A primal-dual approach to nonparametric productivity analysis: The case of U.S. agriculture

Nonparametric methods for measuring productivity indexes based on bounds for the underlying production technology are presented. Following Banker and Maindiratta, the lower bound is obtained from a primal approach while the upper bound corresponds to a dual approach to nonparametric production analysis. These nonparametric bounds are then used to estimate input-based and output-based distance functions. These radial measures provide the basis for measuring productivity indexes. Application to times series data on U.S. agriculture indicates a large gap between the primal lower bound and the dual upper bound. This generates striking differences between the primal and dual nonparametric productivity indexes.Respectively, professor and associate professor of Agricultural Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Seniority of authorship is equally shared. We would like to thank Rolf Färe and an anonymous reviewer for useful comments on an earlier draft of the paper. This research was supported in part by a Hatch grant from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.     

Infrastructure and productivity: An extension to private infrastructure and it productivity

This paper incorporates both public and private infrastructure within the framework of a nonlinear production function. The theoretical model specifies a technological growth rate as a nonlinear function of government infrastructure and private infrastructure generated by the information sector of the economy—cable, wireless stations, satellites, internet facilities, broadcasting, etc. The time trend is included to capture the effect of all other variables. The empirical estimates generated by the model imply increasing returns to scale for the US economy in the last few years. The evaluation of the growth accounting equation implies that information technology was the largest contributing component to growth during the expansion of the 1990s.     

Stochastic productivity measurement

Stochastic productivity indicators are defined, and superlative measures of these indicators are derived. It is shown that, in the presence of complete markets or a common-expectations equilibrium, differences in the market values of firms are superlative indicators of cross-sectional productivity differences. Exactness results are used to decompose nonstochastic productivity indicators into a measure of true productivity change and a measure of ‘luck’. The decomposition is illustrated empirically.

作业成本法在间接物流成本核算中的应用

对于间接物流成本，传统以产量为基础的分配方法已不适应现代物流业的发展，而作业成本法采用多元化的分配基础，使间接物流成本的分配和计算更为准确。文章在介绍作业成本法基本原理的基础上，对应用作业成本法核算间接物流成本的可行性进行了分析，给出核算步骤，并通过举例阐明作业成本法的具体运用，为企业进行物流成本核算提供思路。     

Applying efficiency measurement techniques to the measurement of productivity change

Deterministic frontier analysis (DFA), stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), and data envelopment analysis (DEA) are alternative analytical techniques designed to measure the efficiency of producers. All three techniques were originally developed within a cross-sectional context, in which the objective is to compare the efficiencies of producers. More recently all three techniques have been extended for use in a panel data context. In the latter context it is possible to measure productivity change, and to decompose measured productivity change into its sources, one of which is efficiency change. However when efficiency measurement techniques, particularly SFA, have been applied to panel data, it has infrequently been made clear what the objective of the analysis is: the measurement of efficiency, which may vary through time as well as across producers, or the measurement and decomposition of productivity change. In this paper I explore the use of each technique in a panel data context. I find DFA and DEA to have achieved a more satisfactory reorientation toward productivity measurement than SFA has.     

论间接处罚

司法实践中存在的间接处罚现象,加重了对犯罪者的处罚。这种与罪刑法定原则、罪责刑相适应原则相违背的现象,使刑法介入国民生活的各个方面,侵犯国民的人权。     

论检验直接成本和间接成本的平衡及平衡点的经济意义

分析了工业企业外购物品检验成本的两个组成部分:检验过程直接投入的要素成本和检验结果失准诱发的问接成本,并分析论证了二者的习性、平衡条件以及平衡点的计算方法及应用。     

影视剧间接植入广告的运作和策略初探

间接植入广告是植入式广告的一种类型,这种方式隐蔽性更强、植入艺术要求更高、消费者参与更多、与其他营销方式整合应用,宣传和影响效果有其独特的优势。本文从影视剧中的间接植入广告分析,提出了三种表现形式,并对其运作模式有一个初步的设想和描述,分析总结了间接植入广告的优势和未来展望,让企业和广告人更多的了解和进一步研究影视剧间接植入广告的植入方法和运作模式,使其更好的运用到实际中,以达到良好的宣传效果和影响力度。     

