Technical Efficiency Effects Research Articles

A study on the Technical Efficiency Effects of e-sale

A study on the Technical Efficiency Effects of e-sale

The Relationship between Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Industrial Structure Adjustment for Shandong Province

Abstract From 2005, the industrial added value and carbon dioxide emissions in Shandong Province have been all ranked first in China. The article focuses on quantifying the relationship between CO2 emissions and industrial structure adjustment. Cointegration tests indicate that there exist the long-term stable equilibrium relationship between industrial structure and the emissions in Shandong Province. Granger causality tests show that the industrial structure is the reason for the change of the emissions, but the latter is not a reason for the former. By building the decomposition model of CO2 emissions, the contribution of economic growth, industrial structure and technical efficiency to the growth of CO2 emissions are measured and three important conclusions are drawn: (1) the change in the total economy is the most important factor to promote the emissions;(2) the change in industrial structure has the different contribution to the emissions in different stages, in 1994-99 and 2006-09, the contribution rate is negative, which indicates that changes in industrial structure curb the emissions;(3) technical efficiency is the main factor toreduce emissions, but compared with the role of economic growth, the effect of technical efficiency is very limited.

Congestion measurement and elimination under the framework of data envelopment analysis

Congestion is a wasteful stage of the production process where outputs are reduced due to excessive amount of inputs. This paper investigates three types of models prevailing in the data envelopment analysis literature, i.e., the Färe-family model, the Cooper-family model, and the Wei–Tone model, for measuring the congestion effect. The Färe-family model is able to decompose technical efficiency into the product of pure technical efficiency and congestion effect, yet fails to detect congestion in some situations. The Cooper-family model successfully detects congestion in all situations, yet is unable to differentiate pure technical efficiency with the congestion effect. The Wei–Tone model does not have the aforementioned deficiencies, yet is unable to identify the excessive amounts of each input. To illustrate how to eliminate congestion in reality, the Wei–Tone model is utilized to measure the congestion effect of Taiwan forests. There are three forest districts found to have different extents of congestion. The theoretical method of deleting excessive inputs to improve efficiency is actually impractical in this case. By means of reorganization, this paper finds that the congestion effects of two districts are eliminated and the other is alleviated.

Potential Gains from Mergers in Local Public Transport: An Efficiency Analysis Applied to Germany

We analyze potential gains from hypothetical mergers in local public transport using the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis with bias corrections by means of bootstrapping. Our sample consists of 41 public transport companies from Germany's most densely populated region, North Rhine-Westphalia. We merge them into geographically meaningful, larger units that operate partially on a joint tram network. Merger gains are then decomposed into individual technical efficiency, synergy and size effects following the methodology of Bogetoft and Wang [Bogetoft, P., Wang, D., 2005. Estimating the Potential Gains from Mergers. Journal of Productivity Analysis, 23(2), 145-171]. Our empirical findings suggest that substantial gains up to 16 percent of factor inputs are present, mainly resulting from synergy effects.

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.

Productivity and farm profit – a microeconomic analysis of the cereal sector in England and Wales1

This article implements the profit change decomposition methodology developed by Grifell-Tatjé and Lovell (1999). Profit change over time is first decomposed into a price effect and a quantity effect; the quantity effect is then decomposed into a productivity effect and an activity effect; in turn, the productivity effect is subdivided into a technical efficiency effect and a technical change effect, while the activity effect is divided into a scale effect, resource mix effect and product mix effect. The end result is therefore a measure of six distinct components of profit change. The methodology is used to investigate profit changes for a sample of cereal farms drawn from the Farm Business Survey in England and Wales for the period 1982 to 2000. The results of the analysis show an overall decline in profit levels for the period at the average speed of £4400 annually, with the major part of this decline attributable to a negative price effect amounting to £7000 annually on average. However, this was to some degree offset by a positive quantity effect largely driven by the positive contribution of technical change to profit growth, worth £4000 annually on average.

