Measures Of Economic Performance Research Articles

The CAP reform beyond 2013: the economic performance of agricultural enterprises within the Visegrad Group

The economic performance measurement of agricultural companies involves wide range of traditional and modern performance indicators, both aggregated and analytical. The applicability of those indicators, especially the analytical such as Balanced Scorecard or Benchmarking, is still at least disputable due to the specifics of this branch of business. However, there are some efforts to modify the policy of this branch through the EU Common Agricultural Policy reforms, which are based on many open discussions among concerned parties on both national and international levels. The objective of this paper is to assess and analyse the current situation of measurement and management of economic performance of agricultural enterprises within the Visegrad group and further delineate the possibilities of efficient management of economic performance of those entities, especially in the context of scenario proposals of agricultural development beyond 2013. The future development of the agriculture in the EU member states, which is projected via proposed scenarios beyond the year 2013 calls up the employment of modern economic performance indicators both for production and non-production outputs of agricultural business entities. The objective of this effort should be seen via ensuring the sustainable and balanced development of European agricultural sector.

Well-being and the Wealth of Nations: How are They to Be Defined?

Questions relating to well-being have recently returned to the limelight, notably with the publication in September 2009 of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi commission report on the measurement of economic performance and social progress. Has this commission changed the terms of the debate on what a society's wealth and well-being are? Has it proposed new paradigms? In accepting the limitations of GDP as a key indicator of well-being, has it developed a new theoretical foundation and new evaluation criteria suited to a very different situation and to very different priorities from those that prevailed at the time when GDP first became established as a measure of national economic performance? These are the main questions raised and reviewed by this paper.

Accounting Standards, Cost of Capital, Resource Allocation, and Welfare in a Large Economy

ABSTRACTIn an extended capital asset pricing model (CAPM) setting, I examine how the quality of accounting standards affects real investment and welfare through its impact on investment hurdle rates. In this model, cash flow uncertainty arises from two fundamental sources relating, respectively, to economic performance and accounting measurement errors, but they combine into a single market factor for asset pricing. Accounting standards matter to real investment not only because information quality affects the required risk premiums on individual projects relative to a given market factor, but also because information quality affects the aggregate investment level and, hence, the market factor itself. I show that improving accounting standards causes both an expansion of the real economy and a shift in capital allocation across firms. While welfare increases as a result, firms in certain risk classes end up with higher costs of capital and lower values, some of which are crowded out from the economy. The study also lends insights into how the real and financial impacts of accounting standards depend on a firm's accounting and economic characteristics.

Social Capital and the Success of Harvest Cooperatives in the New England Groundfish Fishery

In May of 2010 a new management system based on harvest cooperatives called “sectors” was implemented in the U.S. Northeast Multispecies Groundfish Fishery. Sectors are self-organized, self-managed groups of fishermen that receive annual catch entitlements. We hypothesize that the success and longevity of these sectors is likely to depend, in part, on the relationships amongst the members including their degree of trust and ability to collaborate. The value of these relationships and the ability to cooperate is commonly referred to as social capital. Prior to the implementation of the new sector system, we conducted a survey to derive baseline measures of social capital for individual groundfish permit holders and sectors. We construct indices of bonding, bridging and linking social capital, information sharing, and trust. We explore correlations between these social capital indices, characteristic of the vessels in the sectors, and various measures of economic performance of sectors.

Adaptive forecasting of exchange rates with panel data

This article investigates the statistical and economic implications of adaptive forecasting of exchange rates with panel data and alternative predictors. The candidate exchange rate predictors are drawn from (i) macroeconomic ‘fundamentals’, (ii) return/volatility of asset markets and (iii) cyclical and confidence indices. Exchange rate forecasts at various horizons are obtained from each of the potential predictors using single market, mean group and pooled estimates by means of rolling window and recursive forecasting schemes. The capabilities of single predictors and of adaptive techniques for combining the generated exchange rate forecasts are subsequently examined by means of statistical and economic performance measures. The forward premium and a predictor based on a Taylor rule yield the most promising forecasting results out of the macro ‘fundamentals’ considered. For recursive forecasting, confidence indices and volatility in-mean yield more accurate forecasts than most of the macro ‘fundamentals’. Adaptive forecast combinations techniques improve forecasting precision and lead to better market timing than most single predictors at higher horizons.

