which the price of labor is particularly important. Input prices are affected by institutional variables. Such prices also impact on the firm's efficiency, which in turn affects growth rates as well as the rate of technical change. As relative factor prices or their level increase, firms are induced to innovate or adopt extant technology to remain competitive or to maintain current profit rates. High wage firms can be expected to engage in such induced technological change, leading the growth process thereby yielding lower unit costs and increasing the level of material welfare. Relatively low wage economies can be locked into a state of economic inefficiency and laggard technological progress, especially in the long run.     

中国各省火电行业的技术效率及其提升方向——基于三阶段DEA模型的分析

文章利用DEA三阶段分析法对2004年中国30个省(自治区、直辖市)火电行业进行了排除环境变量和统计噪音影响的技术效率分析,结果表明很多省份火电行业效率水平的确受到地区经济发展水平、资源禀赋等环境变量和好坏运气的影响,在同质经营环境下规模效率不高的问题更为突出。根据纯技术效率和规模效率的水平,文章将中国各省火电行业的发展分为四种类型,并针对13个纯技术效率并非完全有效的省,提出资金节约型、资源节约型、劳动力节约型和环境友好型四种提升模式,最后得出上大压小、严格资源的集约利用标准等宏观政策建议。     

中国汽车产业技术效率分析——基于中国汽车行业上市公司2006—2008年的经验证据

本文利用中国汽车行业上市公司2006—2008年的年报数据资料,运用数据包络分析法对中国汽车产业2006—2008年的技术效率进行测算和分析。研究结果表明:①虽然部分汽车行业上市公司的规模收益处于递增阶段,但是汽车行业部分上市公司纯技术效率的下降致使我国汽车行业上市公司的总体技术效率呈下降趋势;②在技术效率前沿面运行的汽车行业上市公司只占全部汽车行业上市公司的一半左右,中国汽车行业上市公司技术效率水平的差异化加剧;③在全球金融危机背景下,大多数的汽车行业上市公司利润大幅下降,达到技术效率前沿面(即纯技术效率和规模效率均有效)的上市公司的抵抗风险能力要大于技术效率较低的上市公司。鉴于此,有必要同时提高我国汽车行业上市公司的技术和规模对技术效率的贡献度。     

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.     

Productivity measurement in Swedish departments of gynecology and obstetrics

The rapid growth of public spending and the need to assess its impact on the welfare system has made the studies of productivity in the public sector an important subject. This paper is concerned with the specification and estimation of total factor productivity growth using the primal panel data approach. The total factor productivity growth is decomposed into technical change and scale components. Several competing models are used to explore whether there are any similarities in the estimates of total factor productivity growth and technical change among these models. The models are estimated using different estimation methods. Some of the models, although assuming a Cobb–Douglas technology, exhibit firm-specific technical change. These models are used to measure productivity growth in departments of gynecology and obstetrics in Sweden. Empirical results show evidence of large and negative rate of productivity growth. In comparison among different specifications proposed, the level and the time pattern of productivity measures vary substantially across models and estimation methods.     

中国西部地区物流产业效率变化实证研究

选取经济发展程度、市场化程度、地理环境和文化理念具有较强一致性的中国西部12省币区（含直辖市、自治区,以下简称省）物流产业效率变化进行实证研究,对提高区域物流产业效率,促进区域协调发展有重要意义。利用DEA-Malmquist指数测算2007—2012年中国西部12个省的物流产业全要素生产率与技术进步变动情况,重点剖析备省物流产业效率变化的影响因素。研究发现除云南外,西部各省物流产业全要素生产率均显著提高,其中最重要的影响因素是技术进步,而规模效率和技术效率尤其是纯技术效率几乎没有提高,甚至降低。最后结合实际情况,指出西部各省物流产业要提升管理水平走内涵式发展道路,并对效率低的省份提出相应的改进建议。     

技术效率、全要素增长率与地区间经济增长差异——以内蒙古为例

本文以内蒙古为例,使用随机前沿模型,估算了不同地区的技术效率,并对全要素生产率(TFP)增长率进行分解。研究结果表明:(1)技术效率和TFP与一个地区的经济增长呈正向变动关系。(2)城市化率、第二产业占GDP比重、人力资本水平等提高技术效率,国有工业产值和财政支出占GDP比重降低了技术效率。(3)整体而言,各地区TFP增长主要依靠技术进步,技术效率和规模经济效率都显著不足。     

Economic openness and technical efficiency: A case study of Chinese manufacturing industries

This paper presents a study of the technical efficiency of industries in a transitional economy: China. Using data for 28 manufacturing industries across 29 provinces and the Data Envelopment Analysis approach, the technical efficiency of each industry is measured and compared across regions and provinces. The determinants of differential technical efficiency performance are analysed, with a particular focus on the impact of trade orientation and foreign investment. Trade openness is found generally to have a positive effect on technical efficiency.     

Parametric Approaches to Productivity Measurement: A Comparison among Alternative Models

This paper deals with modeling total factor productivity (TFP) growth in a flexible manner using panel data. Several competing parametric models are used to explore whether there are any similarities in the estimates of TFP growth and technical change among these models. Using a primal approach, we decompose TFP growth into different components. The models are then used to measure productivity and technical change in the Swedish cement industry. In general, the results are found to be model dependent and often conflicting, although much less so for returns to scale and overall productivity growth.
JEL classification: O 30; C 33     

Trade liberalization and technical efficiency in the Indonesian chemicals industry

This article examines the impact of trade reform on technical efficiency on the Indonesian chemicals industry using firm-level panel data. The effects of trade reform on technical efficiency are analysed using a stochastic frontier approach. Two variables represent trade reform in this model: effective rate of protection (ERP) and import ratio (IMP). The findings of the present study suggest that both trade reform variables have significant effects on technical efficiency. The coefficient of ERP has a positive sign and is statistically significant, which means that an increase in ERP increases the inefficiency (or decreases the technical efficiency) of firms in the chemicals industry. The coefficient of IMP is negative and statistically significant, which represents the negative impact of IMP on technical inefficiency (or positive on technical efficiency). Thus, trade reform, a reduction in ERP or an increase in IMP, has an unambiguously positive effect on technical efficiency in the Indonesian chemicals industry.