SOURCES OF PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN AUSTRALIAN TEXTILE AND CLOTHING FIRMS*

This paper estimates the sources of productivity growth in Australian textile and clothing firms based on the Business Longitudinal Survey (BLS) from 1995 to 1998. Productivity growth estimates have been obtained for each sub‐category of textile and clothing firms. Sources of growth in multifactor productivity (MFP) are examined with growth in technical efficiency and scale effects based on estimates of stochastic frontier production functions. Separate estimates of output growth have been compared with the productivity growth estimates for each of the product categories. MFP improved in all clothing firms and declined in textile firms over 1997–1998 by four‐digit level of Australia New Zealand Standard Industrial classification Scheme (ANZSIC). MFP declined in most major categories of both textile and clothing firms in 1995–1997. Changes in technical efficiency mostly dominated scale effects in the overall direction of MFPG in both textile and clothing firms. The findings of the study provide evidence for policies for improving the firms’ operative performance in the ongoing liberalised regime.

Technical efficiency in the English Football Association Premier League with a stochastic cost frontier

This article uses an econometric frontier model to evaluate the technical efficiency of English Premier League clubs from 1998/99 to 2002/03 combining sport and financial variables. A Cobb–Douglas cost specification of the technical efficiency effects model is used to generate football club efficiency scores, allowing for contextual variables which affect inefficiency. We conclude that the efficiency scores are mixed. A policy is devised for the management of this sector.

Mergers and acquisitions in the Malaysian banking industry: technical and scale efficiency effects

Employing an event study with a three-year window analysis together with the non-parametric frontier approach, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), this paper investigates the effects of mergers and acquisitions on Malaysian banks' technical and scale efficiency. The results suggest that the merger has resulted in a higher mean technical efficiency of the Malaysian banking sector post-merger. In five out of the seven merger cases, the empirical findings suggest that the acquirers were relatively more technically efficient. The empirical findings also suggest that the acquiring banks' mean technical efficiency improved (deteriorates) from the merger with a more (less) efficient bank in five out of the seven merger cases analysed.

The determinants of firms’ performance: Can finance constraints improve technical efficiency?

This paper analyses the mechanisms through which binding finance constraints can induce debt-constrained firms to improve technical efficiency to guarantee positive profits. This hypothesis is tested on a sample of firms belonging to the Italian manufacturing. Technical efficiency scores are computed by estimating parametric production frontiers using the one stage approach as in Battese and Coelli [Battese, G., Coelli, T., 1995. A model for technical efficiency effects in a stochastic frontier production function for panel data. Empirical Economics 20, 325–332]. The results support the hypothesis that a restriction in the availability of financial resources can affect positively efficiency.

Occupancy Level and Productivity in Rural Tourism Establishments: The Case of Galicia, Spain

The degree of capacity utilization affects the measurement of total productivity. This paper uses establishment occupancy level as a proxy for establishment capacity utilization. Accordingly, the authors decompose total factor productivity (TFP) growth into technical progress, changes in allocative efficiency, changes in occupancy levels, changes in technical efficiency and scale effects. The empirical results show that the occupancy level component offers the most important contribution to TFP. Policy implications are offered in light of the results.

Measuring total-factor agricultural productivity under drought conditions: The case of Morocco

There is recognition in Morocco that the country's agricultural support policy of the past, when rainfall was adequate, has become counter-productive now that droughts are more frequent. How to align policy with the new climatic reality is currently being discussed, and different research needs to assess alternative policy options for the future have been identified. One, which we address in this article, is to take a retrospective view of the respective contributions of agricultural policy and rainfall to productivity in the rain-dependent cereal sector. The specific contribution of the article is the development of an econometric framework for separating the effect of drought on total factor productivity from other effects, namely technical efficiency, pricing policy and demand effects. Findings suggest that only rain and technical efficiency drove total factor productivity growth in the cereal sector. This means that best agricultural practices and improved extension services should top the list of dryland farming policy.

Technical efficiency effects of input controls: evidence from Australia's banana prawn fishery

This paper provides the first ex post estimates of the effects of input controls on technical efficiency in a fishery. Using individual vessel data from the northern prawn fishery of Australia for the years 1990–1996 and 1994–2000, stochastic production frontiers are estimated to analyse the efficiency impacts of input controls on engine and vessel size. The results indicate that technical efficiency is increasing in a measure of vessel size and engine capacity that was controlled by the regulator from 1985 to 2001, and decreasing in an unregulated input, gear headrope length. The study shows that fishers have substituted from regulated to unregulated inputs over the period 1990–2000 and technical efficiency has declined coincident with increasing restrictions on vessel size and engine capacity. The decline in technical efficiency indicates that the goal of the regulator to increase economic efficiency has not been realized.