The stock market and U.S. presidential approval

Since the 1970s research has demonstrated a strong relationship between national economic performance and presidential approval. Traditionally, these popularity models rely on macroeconomic conditions; however, other economic performance measures may more fully capture the direction of the economy. One such measure, the stock market index, captures elements of national and household economic well-being. Therefore, market performance should impact presidential ratings. Our presidential approval model, based on quarterly data covering 1960–2011, demonstrates that approval is highly sensitive to the stock market's acceleration or deceleration, even with strong controls in the model for the other economic and political determinants of popularity. A rapid fall in the stock market index reduces president approval, while a sharp acceleration in the index growth boosts U.S. presidential approval.

Using economic and other performance measures to evaluate a municipal drought plan

This paper explores the welfare costs associated with drought plan transactions between a public municipal water agency, the El Dorado Irrigation District (EID) in California in the USA and its customers. The EID imposes a tiered pricing plan for municipal customers, which was analyzed as a discrete continuous choice (DCC) model by water users within a climate driven water evaluation and planning (WEAP) model of the EID water system. The DCC is subsequently used to estimate the compensating variation (CV) measure of the loss of consumer welfare in the case where a customer does not receive water that matches a preferred level of demand. In addition to monetized welfare loss, we look at other metrics of performance such as reservoir storage and hydropower generation. For the drought-of-record under full build-out, results show that the welfare loss to EID customers from the imposed drought plan is far less than if no drought plan were in place. This suggests that current consumption is well beyond essential needs and, without a drought plan, water shortages in the later period of a drought would generate a much greater welfare loss. Most of the cost associated with the drought plan is born by EID in the form of reduced revenues.

Political Decentralization, Economic Growth and Regional Disparities in the OECD

Ezcurra R. and Rodríguez-Pose A. Political decentralization, economic growth and regional disparities in the OECD, Regional Studies. Recent scholarly work has addressed whether decentralization affects economic growth and regional disparities, by typically resorting to fiscal decentralization, while disregarding political decentralization indices. This article covers this gap by investigating the association between different political decentralization indices with two measures of economic performance: changes in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and in territorial inequalities. The results suggest a lack of statistical relationship between political decentralization and economic growth, regardless of how political decentralization is measured. In the case of regional disparities, the results depend on the index used and range from the absence of a link to a positive association between both factors. Ezcurra R. and Rodríguez-Pose A. 经济发展与合作组织（OECD）中的政治去中心化、经济成长与区域差距，区域研究。近年来的学术研究处理去中心化是否会影响经济成长与区域差距的议题时，通常是藉由诉诸财政去中心化，但却忽略政治去中心化的指标。本文以下列两种经济表现方法，透过探讨各种政治去中心化指标之间的联系，填补上述研究阙如：人均国内生产总值（GDP）以及领域性不平等的变迁。研究结果指出政治去中心化与经济成长之间缺乏统计关系，不论政治去中心化如何测量。至于区域差距方面，研究结果取决于所使用的指标，并有着从缺乏关联性到两者之间为正相关等不等之结果。 政治去中心化 经济成长 区域差距 区域 经济发展与合作组织（OECD） Ezcurra R. et Rodríguez-Pose A. La décentralisation politique, la croissance économique et les écarts régionaux dans les pays de l'OCDE, Regional Studies. Des travaux savants récents ont porté sur la question de savoir si, oui ou non, la décentralisation influe sur la croissance économique et les écarts régionaux, ayant généralement recours à la décentralisation fiscale tout en mettant de côté les indices de la décentralisation politique. Cet article cherche à colmater cette brèche en examinant le rapport entre diverses indices de décentralisation politique à partir de deux mesures de la performance économique: à savoir, la variation du produit intérieur brut (PIB) par tête et des écarts régionaux. Les résultats laissent supposer l'absence d'une corrélation statistique entre la décentralisation politique et la croissance économique, quelle que soit la façon d'estimer la décentralisation politique. Pour ce qui concerne les écarts régionaux, les résultats dépendent de l'indice employée, allant de l'absence d'aucun lien à la forte corrélation entre les deux facteurs. Décentralisation politique Croissance économique Écarts régionaux Régions Organisation de coopération et de développement économique (OCDE) Ezcurra R. und Rodríguez-Pose A. Politische Dezentralisierung, Wirtschaftswachstum und regionale Disparitäten in der OECD, Regional Studies. In den akademischen Arbeiten der letzten Zeit wurde die Frage untersucht, ob sich eine Dezentralisierung auf das Wirtschaftswachstum und die regionalen Disparitäten auswirkt, wobei in der Regel auf Indizes für fiskale Dezentralisierung zurückgegriffen wurde, ohne die Indizes für politische Dezentralisierung zu berücksichtigen. In diesem Beitrag schließen wir diese Lücke, indem wir den Zusammenhang zwischen verschiedenen Indizes für politische Dezentralisierung und zwei Maßstäben der Wirtschaftsleistung untersuchen: den Veränderungen beim Bruttoinlandsprodukt (BIP) pro Kopf und bei der territorialen Ungleichheit. Unabhängig von der Methode zur Messung der politischen Dezentralisierung lassen die Ergebnisse auf eine mangelnde statistische Beziehung zwischen politischer Dezentralisierung und Wirtschaftswachstum schließen. Im Fall der regionalen Disparitäten hängen die Ergebnisse vom verwendeten Index ab und reichen vom Fehlen einer Verbindung bis hin zu einer positiven Beziehung zwischen den beiden Faktoren. Politische Dezentralisierung Wirtschaftswachstum Regionale Disparitäten Regionen Organisation für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (OECD) Ezcurra R. y Rodríguez-Pose A. Descentralización política, crecimiento económico y disparidades regionales en la OCDE, Regional Studies. Investigaciones recientes han estudiado hasta qué punto los procesos de descentralización afectan al crecimiento económico y a las disparidades regionales, utilizando índices de descentralización fiscal en detrimento de los índices de descentralización política. Este artículo analiza precisamente la relación entre distintos índices de descentralización política con dos indicadores de desempeño económico básicos: cambios en el PIB per cápita y en los desequilibrios territoriales. Los resultados del índice señalan una ausencia de relación entre la descentralización política y el crecimiento económico, independientemente del índice de descentralización política utilizado. En lo que respecta a las disparidades regionales, los resultados dependen del índice utilizado y varían desde una ausencia total de relación hasta una asociación positiva entre ambos factores. Descentralización política Crecimiento económico Disparidades regionales Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

