Drivers of Productivity Change in the Italian Tomato Food Value Chain

This study evaluated productivity dynamics and identified sources of productivity growth in Italian tomato production and processing. We used a stochastic frontier input distance function with four error components—heterogeneity, statistical noise, persistent and transient inefficiency—and a four-step estimation procedure with a system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator in the first step to address the endogeneity problem. The results reveal significant differences in the productivity and efficiency of tomato production and processing. Moreover, there are considerable differences among the different sizes of tomato producers, with the main variations observed for scale efficiency. While tomato processors operate at an optimal production size, tomato producers are characterized by considerable economies of scale, especially small producers. These results thus suggest that there is significant opportunity for technical efficiency improvements at both stages of the value chain. Finally, due to improvements made to scale efficiency, extensive productivity growth was observed for the group of small tomato producers.

Download Full-text

Productivity and Efficiency of Precision Farming: The Case of Czech Cereal Production

Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics ◽

10.7160/aol.2021.130302 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 15-24

Author(s):

Lukáš Čechura ◽

◽

Zdenka Žáková Kroupová ◽

Vladimír Kostlivý ◽

Michaela Lekešová ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Technical Efficiency ◽

Stochastic Frontier ◽

Cost Savings ◽

Estimation Procedure ◽

Precision Farming ◽

Theil Index ◽

Productivity Change ◽

Four Component Model ◽

Cereal Production ◽

Productivity Dynamics

The paper deals with the sources of competitiveness of Czech cereal production by considering precision farming technology and employing micro-level data collected in the FADN database for the period 2005–2018. The analysis is based on the stochastic frontier modelling of an input distance function in the specification of the four-component model, which currently represents the most advanced approach to technical efficiency analysis. To provide a robust estimate of the model, the paper employs methods which control for the potential endogeneity of netputs in the four-step estimation procedure. Furthermore, the total factor productivity change is calculated using the Törnqvist-Theil index. The results reveal that Czech cereal producers took great advantage of their production possibilities and experienced technological progress, which contributed considerably to productivity dynamics and consequently to an increase in their competitiveness. Precision farming, which is associated with a large number of innovations reflected in technological change and optimal resource use, contributed to higher technical efficiency connected with cost savings in Czech cereal production.

Download Full-text

Determinants of Judicial Efficiency Change: Evidence from Brazil

Review of Law & Economics ◽

10.1515/rle-2017-0004 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Thiago A. Fauvrelle ◽

Alessio Tony C Almeida

Keyword(s):

Productivity Growth ◽

Technical Change ◽

State Courts ◽

Scale Efficiency ◽

Productivity Change ◽

Efficiency Change ◽

Second Stage ◽

Judicial Efficiency ◽

Shift Effect ◽

Using Data

AbstractJudicial efficiency matters for economic development. Nevertheless, the determinants of judicial productivity growth are not entirely understood. Using data of Brazil's state courts for the period of 2009 to 2014, this paper analyzes judicial productivity change and its possible determinants over time in a two stage approach. First, data envelopment analysis is used to calculate Malmquist productivity measures which are decomposed in: technical change (frontier-shift effect) and efficiency change (composed of pure efficiency change and scale efficiency change). In the second stage, fixed effect models are estimated to evaluate the associated factors with judicial productivity growth. The first stage results show a slight improvement in judicial productivity trend, which is defined mainly by efficiency change, since technical change deteriorated in the period. The second stage findings suggest the nonexistence of a trade-off between judicial quality and efficiency improvement. Moreover, judges’ remuneration, legal complexity and technological use are correlated with judicial productivity, however not always in the expected direction.

