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on Efficiency and Productivity |
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Issue of 2012‒12‒10
nine papers chosen by |
| By: | Dubrocard, Anne; Prombo, Michel |
| Abstract: | The study results presented here are derived from a process whose purpose was the initial deployment and use of the data envelopment analysis techniques and linear programming in R environment to verify the feasibility of transferring tools supporting analyzes conducted after the project Luxklems. The results and their theoretical subtended are presented in brief but show the possibilities and flexibility offered by the R environment to treat optimization problems. The focus is on the evolution of the Malmquist index when considering the undesirable outputs and also seeks to compare the results with and without consideration of environmental performance in in theoretical and empirical exercise covering 15 European countries and the United States. This approach uses for purposes of calculation, the strengths of the R language and some packages dealing with linear programming and directional distance functions. Thus, programs have been developed and adapted to extend the measurement of total factor productivity and its components - technical progress and technical efficiency – to take in account the environmental performance by minimizing infeasibility problems encountered in the usual approaches using Malmquist indices. Indeed, faced with the need to take into account the effects of production on the environment and more generally the urgency to find the path of sustainable development, many attempts have been made to reinforce measures productivity growth including the negative impact of pollution that the production of goods and services generates. |
| Keywords: | Environmental performance; Data envelopment analysis (DEA); Undesirable output;Return to scale;Sequential Malmquist-Luenberger index; Malmquist-Luenberger index |
| JEL: | C14 Q5 C61 |
| Date: | 2012–09–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:41456&r=eff |
| By: | Bonanno, Graziella |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of the Italian Banking System over the period 2006-2010. By applying the Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA) to a panel of 700 banks, the analysis is based on the joint estimation of a cost function and an efficiency equation (Battese and Coelli, 1995). The bank outputs are the loans, the income commission and the securities. Beside controlling variables, the efficiency equation includes an indicator of credit quality. The main results are fourfold. First, the study finds that the efficiency of the banking system ranges from 08884, observed in 2007, to 0.8713 which refers to 2009. However, cost efficiency does not show regular dynamics over time. Moreover, it indicates that the cost efficiency of cooperative banks (BCC) is always higher than that observed for other banks (SPA and popular). Third, the study suggests that the cost efficiency tends to decrease as bank size increases. Finally, as regards the role of the determinants of banks efficiency ("what makes a bank efficient"), it also shows the presence of simultaneity between efficiency and credit quality. This supports the bad management hypothesis (Berger and De Young, 1997). |
| Keywords: | banks; mergers; cost efficiency; credit quality; stochastic frontiers; panel data |
| JEL: | D24 C33 G21 |
| Date: | 2012–11–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42831&r=eff |
| By: | Diego Restuccia; Richard Rogerson |
| Abstract: | A large portion of differences in output per capita across countries is explained by differences in total factor productivity (TFP). In this article, we summarize a recent literature - and the articles in this special issue on misallocation and productivity - that focus on the reallocation of factors across heterogeneous production units as an important source of measured TFP differences across countries. |
| Keywords: | misallocation, productivity, heterogeneous establishments, distortions. |
| JEL: | O47 O43 O41 O11 E1 |
| Date: | 2012–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-468&r=eff |
| By: | Michele Battisti (University of Palermo, Italy; CeLEG LUISS Guido Carli, Italy; RCEA, Italy); Filippo Belloc ("G.d'Annunzio" University, Italy); Massimo Del Gatto ("G.d'Annunzio" University; CRENoS, Italy) |
| Abstract: | We use a panel of European firms to investigate the relationship between intangible assets and productivity. We disentangle between tfp and technology adoption, while available studies so far have considered only a notion of productivity con ating the two effects. To this aim, we estimate production function parameters allowing, within each sector, for the existence of multiple technologies. We find that intangible assets both push the firm towards better technologies (technology adoption effects) and allow for a more efficient exploitation of a given technology (tfp effects). |
| Keywords: | TFP, intangible assets, firm heterogeneity, firm selection, technology adoption, mixture models |
| JEL: | C29 D24 F12 O32 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:71_12&r=eff |
| By: | Claudio Bravo-Ortega; Jose Miguel Benavente; Álvaro González |
| Abstract: | Since long ago economists have shown that research and development (R&D) and business innovation are key factors for the growth of firms and the development of the economies. There is also some consensus that greater degrees of trade openness are beneficial for the long-term growth of countries. Nonetheless, there is still no evidence on the combined impact of both factors even though the link between them seem of particular relevance, especially for developing countries. This article examines the relationship between productivity, expenditure in R&D and exports at a plant level for the case of Chile. The main results show that firms that actually spend on R&D are considerably more likely to export but the reverse is not true. Moreover, we observe that both R&D and exports have a joint effect on the improvement in productivity in the Chilean plants. These results allow us to recover the private return to R&D and to learning by exporting across different sectors. |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp371&r=eff |