The Economic impact of public agricultural research and development in the United States

AbstractIn this article, we examine the relationship between public investments in agricultural research and development and the productivity‐enhancing benefits they generate. Knowledge productivity functions are estimated for U.S. agriculture using data on multifactor productivity and public knowledge stocks. We examine the time‐series properties of the data and compare alternative econometric estimation procedures. The results are used to calculate economic performance measures such as internal rates of return and benefit‐cost ratios. The real rate of return to public investments in agricultural research and development in the United States is in the range of 8–10% per annum.

Corporatism and job satisfaction

We introduce reported job satisfaction as a measure of economic performance and find it positively correlated with GDP per capita and the labor force participation rate in a sample of OECD countries and negatively correlated with unemployment. Moreover, we find that many measures of corporatism, which we define in the wider sense as institutions that hamper with the allocation of the factors of production and the distribution of income in a capitalist economy, are negatively correlated across countries with job satisfaction. Thus job satisfaction is positively correlated across countries with measures of the protection of property rights and negatively correlated with the volume of regulations of credit markets, labor markets and businesses, in addition to barriers to entrepreneurship, corruption and lack of access to capital. In contrast, measures of capitalism, such as the number of listed companies and market capitalization, are positively correlated with job satisfaction.

Identifying the environmental support and constraints to the Chinese economic growth—An application of the Emergy Accounting method