Download Full-text

Productivity growth, economies of scale and scope in the water and sewerage industry: The Chilean case

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0251874 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (5) ◽

pp. e0251874

Author(s):

Maria Molinos-Senante ◽

Alexandros Maziotis

Keyword(s):

Productivity Growth ◽

Technical Change ◽

Economies Of Scale ◽

New Technologies ◽

Cost Savings ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Scale Efficiency ◽

Water And Sewerage Industry ◽

The Cost ◽

Quadratic Cost Function

Evaluating the performance and analyzing the cost drivers of water utilities is of great interest for water regulators and water sector managers. This study uses a quadratic cost function to investigate the existence of economies of scale and scope in the Chilean water and sewerage industry over the period 2010–2017. We also estimate and decompose productivity growth into technical change and scale efficiency change. Technical change is further broken into pure, non-neutral and scale-augmenting technical change. The results indicate that cost savings can be achieved by increases in the scale of production and the separation of water and sewerage services. Productivity progressed favorably throughout the whole period at an annual rate of 8.4%, which was attributed to the scale effect, the adoption of new technologies and a good allocation of resources. Some policy implications are finally discussed based on our findings.

Download Full-text

Productivity growth in India's bakery manufacturing industry

Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies ◽

10.1108/jadee-12-2019-0204 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Shiv Kumar ◽

Abdulla ◽

ChhatraPal Singh

Keyword(s):

Technical Efficiency ◽

Productivity Growth ◽

Manufacturing Industry ◽

Stochastic Frontier ◽

Allocative Efficiency ◽

Scale Efficiency ◽

Firm Level ◽

Indian States ◽

Content Type ◽

Bakery Industry

PurposeThe main aim of this paper is to examine the total factor productivity (TFP) and its components namely, technological change, technical efficiency change, scale change and allocative change in bakery industry in India.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on panel data on 35 Indian states for the period 2009–2010 and 2012–2013. Stochastic frontier function is employed to estimate the productivity growth.FindingsThe results show that TFP is driven by technological progress, followed by technical efficiency and scale efficiency. Allocative efficiency, however, has a negative effect on TFP.Research limitations/implicationsThe bakery industry needs to define its innovation strategies, as these strategies lead to different outcomes that can be achieved only through the management of resources dedicated to the generation and implementation of innovations.Originality/valueUsing frontier production function takes the stochastic context into account for the dynamic behaviour of TFP and its components. Most of the past studies have assessed the TFP at the aggregate level using three-digit National Industrial Classification (NIC) or four-digit NIC code. An analysis at higher levels aggregation masks the variation in TFP and its components available at the firm level. This study uses five-digit NIC data to measure the firm specific TFP of bakery industry. Further, it looks at the contribution of technical progress (TP), technical efficiency, scale efficiency and allocative efficiency.

Download Full-text

The Impact of Global Value Chain Participation on Sectoral Growth and Productivity

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12124848 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (12) ◽

pp. 4848

Author(s):

Halit Yanikkaya ◽

Abdullah Altun

Keyword(s):

Productivity Growth ◽

Value Chain ◽

Manufacturing Sector ◽

Generalized Method Of Moments ◽

Value Added ◽

Output Growth ◽

Global Value Chain ◽

Tfp Growth ◽

Parameter Heterogeneity ◽

The Impact

This study investigates the impact of participation in global value chains (GVCs) on sectoral value-added and total factor productivity growth (TFP) for two different time periods of 1995–2011 and 2005–2015. In addition to the commonly used participation indices, we also calculate lesser known measures of backward and forward participation indices, as suggested by the OECD. Our Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimations for the full sample indicate that sectors with higher GVC participation experience much higher output and TFP growth, especially for the period 1995–2011. Overall, our results imply that there have been decreasing gains from GVC participation in the later period. Note that our estimates for both output and TFP growth are very much similar. This means that participation in GVCs promotes not only output growth but also productivity growth across sectors. Considering the parameter heterogeneity, we repeat our estimations for manufacturing and services separately. Although for the earlier period both the manufacturing and services sectors benefit from more participation in terms of higher output and productivity growth, only the manufacturing sector experiences higher productivity growth from more participation for the period 2005–2015. Relatively less significant and smaller estimates for the later period covering the latest global crisis imply that participation in GVCs fails to bring satisfactory gains to countries and sectors.