| By: | Blasco, Sylvie (GAINS, Université du Maine); Pertold-Gebicka, Barbara (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate how active labour market policy programmes affect firms' hiring strategies and, eventually, firms' performance. We focus on counseling and monitoring which may reduce search costs for employers, but which may have ambiguous effect on the employer-employee matching quality and thus on firms' performance. Using a large scale experiment which was conducted in Denmark in 2005-2006 and induced a greater provision of activation, we find that small firms hiring in the districts where the social experiment was conducted changed their hiring practices in favor of unemployed workers and experienced greater turnover than the other firms. Treated firms also experienced no change or a marginal reduction in value added and total factor productivity during the first years after the experiment. These results are consistent with the idea that monitoring creates compulsion effects which counteract the possible improvement in the matching process expected from job search assistance. |
| Keywords: | active labour market programmes, counseling and monitoring, hiring decisions, firms performance |
| JEL: | C21 J63 J68 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7013&r=eff |
| By: | Cinzia Daraio (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Giancarlo Ruocco (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza") |
| Abstract: | In this paper we propose a “scaling-based” empirical approach to assess the scientific performance of heterogeneous academic disciplines. It relies on the idea that if we take into account for their two main sources of heterogeneity, the bibliometric distributions of different academic fields can be superimposed and collapse to a unique master curve by a single scaling parameter. By using data on the scientific production of around 2,500 scholars of the university of Rome “La Sapienza” from the Web of Science (WoS) over 2004–2008 we i) demonstrate the existence of a master curve; ii) determine the scaling factors which are the cornerstone to compare different academic fields; and iii) show that the master bibliometric distribution follows a Log-normal law. |
| Keywords: | Research assessment, Normalization, Scaling, Universality, Italian Universities |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aeg:report:2012-03&r=eff |
| By: | Cihak, Martin; Demirguc-Kunt, Asli; Peria, Maria Soledad Martinez; Mohseni-Cheraghlou, Amin |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the latest update of the World Bank Bank Regulation and Supervision Survey, and explores two questions. First, were there significant differences in regulation and supervision between crisis and non-crisis countries? Second, what aspects of regulation and supervision changed significantly during the crisis period? The paper finds significant differences between crisis and non-crisis countries in several aspects of regulation and supervision. In particular, crisis countries (a) had less stringent definitions of capital and lower actual capital ratios, (b) faced fewer restrictions on non-bank activities, (c) were less strict in the regulatory treatment of bad loans and loan losses, and (d) had weaker incentives for the private sector to monitor banks'risks. Survey results also suggest that the overall regulatory response to the crisis has been slow, and there is room to improve regulation and supervision, as well as private incentives to monitor risk-taking. Specifically, comparing regulatory and supervisory practices before and after the global crisis, the paper finds relatively few changes: capital ratios increased (primarily among non-crisis countries), deposit insurance schemes became more generous, and some reforms were introduced in the area of bank governance and bank resolution. |
| Keywords: | Banks&Banking Reform,Access to Finance,Emerging Markets,Debt Markets,Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress |
| Date: | 2012–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6286&r=eff |
| By: | Kebewar, Mazen |
| Abstract: | The objective of this article is to analyze the impact of capital structure on profitability. This impact can be explained by three essential theories: signaling theory, tax theory and the agency costs theory. A sample of 1846 French industrial firms are taken over the period 1999-2006, as a dynamic panel study by using the generalized method of moments (GMM). We show that capital structure has no influence on the profitability of French firms, regardless the size of the company. L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser l’impact de la structure du capital sur la profitabilité. Cet impact peut être expliqué par trois théories essentielles: la théorie du signal, l’influence de la fiscalité et la théorie de l’agence. Nous montrons, à partir d’un échantillon de 1846 entreprises industrielles françaises prises sur la période 1999-2006, à l’aide d’une étude sur panel dynamique en utilisant la méthode des moments généralisée (GMM), que la structure du capital n’a aucune influence sur la profitabilité des entreprises françaises quelle que soit la taille de l’entreprise. |
| Keywords: | Capital structure; Profitability; GMM; panel data. Structure du capital; profitabilité; GMM; données de panel |
| JEL: | L25 G32 C33 |
| Date: | 2012–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42899&r=eff |