The economy of China keeps increasing at high rate, although a bit slower recently than in the past due to the international economic turmoil. The Chinese economic performance affects the world economy in many ways (from increased primary resource and commodity imports to a more active financial role of China worldwide). Not unexpectedly, several and diverse environmental problems are coupled with economic growth, linked to resource availability, competition for energy resources and the overall carrying capacity of the environment as a source and a sink. Monodimensional assessments of either economic growth or environmental aspects are unlikely to provide the needed understanding of development opportunities and potential environmental loading. We suggest in this paper an assessment of the evolution of Chinese Economy based on the Emergy Accounting method, developed by H.T. Odum in the Eighties and further refined more recently. The emergy approach is being increasingly applied worldwide, and in China as well, to study individual production processes, sectors and whole economies and provides a comprehensive picture of the interaction of economic growth and the environment, much useful for economic and environmental policy making. A set of emergy-based performance indicators was calculated with reference to the year 2009 and compared with previous studies from literature, by means of a standardization procedure to ensure consistency. The 2009 national Emergy/GDP ratio, an indicator of the emergy investment per unit of economic product generated, has been calculated respectively as 8.61E+11 solar equivalent joules/Yuan RMB (equivalent to 5.88E+12sej/US$), showing a decreasing trend from 1975 up-to-date, similar to other countries over their development path. The Emergy Sustainability Index (ESI), an aggregate measure of economic performance and environmental load, also shows a decreasing trend signaling that the Chinese economic development is strictly coupled to non-negligible environmental stress and lower sustainability.

Micro and Macro Analysis on Household Income, Wealth and Saving in the Euro Area

The report on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress by Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi concludes that in the measurement of household welfare all material components should be covered, i.e. consumption, income and wealth, from both the micro as well as the macro perspective. Additionally, several other initiatives like the G20 finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ data gap initiative have emphasised to have an integrated micro-macro framework where consumption, income and wealth can be analysed. Current researches linking macro and micro information for the households have focused on income and consumption as these are the areas where most data sources are available. This paper extends the focus to household wealth using both survey data and financial accounts. It builds a link between wealth survey and national accounts’ income concepts. This paper aims to create a first set of macroeconomic accounts that include wealth broken down by household groups.

A multi-dimensional assessment framework for sustainable supply chains

Many organizations are realizing the growing importance of sustainability in today’s business environment and the need to incorporate a supply chain approach, since the implementation of sustainability extends beyond organizational boundaries and involves multiple parties and various considerations. Based on a review of the literature of sustainable supply chain management and the integration of concepts from four organizational theories (using the resource based, institutional, stakeholder and social network perspectives), we illustrate the key drivers and enablers that influence sustainability initiatives at the supply chain level and thereafter propose a multi-dimensional assessment framework, which incorporates economic, environmental and social performance measures that can be used as a tool for the development and management of sustainable supply chains. This paper provides significant theoretical contribution and implications for supply chain management.

Superstar Central Bankers

The personalities of central bankers moved center stage during the recent financial crisis. Some central bankers even gained status. In this paper, we evaluate the pivotal role of superstar central bankers by assessing the difference an outstanding governor makes to economic performance. We employ school grades given to central bankers by the financial press. A superstar central banker is one receiving the top grade. In a probit estimation we first relate the grades to measures of economic performance, institutional features, and personal characteristics. We then employ a nearest neighbor matching approach to identify the central bankers which are closest to those receiving the top grade and compare the economic performance across both groups. The results suggest that a superstar governor indeed matters: a top-graded central banker faces a significantly more favorable output-inflation trade-off than his peers. This effect is driven by outstanding central bankers in emerging markets.

The Public Market Equivalent and Private Equity Performance

We provide a formal and rigorous justification for the Kaplan and Schoar (2005) public market equivalent (“PME”) measure of historical performance of private equity (“PE”) funds. The PME provides a valid economic performance measure when the investor (“LP”) has log-utility preferences and the return on the LP’s total wealth equals the market return. Notably, the PME is valid regardless of the risk of PE investments, and it is robust to variations in the timing and systematic risks of the underlying cash flows along with potential GP manipulations. Formally, we show that the PME is a generalized method-of-moments estimator using the stochastic discount factor implied by Rubinstein (1976)’s version of the capital asset pricing model.

Varieties of development paths in post communist countries with special regard to the transition in Hungary

Transition in Central and Eastern Europe was carried out in various ways. However, the different countries’ current economic structure, institutions and main economic performance measures are rather similar. The question asked is whether these countries follow a specific kind of development model? What seems likely is that they differ substantially from CIS countries in many aspects. But they also seem to differ from existing models of capitalism more than they do from each-other. Based on this information, the varieties of capitalism literature assumes that such a model does indeed exist. However, no comprehensive positive description of the model has so far been provided. This paper tries to define the main elements of the CEE capitalist models. These are small open economies, with close integration into the world economy through foreign investments, a relatively limited and declining role of state redistribution, the problems of dual economic structure and insufficient job creation, a relatively large shadow economy and “business capture”-type cronyism. Further research is required to properly describe the elements and interactions among them. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: D72, E65, P31