Download Full-text

Total Factor Productivity Growth, Technological Progress and Technical Efficiency Changes: Productivity Change Dimensions in Tunisia

Journal of Quantitative Methods ◽

10.29145/2020/jqm/040204 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 1-1

Author(s):

Maha Kalai ◽

Kamel Helali

Keyword(s):

Technical Efficiency ◽

Total Factor Productivity ◽

Productivity Growth ◽

Technological Progress ◽

Stochastic Frontier ◽

Total Factor Productivity Growth ◽

Productivity Change ◽

Factor Productivity ◽

Economic Sectors ◽

Total Productivity

In this study, we use the stochastic frontier production approach to split the total productivity growth sources into technical progress and technical efficiency changes of the economic sectors in Tunisia between 1961 and 2014. Based on the sectors’ evolution, the analysis is centred on the technological progress trend, the technical efficiency change, and the role of productivity change in the economic growth. The empirical results show that the production factors have a significant effect on productivity. The review of the total factor productivity growth sources reveals that the contribution of technological progress is the main source of this growth.

Download Full-text

An Empirical Study on the Impact of Foreign Strategic Investment on Banking Sustainability in China

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11010181 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 181 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Wanping Yang ◽

Bingyu Zhao ◽

Jinkai Zhao ◽

Zhengda Li

Keyword(s):

Productivity Growth ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Dynamic Panel Data ◽

Transmission Mechanism ◽

Scale Efficiency ◽

Productivity Change ◽

Strategic Investment ◽

Changing Scale ◽

Bank Managers ◽

The Impact

In order to improve the banking sustainability in China, China’s government has announced that the restrictions on foreign shareholding ratio in domestic banks will be canceled. However, the effectiveness of foreign strategic investment needs checking. In addition, under the new policy, the method by which banks formulate appropriate internal decisions about introducing foreign strategic investment is an important issue for bank managers. Continuous productivity growth will bring sustainable development; therefore, the aims of this paper are: (1) to find the relationship between foreign strategic investment and productivity change of China’s banks, and to verify the effectiveness of introducing foreign strategic investment; (2) to find the optimal foreign shareholding ratio; (3) to show how foreign strategic investment affects the productivity of China’s banks, i.e. the transmission mechanism between them, and to provide bank managers with evidence and support for making decisions on introduction of foreign strategic investment. This paper employs the Malmquist-Luenberger index and combines it with Epsilon-based-measure to derive a new index, i.e. the EBM-Malmquist-Luenberger index, to measure the dynamic productivity change of China’s banks. In addition, the dynamic panel data and system GMM estimator are used to analyze the transmission mechanism as well as the impact of foreign strategic investment on the productivity of China’s banks. The results revealed three facts. First, when the foreign shareholding ratio increases within a given range, foreign strategic investment continuously improves the productivity and sustainability of China’s banks. Second, an inverse N-shaped relation between foreign strategic investment and productivity growth of China’s banks is supported, and the optimal foreign shareholding ratio is 20.16%. Last but not least, foreign strategic investment improves the productivity and sustainability of China’s banks, mainly through changing scale efficiency. The results of this paper may provide support for policy formulation of China’s banks.

Download Full-text

Factors influencing efficiency of Islamic banks in GCC region: Evidence from Arab Spring period

Corporate Ownership and Control ◽

10.22495/cocv14i3c2art9 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 345-353 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Majed Alharthi

Keyword(s):

