Technical Efficiency of cultural goods and services: An analysis of the Mexi-can Case

Abstract

The study of cultural economics is becoming more and more important in the world, and it has a number of different aspects to be analyzed. It is an emerging activity in Mexico, though; in spite of the fact that the information about cultural economic indicators has been available since 2008. The lack of research about this topic in Mexico, from the perspective of economic scieneces, begs the question of how the usage of factors is taking place, and whether they are being used in an optimal way or, in other words, with efficiency. For that reason, the aim of this research is to obtain an indicator of technical efficiency for the components of cultural goods and services in Mexico, which allows us to contribute to the understanding of these activities from an economic perspective. To that end, it was used the methodology of Stochastic Frontier Analysis through an econometric application of panel data. Among the main findings, it was noticed that the cultural goods and services are highly efficient in an aggregated manner, since an indicator close to 100% was obtained. In a disaggregated manner, the components of cultural services are more efficient than those of cultural goods. Additionally, in a disaggregated manner, the efficiency average is 67%, so it is still possible to improve the usage of productive factors in a 33%, through an economic policy so as to improve the qualification, as well as the use of novel techniques in the production of cultural goods and services, which would have results favoring the enhancement to the technical efficiency of cultural goods and services in this country.