Conceptual framework for analysing farm-specific economic effects of helminth infections in ruminants and control strategies

Helminth infections are considered to be an important constraint on livestock productivity worldwide. The economic impact of these infections or their control strategies has traditionally been assessed by their effect on animal performance indicators or traditional economic calculation methods (e.g. budgeting and cost-benefit analysis). Because the impact of helminth infections has become more subtle and is farm-specific, one needs more refined economic evaluations of actions meant to increase or maintain the health of livestock on individual farms. This paper proposes an interdisciplinary framework that combines the developments in the veterinary control of helminth infections with economic performance measurements to identify farm-specific and profitable anthelmintic management decisions. Our framework positions individual farms’ performance against performance benchmarks and is based on the farms’ efficiency in transforming input(s) into output(s). We show how this positioning makes it possible to establish a linkage between input and output transformation, helminth infection levels and effects of control strategies. Furthermore, the framework allows for the identification of improvement paths that are not necessarily related to the helminth infection, but which may lead to other management improvements. We discuss the epidemiological information required and which complementary methods (e.g. efficiency analysis and budgeting techniques) can be used to make the framework operational.

Comparing economic performance of organic and conventional U.S. beef farms using matching samples*

Economic performance measures of organic and transitioning‐to‐organic cow–calf farms are compared with those of non‐organic cow–calf farms. A method of matching samples is used for the comparison, estimating sample average treatment effects for the subpopulation of the treated. Each organic farm is matched with one non‐organic farm that is involved in the same beef industry segments and farm size classes, and in the same region. Furthermore, farmer demographic, farming system, and technology variables are used to identify matches. Bias is reduced by estimating separate weighted regression functions for the treated and untreated groups. Results suggest that higher cost of organic production is due primarily to higher capital recovery, taxes and insurance, and overhead costs. Evidence is found for differences in beef enterprise profitability by organic status.

What is the impact of the participation of Czech SMEs in the Framework Programmes of the EC for research, technological development and demonstration activities?

In-depth research of 56 Czech SMEs participating in projects funded under the thematic programmes of FP6 and FP7 was carried out in order to reveal the level of their involvement, the exploitation of research results and thus the benefits they gain from participation. Many SMEs cite indirect benefits, particularly networking with potential partners or customers and the improvements of their scientific, technological or managerial skills as the main values of project participation. More straightforward, market-oriented benefits such as introduction of new products or services onto the market, the increase of turnovers or other positive impacts on economic measures of performance after the project completion are, however, only rarely noted. Also, only a minor proportion of SMEs claim that their participation resulted in a new intellectual property subjected to formal protection (i.e. patents, industrial designs, utility models etc.). Many Czech micro- and small-size enterprises consider the overall effectiveness of the framework programmes questionable, complaining mainly on their unwieldy financial rules as well a significant administrative burden associated with the projects. The medium-size companies with more than 80-100 employees, on the other hand, tend to claim more satisfaction with the framework programmes. Nevertheless, when compared with existing national R&D programmes, many SMEs, regardless to their size, admit that the current FP scheme is less relevant to their actual needs and strategies.

Creating a Holistic Methodology to Evaluate the Performance of State Parks

As US states face budgetary constraints, lawmakers are seeking justification for investment in state funded and operated entities such as state parks. The purpose of this paper is to develop a state park evaluation model that takes into account economic and noneconomic measures of performance for a portfolio of state administered parks. Utilizing Louisiana state parks, a survey questionnaire was sent to a stratified random sample of 6,299 visitors to 18 state parks in Louisiana with overnight facilities. The total number of usable surveys was 1,499 for a response rate of 23.8%. Economic measures of performance showed that 12 out of the 18 (66.67%) state parks were labeled as stars (high popularity and high profitability), five (27.78%) were labeled as question marks (low popularity and low profitability), and one park was labeled as a plow horse (high popularity and low profitability). Noneconomic measures indicated that Louisiana state parks were higher than national percentages for good value for money and a good way to get away from the stress of daily life. The model presented in this paper provides a valuable tool for park administrators and tourism agencies as they evaluate the individual performance of parks and the allocation of economic resources.