等电位联结在TN系统中间接接触防护的应用

本文通过举例详细介绍和分析了设置等电位联结前后,发生接地故障时间接接触电压的计算,并结合工程实际分析其应用。     

Malmquist productivity index for multi-output producers: An application to electricity generation plants

Different types of plants are used to generate electricity in the US: single-, multi-, and mixed-electricity plants. In this paper, we question the best type/design of plants for both renewable and non-renewable electricity. To do so, we suggest a new index that takes the form of a Malmquist productivity index. The specificity of our new index is that it offers the option to investigate the performances and the causes of the performance changes for each type of electricity separately; this is not possible when relying on more standard indexes. Moreover, our new index takes the links between the inputs and the outputs into account, and is nonparametric in nature. Using our index, we study the performances of more than 5000 plants for the period 2000–2012. Our findings reveal that single-electricity plants perform better for renewable electricity, while multi-electricity plants perform better for non-renewable electricity. This is coherent with the decreasing importance of multi-electricity plants in the US, and the increasing importance of single-electricity plants producing renewable electricity. Furthermore, our results do not suggest that combining renewable and non-renewable electricity generations within a plant improves the performance of the plants. Finally, we demonstrate that the reasons for the changes in performance are different for each type of electricity and plant.     

马北油田水平井采油工艺与开采现状认识

利用水平井技术开发油藏,是油田提高油气采收率的重要技术手段,特别是在低渗透油藏、裂缝性油藏、薄油层油藏、断块油藏、稠油油藏、气顶底水油藏以及砾岩油藏中,由于水平井有着钻达目的油层井段长,泄油面积大,流体流入井筒阻力小等特点,产油能力远高于直井、定向井,以及水平井较直井、定向井具有其采油指数高,生产压差低,无水采油期长,含水上升慢,受到广泛重视,并在各油田得到广泛应用。     

Measurement Biases in Consumer Price Indexes

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the cost of purchasing a fixed basket of goods at a fixed sample of outlets over time, and can be thought of as a practical approximation to a "true" cost-of-living index, and a measure of general inflation for the economy. In more recent times, concerns over the possibility that the U.S. CPI overstates the rate of inflation have grown. Annual changes in the CPI are used to adjust social security benefits, and wage contracts are often indexed to CPI changes. To the extent that the CPI overstates the rate of inflation individuals are being compensated for changes in the cost-of-living that have not occurred–with enormous implications for government fiscal budgets. This paper presents an up-to-date survey of the principal sources of measurement error or bias in the CPI. A number of sources of bias are examined, including the commodity substitution bias , the outlet substitution bias , and the elementary index bias . Traditional bilateral index number theory assumes that the number of goods remains constant over the pricing period and furthermore, that the goods are of unchanging quality. Changes in either of these give rise to two further biases: the new goods bias and the quality bias .     

Exact decomposition of the Fisher ideal total factor productivity index

Decompositions of total factor productivity (TFP) shed light on the driving factors behind productivity change. We develop the first exact decomposition of the Fisher ideal TFP index which contains no debatable mixed-period components or residuals. We systematically isolate five effects of (1) technical change, (2) technical efficiency, (3) scale efficiency, (4) allocative efficiency, and (5) price effect. The three efficiency components (2–4) represent the efficiency of achieving a given target point. Components (1) and (5) capture the changes of the target point. While the technical change component is well-established, changes in the relative input–output prices can have real effects on the scale and scope of the target. Such changes are captured by the new price effect component (5). The new decomposition is compared with existing decompositions both in theory and by means of an empirical application to a panel data of 459 Finnish farms in years 1992–2000.

Indirect Reciprocity and Corporate Philanthropic Giving: How Visiting Officials Influence Investment in Privately Owned Chinese Firms

This study examines how privately owned firms that are listed on Chinese stock exchanges and often surrounded by Buddhist or Taoist temples use money to bind themselves to officials who can mitigate their underinvestment problems. Philanthropic giving is a traditional way of achieving this task. Based on social‐exchange theory, we consider the potential for indirect reciprocity, in which visiting officials do favours for local businesses that do favours for other social actors. We analyse whether China’s Buddhist and Taoist cultures influence how philanthropic giving induces visiting officials to do favors. We also examine temple locations and the behaviours of privately owned firms listed on Chinese stock exchanges from 2001 to 2012 in an empirical study that provides strong support for our arguments. Results show that philanthropic giving initiates and amplifies indirect reciprocity between visiting officials and local businesses, thereby increasing corporate investment. The magnitudes of these effects depend on the magnitude of religious norms. Our study thus illuminates the influence of visiting officials on corporate investment.     

