|
on Efficiency and Productivity |
|
Issue of 2006‒05‒13
nine papers chosen by |
| By: | Laura Valkonen |
| Keywords: | deregulation, competition, productivity, entry |
| JEL: | L51 D21 O30 K23 L80 |
| Date: | 2006–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1014&r=eff |
| By: | Ville Kaitila |
| Keywords: | Productivity, growth, hours worked, convergence |
| JEL: | O47 J24 O57 C33 |
| Date: | 2006–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1015&r=eff |
| By: | Pawlik, Konrad (Department of Organisation and Management, Aarhus School of Business) |
| Abstract: | No abstract |
| Keywords: | No keywords; |
| Date: | 2005–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:aardom:2005_011&r=eff |
| By: | Chen, Zhuo; Huffman, Wallace; Rozelle, Scott |
| Abstract: | In this paper we fit stochastic frontier production functions to data for Chinese farms grouped into each of four regions—North, Northeast, East, and Southwest—over 1995-1999. These frontier production functions are shown to have statistically different structures, and the marginal product information shows overuse of chemical inputs in the East and capital services in the North. Labor also has a low marginal product. Next, we use the data and the production parameters to create technical efficiency scores for each of the farms and then standardize them. Standardized technical efficiency is shown to have the same structure across regions and to be related to the age of the farmer, land fragmentation, and the village migration rate, controlling for year dummies and village or regional fixed effects. |
| Keywords: | Household farm; Labor migration; Land fragmentation; Stochastic production frontier; Technical efficiency |
| JEL: | C2 L2 O1 P2 |
| Date: | 2006–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12605&r=eff |
| By: | Richard Simper (Dept of Economics, Loughborough University); Tom Weyman-Jones (Dept of Economics, Loughborough University) |
| Abstract: | The merger of police services in the UK has been suggested on the grounds that efficiency improvements will be possible. This paper applies a public good model of the police service to evaluate the potential efficiency gains from mergers of police services in England and Wales. We construct a dataset that reflects the public good nature of police service and allows for the exogenous imposition by Government of the level of police service budgets. Our main finding is that English and Welsh police force mergers could lead to increases in police staff resource efficiencies between 10% and 70%. |
| Keywords: | data envelopment analysis, police service efficiency, public goods |
| JEL: | C14 H41 L30 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lbo:lbowps:2006_9&r=eff |
| By: | Çaðla Ökten |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bil:bilpap:0504&r=eff |
| By: | Geoff Lewis; Steven Stillman (The Treasury) |
| Abstract: | In this study we investigate Auckland’s economic performance relative to other large cities in New Zealand, to medium-sized urban centres and to small towns and rural areas. Measures of regional economic performance are not well developed in New Zealand and there is a relative lack of official data at the regional level. Previous measures developed by two non-governmental organisations have suggested that Auckland is “underperforming” relative to other regions in New Zealand. However, neither of these measures satisfactorily capture productivity performance by areas that are classified according to the density of economic activity that takes place within them. We use data from the annual New Zealand Income Survey to examine hourly earnings and other measures of labour productivity and utilisation for a number of regional areas. Our results tell a fairly consistent story. Auckland and Wellington have the highest levels of productivity performance based on almost all measures of earnings. In particular, both have significantly higher average levels of labour income, and wage rates than the three other comparison areas. Auckland has also experienced stronger growth in wages, in particular for wage/salary workers, than other regions. Our findings cast doubt on the hypothesis that Auckland has been a productivity underperformer within New Zealand. In fact, Auckland appears to be a relatively good performer and this is consistent with agglomeration economies being at work in New Zealand’s largest urban concentration. However, because we limited our investigations to within New Zealand we are not able to say how Auckland’s productivity performance compares to innovative, high-skill cities in other countries. Given New Zealand’s overall poorer performance in labour productivity and the rather modest wage rate growth that we find even for Auckland, it is unlikely to have been as good. |
| Keywords: | regional economic performance, Auckland, productivity, New Zealand |
| JEL: | R12 R20 J24 |
| Date: | 2005–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nzt:nztwps:05/08&r=eff |
| By: | Francesco VENTURINI (Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Economia) |
| Abstract: | By the mid-1990s, the extraordinary advances in semiconductors enhanced the embodied nature of information technology, fuelling the efficiency growth in computers and communication equipment industries. The consequent fall in prices enabled the rapid diffusion of these new technologies, which have thus reached the critic threshold to foster productivity growth.;In light of the recent growth pattern of the United States, this paper presents a model where the endogenous engine of development is the learningby-doing process stemming from the usage of ICT for investment and consumption.;Relying upon a two-sector framework (a' la Whelan) that distinguishes between ICT-producers and -users, our model provides a sound representation of the stylized facts of the Information Age. |
| Keywords: | ICT, learning-by-doing, productivity resurgence |
| JEL: | E21 E22 O41 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:259&r=eff |
| By: | Marco CUCCULELLI (Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Management ed Organizzazione Aziendale); Giacinto MICUCCI (Banca d'Italia - Ancona) |
| Abstract: | Despite the pervasive presence of family business worldwide, especially among small and medium sized companies, nearly all past studies on family founder succession have focused on large, public companies. We evaluate the issue of the inherited firm control on performance in an economic setting with a large presence of small- and medium-sized private firms run as family businesses. Our paper contributes to the existing literature in three ways.;The first concerns the sample characteristics. By focusing on the transfer of business in private SMEs, our study helps to fill a gap in the existing literature that is largely concerned with public companies listed in official market. We set up a unique dataset by matching two different data sources: firstly, a cross-sectional survey dataset collected directly from more than 3,500 companies by means of a questionnaire and, secondly, a company account dataset drawn from Cerved. We merge survey data with balance sheet data in order to perform the econometric analysis. The article's second contribution is related to the effect on performance caused by the transfer of business within the family. Our major results show i) a founder effect in the Italian manufacturing industry and ii) a large drop in the post-succession performance in family-run businesses. Finally, we provide new evidence on the relationship between pre-succession firm (and industry) characteristics and past succession performance.;By using a performance-based control group matching method to control for the effect of a pure mean reverting process in firm performance, we show that the observed large drop in the post-succession company performance is attributable to good performing companies, especially when operating in highly competitive industries. |
| Keywords: | SMEs governance, entrepreneurship, inherited control, matching control group, mean revision |
| JEL: | G32 G34 M13 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:258&r=eff |