Technical Efficiency ◽

Arab Spring ◽

Economies Of Scale ◽

Banking Sector ◽

Global Financial Crisis ◽

Generalized Method Of Moments ◽

Generalized Least Squares ◽

Scale Efficiency ◽

Islamic Banks ◽

Gcc Countries

The main purpose of this research is to estimate efficiency and its factors of Islamic banks in GCC countries during the period 2005-2014. In this study, efficiency is measured using data envelopment analysis (DEA), which is divided into technical efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE), and scale efficiency (SE). The statistical methods to find the determinants are generalized least squares (GLS), generalized method of moments (GMM) and Tobit regressions. The DEA measures show that the highest efficiency found to be in Islamic banks in Kuwait. The statistical results demonstrate that size of banks is highly important to efficiency as larger Islamic banks could reduce their costs (based on economies of scale approach) and they could provide more services (more outputs) than smaller banks. Focusing on capitalisation, the results suggest that better capitalised banks have better efficiency. The lending services increase the efficiency significantly, which encourage Islamic banks in GCC region to focus more in providing loans. Furthermore, achieving profits is significantly and positively support the efficiency of Islamic banks. In contrast, foreign and local ownerships decreased efficiencies significantly. Additionally, banks in lower rates of economic growth operated more efficiently. Finally, the global financial crisis and Arab spring impacted the efficiency of Islamic banks in GCC countries dangerously. The strength point is that the efficiency of Islamic banks in GCC countries has not been affected by inflation (based on insignificant correlation between efficiency scores and inflation). These results actually help bankers and policy maker to evaluate the financial performance in banking sector. Moreover, identifying the positive and negative determinants allow banks to apply strategies to enhance efficiency.

Download Full-text

Productivity change analysis in dairy farms following Polish accession to the EU – An output growth decomposition approach

Outlook on Agriculture ◽

10.1177/0030727017742557 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 46 (4) ◽

pp. 295-301 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kamil Makieła ◽

Jerzy Marzec ◽

Andrzej Pisulewski

Keyword(s):

Productivity Growth ◽

Economies Of Scale ◽

Dairy Farms ◽

Output Growth ◽

Productivity Change ◽

Minor Role ◽

The European Union ◽

Change Analysis ◽

Decomposition Approach ◽

Scale Elasticity

The aim of this study was to assess changes in productivity of dairy farms after Poland’s accession to the European Union using a new decomposition of output growth within a stochastic frontier framework. We demonstrate how changes in economies of scale can be isolated, which leads to redefined components of output growth and a better measure of productivity growth. The productivity component is disaggregated to its three generic sources: total scale change, real technical change and efficiency change. An analysis of 1191 dairy farms based on data from 2004 to 2011 reveals that production growth (3.91%) is mostly due to input accumulation (3.4%) rather than productivity growth (0.51%.). Further decomposition indicates that the productivity component is driven by real technical growth (1%) and changes in scale elasticity, which had a negative effect on productivity (−0.81%). Conversely, technical efficiency growth (0.36%) played a minor role.

Download Full-text

Efficiency and Productivity Evaluation of the Moroccan Judicial System

European Scientific Journal ESJ ◽

10.19044/esj.2021.v17n27p282 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (27) ◽

pp. 282

Author(s):

Yassine Achenchabe ◽

Mohammed Akaaboune

Keyword(s):

Technical Change ◽

Economies Of Scale ◽

Returns To Scale ◽

Malmquist Index ◽

Scale Efficiency ◽

Productivity Change ◽

Judicial Reform ◽

Data Envelopment ◽

Efficiency And Productivity ◽

Positive Effect

This paper focuses on measuring the efficiency and productivity change in 110 Moroccan courts between 2013 and 2018, which is the period of implementation of the judicial reform. The study also measures the technical and scale efficiency using the Data Envelopment Analysis method under output orientation. The Malmquist index was used to measure the productivity change decomposed into efficiency and technical change. The results show a low level of courts efficiency of 53.2%, with increasing returns to scale for most courts except administrative ones. The total factor productivity of courts shows an improvement of 6.3%, mainly due to technical change, except for the commercial courts whose productivity deteriorated during the study period. These results show the positive effect of the reform. Courts still have a margin for improving their efficiency by increasing inputs in order to benefit from economies of scale or by improving judges' productivity.

Download Full-text