Productivity Measurement from a Reference Technology: A Distance Function Approach

An approach to productivity measurement based on distance function measurement is developed in this paper. A series of reference technologies are constructed by augmenting observed inputs and outputs such that the resulting effective netputs are consistent with the weak axiom of profit maximization. Geometric means of year-ahead and year-back distance function values serve as measures of multifactor productivity changes. Both primal measures from the inner bound and dual measures from the outer bound of the reference technologies are calculated. Resulting productivity measures are similar to those derived using index number approaches, but potentially provide greater information regarding the reference technologies.     

A comparison of multifactor productivity calculations of the U.S. agricultural sector

Since the late 1970s, there have been fourteen studies that have estimated multifactor productivity (MFP) growth rates for the U.S. agricultural sector. The estimates of average annual MFP growth rates have ranged from 1.15 to 1.94 percent per year for studies using the gross productivity approach. The purpose of this paper is to identify the reasons for these different estimates. We consider theoretical and empirical factors and do not find any single reason that satisfactory explains the variation. The alternative estimates appear to be most sensitive to the coverage of years.     

An Implicit Törnqvist Index of Real GDP

Recently much attention has been devoted to superlative indexes in the context of the national accounts. In this paper we advocate the use of the implicit Törnqvist quantity index to measure real GDP. This index, which has been proposed by Diewert and Morrison (1986), has never received serious consideration in the literature. Yet, compared to the better-known Fisher index, the implicit Törnqvist index of real GDP has a number of advantages. Thus, it can be shown to be exact for the Translog GDP function, it allows for a complete multiplicative decomposition of nominal and real GDP, and it is consistent with state-of-the-art measures of total factor productivity that typically rely on the Törnqvist aggregation. Estimates for a sample of 26 countries are reported. We find that the Laspeyres quantity index still used by the statistical agencies of most countries tends to underestimate real growth. Over the 1960–1996 period, the cumulated shortfall was as much as 13.4% of GDP in the case of Japan.     

Index Number Concepts,Measures and Decompositions of Productivity Growth

This paper explores the definitions and properties of total factor productivity growth (TFPG) indexes, focusing especially on the Paasche, Laspeyres, Fisher, Törnqvist, and implicit Törnqvist ones. These indexes can be evaluated from observable price and quantity data, and certain of these are shown to be measures of TFPG concepts and theoretical indexes that have been proposed in the literature. The mathematical relationships between these and quantity aggregates, financial measures, and price and quantity indexes are explored. Decompositions of the productivity growth indexes are also given. The paper concludes with a brief overview of some limitations on our analysis.     

科技成果转化为国际标准潜力分析方法研究

文章提出了科技成果转化为国际标准潜力分析方法模型。首先通过初步排除、前期调研、专家初步评议三个步骤对科技成果转化为技术标准进行潜力分析。在此基础上,通过专家筛选、专家评议、专家评分、数据处理、综合排序五个步骤对国家重点支持的有潜力转化技术标准的科技成果转化为国际标准的潜力进行分析评价。     

Measuring and relating aggregate and subaggregate total factor productivity change without neoclassical assumptions

This article considers the relation between total factor productivity measures for individual production units and those for aggregates such as industries, sectors or economies. This topic has been treated in a number of influential publications, such as Hulten (1978), Gollop (1979) and Jorgenson et al. (1987). What distinguishes this article from other publications in this area is that I deliberately avoid the making of all kinds of (neoclassical) structural and behavioural assumptions, such as the existence of production frontiers with certain properties, or optimizing behaviour of the production units. In addition, I also treat dynamic ensembles of production units, characterized by entry and exit. Thus, a greater level of generality is achieved from which the earlier results follow as special cases.