Zur Messung und Erklärung von Produktivitätsentwicklungen: Eine Analyse auf Basis eines stochastischen Distanzfrontieransatzes / Measuring and Explaining Productivity Growth: A Distance Function Approach

Zusammenfassung Die Veränderung der totalen Faktorproduktivität wird anhand einer outputorientierten Distanzfunktion in die vier Komponenten technische Veränderung, technische Effizienz, ailokative Effizienz und Skaleneffekt zerlegt. Mit Hilfe von Paneldaten, die für landwirtschaftliche Unternehmen im Zeitraum von 1991 bis 1994 in Deutschland und Polen erhoben wurden, werden stochastische outputorientierte Translog-Distanzfunktionen geschätzt. Eine Abschätzung des Produktivitätspotenzials der beiden Länder im horizontalen Vergleich erfolgt mit Hilfe einer Metadistanzfrontier. Die Ergebnisse lassen vermuten, dass die Produktivitätsentwicklung in Deutschland (+ 6%) und Polen (- 5%) im Wesentlichen von der Komponente Technische Veränderung vorgegeben wird.

The Effect of Management Buyouts on Firm–level Technical Inefficiency: Evidence from a Panel of UK Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers

The longer–term technical efficiency effects of management buyouts (MBOs) are evaluated using a stochastic production frontier approach on a panel of UK manufacturing firms. The results, based on the period 1986–1997, indicate that firms with the MBO governance structure: (1) have higher efficiency in the two years before the transaction but not prior to that; (2) have efficiency 7%, 7.5%, 4%, and 7% higher in each of the first four years post–buyout; (3) do not have superior efficiency beyond the fifth year post–buyout. This is consistent with MBOs creating managerial incentives that improve firm–level performance.

Just-in-time purchasing and technical efficiency in the US manufacturing sector

This paper analyses the technical productive efficiency effects of implementing just-in-time purchasing (JITP) techniques in the US manufacturing industry. The impact of JITP techniques on technical efficiency is modelled using a stochastic frontier production function that explicitly accounts for JITP-induced efficiency effects. The empirical results suggest that characteristics internal to the organization, such as top management commitment to implementing JITP, are related to higher productive efficiency. External characteristics, such as supplier value-added, or transportation issues, do not appear to be associated with increasing productive efficiency.

Supply Restricted Telecommunications Markets: The Effect of Technical Efficiency on Waiting Times

The paper is concerned with supply constraints in the provision of telecommunications services. As a measure of supply constraint we use the average waiting time for telephone connections. Duration models are employed to analyze a panel data set for 28 countries. In addition to economic variables, we consider the role of technical efficiency in causing supply constraints. Stochastic frontiers are used to determine the technical efficiency with which countries use labor and capital inputs to connect customers. When technical efficiency is included in duration models for waiting times until connection, we find that it is the major determinant.

Specification and estimation of stochastic multiple-output production and technical inefficiency

This paper presents a primal-based approach for specification and estimation of multiple-output production frontiers that allows simultaneous identification and estimation of determinants of technical inefficiency. The proposed model extends the technical efficiency effects model by Battese and Coelli (1995) to general multiple-output technologies. An empirical application using Swedish health care panel data from the years 1989–1994 is included. The key issue is to test for the effects on technical efficiency of an organizational reform implemented with the primary purpose to increase efficiency. The results reveal no significant effect on technical efficiency of the reform, but evidence of overall decreased technical efficiency and technical progress in the provision of health care over the studied time period are found.

The rebound effect: some empirical evidence from India

The present paper looks at the effect of technical efficiency gains on energy use in three sectors in India, at varying levels of aggregation. High positive rebound implies that efficient technology, unless supplemented by appropriate pricing policy, will not be successful in containing demand. However, the main purpose of the paper is to focus on the unique mechanism of rebound that may occur in developing countries with unmet demand.

A first look at the impacts of trade liberalization on Brazilian manufacturing industry

The aim of this paper is to assess the impacts of trade liberalization on Brazilian manufacturing industry over the 1989–1996 period. To this end, a series of indicators was built which shed new light on the technical efficiency and allocative effects of the liberalization. The results obtained suggest that the impacts were, generally, positive and consistent with both the predictions of the international trade literature and the pattern of Brazil's industrialization.