Estimations of cost metafrontier Malmquist productivity index: using international tourism hotels in Taiwan as an example

This study introduces a novel way of calculating and analyzing cost metafrontier Malmquist productivity index model (CMMPI) under variable return to scale measurement. The CMMPI which reflects operational performance more comprehensively and determine ways of enhancing future competiveness, not only estimates efficiency change but also decomposes gap ratio thus enabling the decision making unit to differentiate group frontier from metafrontier within the broad definition of “catch-up.” Empirical results show that the CMMPI of international tourism hotels in Taiwan declined by 0.9% from 2002 to 2010 mainly because of the deterioration of meta-technical efficiency change, meta-allocative efficiency change, meta-cost scale efficiency change, and the meta-input price effect change. Empirical results suggest that the completeness of cost approach is useful for exploring the characteristics of the Taiwanese international tourism hotel industry. Moreover, the international chain hotel is significantly superior to independent hotels in meta-cost efficiency, meta-technical efficiency, and meta-allocative efficiency, and several managerial insights and implications are discussed.     

Do Listed Banks have Higher Operating Efficiency and Output Efficiency?

This paper investigates the efficiency and productivity of listed and non‐listed banks in China by using the meta‐frontier and GMMPI methods. We find that the improvement in productivity of listed and non‐listed banks is mainly due to changes in technological efficiency. The difference between them is that the improvement of productivity of listed banks presents a typical technology‐driven feature, and changes in scale efficiency negatively affect productivity. The productivity of non‐listed banks shows scale efficiency driving features. The meta‐frontier efficiency of listed banks is significantly higher than the others. After decomposing the technology gap ratio, we find that the current production technology of the listed banks is closer to the potential production technology frontiers, and there is space for the non‐listed banks to improve their efficiency. Besides, the gaps between the true extent and the potential technological frontiers of both listed banks and non‐listed banks have converged.     

A metafrontier approach for measuring Malmquist productivity index

This paper presents an alternative framework for the decomposition of the Malmquist productivity index by using the concept of a metafrontier. The approach employed allows the calculation of technical efficiency changes, as well as technical changes, for economic agents operating under different technologies. It also enables the computation of the technological gap and its changes for economic agents operating under different technologies. This framework is applied to the analysis of panel data on 58 countries over a period of 31 years from 1970 to 2000. The empirical results show that Asian countries have attempted to move towards the frontier technology and that European countries have taken the lead in the world frontier technology.     

中国商业银行全要素生产率及其影响因素的实证研究——基于DEA的Malmquist生产率指数法

利用2004—2009年我国15家商业银行的面板数据,运用基于DEA的Malmquist生产率指数法,测算了商业银行的Malmquist生产率指数及其分解指数。结果显示:我国商业银行的全要素生产率整体呈下降趋势,其中,技术进步指数的下降幅度较大,纯技术效率变化指数和规模效率变化指数略有升高。在此基础上,对影响我国商业银行全要素生产率的因素进行了分析。实证结果表明:进出口总额和货币供应量增长率对我国商业银行全要素生产率的提升有正向作用,国内生产总值和全社会固定资产投资有显著的负向作用。     

我国环渤海地区主要港口技术效率的时空差异分析

将DEA方法与Malmquist生产率指数法相结合,测度了2007—2010年我国环渤海地区9大港口的投入-产出效率。结果表明:研究期间,受金融危机的影响,我国环渤海地区主要港口总体的技术效率不佳,但庞大内需使其技术效率呈上升趋势,规模效率过低是导致其技术效率不佳的主要原因,港口的投入-产出效率在很大程度上与港口规模有关;从动态效率来看,9大港口的Malmquist生产率指数整体上呈上升趋势且其增长率为正,但个别港口的Malmquist生产率指数受金融危机的影响明显且有不同程度的下降;不同省份港口的Malmquist生产率指数存在明显差距;技术进步迟滞和规模效率不高是制约我国环渤海地区主要港口的Malmquist生产率指数进一步提高的主要因素。     

Efficiency and credit rating in Taiwan banking: data envelopment analysis estimation

In this article, we use the data envelopment analysis to measure the efficiency of banks before and after credit rating is taken into consideration and we also employ the Malmquist Productivity Index to measure the total factor productivity changes from 2001 to 2003. The results are as follows: (1) There is a positive relationship between the efficiency scores and credit rating, and thus, the credit rating can be a representative to evaluate the performance and quality of a bank; (2) We use the Wilconxon two-sample test of nonparametric statistic to test the influences of credit rating. The empirical result shows that the credit rating is proven to influence the efficiency of banks; (3) The efficiency scores improve in both investment grade (above tw BBB?) and speculation grade (under tw BBB?), when credit rating is taken into consideration. The empirical results show that the efficiency scores of banks with a high credit rating improved relatively more when compared to banks with a lower credit rating; (4) In this research we also adopt the Malmquist index to observe the productivity and efficiency changes from year to year. We obtain results whereby the improvement of efficiency may be influenced greatly both from pure technical and scale efficiency changes.     

WHAT CAUSES THE EFFICIENCY AND THE TECHNOLOGY GAP UNDER DIFFERENT OWNERSHIP STRUCTURES IN THE CHINESE BANKING INDUSTRY?

This paper estimates and compares the cost efficiency of the Chinese banking industry among different ownership types for the period 2003–2014, using the stochastic metafrontier model. We find that foreign banks have the lowest cost frontier, while state‐owned commercial banks undertake the least sophisticated technology. Moreover, the results of the upward trend in the technology gap ratio (TGR) and in metafrontier cost efficiency support that a more open financial market is able to enhance banking efficiency. As for the role of environmental conditions, off‐balance sheet items, non‐performing loans, and financial market structure significantly impact the TGRs of different bank types. (JEL C51, G21, D24)     

TO JOIN OR NOT TO JOIN? DO BANKS THAT ARE PART OF A FINANCIAL HOLDING COMPANY PERFORM BETTER THAN BANKS THAT ARE NOT?

This study compares the performance of banks that are part of a financial holding company (FHC banks) with that of banks that are not (independent banks) using Taiwan data from 2002:Q1 to 2006:Q2. The comparisons are based on 14 performance ratios resulting from the concept of CAMEL (which is an acronym for Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management efficiency, Earnings ability, and Liquidity sufficiency). To ensure that becoming part of an FHC is a random process, we used four matching methods to select the controlled banks so that the characteristic variables of banks in the two groups are statistically indifferent. By using the data before matching, it was found that FHC banks significantly defeat independent banks, regardless of their performance ratios. Conversely, when the sample was used after the matching, the results changed dramatically. Although FHC banks still beat the independent banks in terms of capital adequacy, asset quality, and liquidity sufficiency, FHC banks and independent banks are found to have equal profitability and management efficiency. Earlier studies that do not consider the endogeneity problem tend to overestimate the joining effect.(JEL C21, G21)     

不良贷款约束下的中国银行业全要素生产率增长研究

本文运用共同边界Malmquist-Luenberger生产率指数测度了2004—2009年中国27家商业银行在不良贷款约束下的全要素生产率增长及其成分,并对影响全要素生产率增长的宏观经济因素进行了实证分析。本文的主要结论有:在表示偏离共同边界的技术落差比率方面,国有商业银行呈"V"型,股份制商业银行较平稳,城市商业银行逐步上升;总体上,中国银行业的全要素生产率是进步的,纯技术进步是推动全要素生产率进步的主要动力,纯技术效率变化和规模效率变化进步都不明显,技术规模变化显示中国银行业趋向CRS边界;股份制商业银行的纯技术赶超最优,而潜在技术相对变动方面表现较弱;外资银行进入和固定资产投资增加对银行全要素生产率提高有推动作用。     

Efficiency in the factoring industry

The efficiency and productivity in the Italian factoring industry between 1993 and 1997 is investigated using DEA. The factoring industry is an important part of many financial systems and it has established itself as a major source of finance and credit management for a growing number of companies. However, as far as the authors are aware no studies have applied frontier methodologies to examine the efficiency and productivity of this industry. This paper focuses on the Italian market, the second largest in the world after the UK. The results suggest that there are substantial cost savings to be had in the Italian factoring industry: the mean cost inefficiency in the Italian factoring industry over the period 1993–1997 ranged between 14% and 22%. These inefficiencies are mainly generated by allocative rather than technical inefficiencies. Scale and technical inefficiencies seem to be similar in magnitude and the supposed importance of the latter typically found in the banking efficiency literature, are not observed in Italian factoring. Firm size does not appear to be related to technical, allocative and economic efficiency and the hypothesis that ownership structure influences factoring firm efficiency could not be rejected. In order to analyse efficiency change over time the Malmquist index is used. Total factor productivity was decomposed into technical change and efficiency change and the latter was further divided into pure efficiency and scale efficiency change. Productivity changes were slight over the period 1993–1996, while a substantial increase in productivity occurred between 1996 and 1997: the latter appears to be the result of a large improvement in the technology and a positive scale efficiency change, however, this was slowed down by a negative pure efficiency change.     

我国物流业上市公司全要素生产率的实证分析

利用基于DEA的Malmquist生产率指数法,选取4个投入指标和2个产出指标,对2005—2009年我国22家物流行业上市公司(分为港口类和运输类)的全要素生产率指数及其分解进行动态测算。结果表明:2005—2009年我国22家物流公司的Malmquist生产率指数总体上呈下降趋势,2009年的Malmquist生产率指数最低,该下降趋势主要是由技术水平下降造成的;纯技术效率和规模效率比较低,但呈增长态势;运输类公司的技术效率大于港口类公司,但技术效率年均增长幅度的情况恰好相反;与长三角地区和泛珠三角地区相比,位于环渤海地区的物流行业上市公司的Malmquist生产率指数最高,该地区的物流业发展潜力较大。最后,提出相应的政策建议。     

创业板上市公司全要素生产率分析——基于DEA—Malmquist指数法的实证研究

本文选取50家创业板上市公司2007-2011年间的面板数据,使用DEA-Malmquist指数法对其全要素生产率的变动进行测算,并对全要素生产率变动的驱动因素进行分解,以分析创业板上市公司在上市后是否是通过生产率的提升实现内生性增长。研究结论是,50家样本公司在2007-2011年间呈现出全要素生产率的负增长（-6．2％）。其中,技术进步的贡献为-6．9％,纯技术效率改进的贡献为2．2％,规模效率改进的贡献为-1．5％。各年度样本公司的全要素生产率增长率呈现出递减趋势。     

Performance and productivity in Islamic and conventional banks: Evidence from the global financial crisis

We assess the performance and productivity of Islamic and conventional banks using financial ratios, a two- and a four-component meta-frontier Malmquist productivity index (MPI). We focus on the relatively homogenous GCC region over the 2006–2012 period that covers the global financial crisis. We find that Islamic banks exhibit worse cost and profit performance but are on a par with regards to revenue performance compared to the conventional ones. The components of the meta-frontier MPI suggest that the technology of conventional banks improves markedly in years leading to the financial crisis and declines thereafter. Islamic banks show a similar but more muted pattern. By contrast, the pronounced within-Islamic bank group variation in technical efficiency and technology suggests that Islamic banks are quite heterogeneous as a group. Overall, the MPI analysis suggests that the two bank types are more aligned following the global financial crisis. Policy makers should be wary of the important variations within the Islamic banking industry when implementing bank regulations.     

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.     

两岸商业银行效率的DEA比较分析

笔者选取了2006年～2009年中国大陆和台湾地区的39家银行作为决策单元,采用DEA方法对两岸银行效率的差异性及最适效率进行了实证检验。研究表明,中国大陆银行总效率高于台湾银行,台湾银行规模效率高于中国大陆,台湾银行平均总体要素生产力变动高于中国大陆,两岸银行总体要素生产力皆呈现成长的趋势。     

人力资本与区域全要素生产率分析

本文采用Malmquist指数分析了我国30个省级行政区1996—2003年的全要素生产率(TFP)增长,并将其分解为技术进步指数和效率变化指数。为了减少计算偏差,我们在使用承认无效率项存在的生产前沿技术的同时,引入了人力资本要素。本文的分析结果表明我国的人力资本水平增长迅速,30个省区的经济增长效率差距逐年扩大。同时我们发现在引入人力资本要素后,1996—2003年区域全要素生产率的增长得益于技术进步;如果不考虑人力资本存量,则低估了同期的效率提高程度,而高估了期间的技术进步指数。     

European financial crisis and bank productivity: evidence from Eastern European Countries

The paper examines the productivity levels of the largest banks operating in the Eastern European countries over the period of the ongoing European financial crisis. Specifically, the analysis covers the periods of U.S. subprime crisis, the global financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis. By adopting a fully nonparametric framework, it provides a probabilistic version of a directional input-oriented Malmquist productivity index alongside with its main decomposition. The results from the analysis suggest that banks have faced a deterioration of their productivity levels between the examined periods. It is evident that during the initiation of European sovereign debt crisis, the banks have weakened their ability to utilize efficiently their inputs of production and their ability to realize scale economies.     

Efficiency and productivity of the food and beverage listed firms in the pre-recession and recessionary periods in Greece

This study uses data envelopment analysis to examine the liquidity and sales efficiency of the Food and Beverage listed firms in Athens Exchange in the period 2006–2012. The liquidity efficiency of the firms is higher than the sales efficiency but the results indicate that there are not statistical significant differences in the rankings estimated by the two models in each period. The Malmquist Productivity Index reveals that over the period of the study, firms have experienced an annual average increase in productivity of 0.5% (a slight progress). On examining the components of this productivity change, it becomes evident that firms have experienced an annual average of 2% increase in technology combined with a decrease in technical efficiency of –1.5%. The results indicate that 52.4% of the firms experienced productivity gains in the examined period, and this was mainly the result of technological gain rather than efficiency improvement. More than 90% of the firms in the sample shift the efficiency frontier and only 33.3% of the firms are catching up, improving their productivity by reducing inefficiency. Moreover, the empirical study reveals that the overall technical inefficiencies of the firms are primarily caused by pure technical inefficiencies rather than scale inefficiencies.     

The Malmquist Productivity Index and Plant Capacity Utilization

A new decomposition of the Malmquist productivity index is proposed to account for changes in plant capacity utilization. Using a primal, non-parametric specification of technology, the Malmquist index is decomposed into technical efficiency change, variations in plant capacity utilization and frontier shifts. It provides an alternative to the available methods of incorporating capacity utilization changes into measures of productivity change. Such measures are based on parametric (and, in many cases, dual) technology specifications; moreover, they typically do not allow for technical inefficiency.
JEL Classification C 61; D 24     

我国商业银行效率分析——基于超效率DEA和Malmquist指数

效率是银行经营管理的核心,是银行竞争优势的集中体现,尤其在后危机时代,提高银行业的效率也是防范金融风险,实现可持续发展的关键。本文基于超效率DEA方法,运用EMS软件对2004—2009年14家商业银行的效率进行分析,对其均值进行排名;并通过Malmquist指数对银行效率进行分解研究,重点分析金融危机前后的商业银行全要素生产率的变化趋势。结果表明,效率水平总体呈现上升趋势,这与社会经济的发展是相一致的。而四大国有银行的效率不及股份制商业银行,可见,四大国有银行并没有因为资产规模大,而带来更高的收益和绩效;2004—2009年商业银行全要素生产率整体上不断提高,主要得益于技术进步和规模效益,但2009年全要素生产率有所下降,受美国金融危机全面升级所导致的国际国内经济发展衰退的影响,经营风险加大,息差收窄,对银行盈利和效率产生不利影响。