Taining Wang and Daniel J. Henderson
A semiparametric stochastic frontier model is proposed for panel data, incorporating several flexible features. First, a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production…
Abstract
A semiparametric stochastic frontier model is proposed for panel data, incorporating several flexible features. First, a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production frontier is considered without log-transformation to prevent induced non-negligible estimation bias. Second, the model flexibility is improved via semiparameterization, where the technology is an unknown function of a set of environment variables. The technology function accounts for latent heterogeneity across individual units, which can be freely correlated with inputs, environment variables, and/or inefficiency determinants. Furthermore, the technology function incorporates a single-index structure to circumvent the curse of dimensionality. Third, distributional assumptions are eschewed on both stochastic noise and inefficiency for model identification. Instead, only the conditional mean of the inefficiency is assumed, which depends on related determinants with a wide range of choice, via a positive parametric function. As a result, technical efficiency is constructed without relying on an assumed distribution on composite error. The model provides flexible structures on both the production frontier and inefficiency, thereby alleviating the risk of model misspecification in production and efficiency analysis. The estimator involves a series based nonlinear least squares estimation for the unknown parameters and a kernel based local estimation for the technology function. Promising finite-sample performance is demonstrated through simulations, and the model is applied to investigate productive efficiency among OECD countries from 1970–2019.
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Feng Yao, Qinling Lu, Yiguo Sun and Junsen Zhang
The authors propose to estimate a varying coefficient panel data model with different smoothing variables and fixed effects using a two-step approach. The pilot step estimates the…
Abstract
The authors propose to estimate a varying coefficient panel data model with different smoothing variables and fixed effects using a two-step approach. The pilot step estimates the varying coefficients by a series method. We then use the pilot estimates to perform a one-step backfitting through local linear kernel smoothing, which is shown to be oracle efficient in the sense of being asymptotically equivalent to the estimate knowing the other components of the varying coefficients. In both steps, the authors remove the fixed effects through properly constructed weights. The authors obtain the asymptotic properties of both the pilot and efficient estimators. The Monte Carlo simulations show that the proposed estimator performs well. The authors illustrate their applicability by estimating a varying coefficient production frontier using a panel data, without assuming distributions of the efficiency and error terms.
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Adam T. Schmidt, Jacquelynn Duron, Becca K. Bergquist, Alexandra C. Bammel, Kelsey A. Maloney, Abigail Williams-Butler and Gerri R. Hanten
Though prosocial attributes are linked to positive outcomes among justice-involved adolescents and are a mainstay of numerous interventions, few measures have been specifically…
Abstract
Purpose
Though prosocial attributes are linked to positive outcomes among justice-involved adolescents and are a mainstay of numerous interventions, few measures have been specifically designed to evaluate prosocial functioning within this population. Although multiple instruments measuring aspects of prosocial behavior exist, these instruments were not designed to measure prosocial behaviors among youth in juvenile justice settings. This study aims to provide a preliminary validation of a new measure of prosocial attributes (the Prosocial Status Inventory – PSI), which was designed to comprehensively evaluate in greater depth the prosocial functioning of urban, justice-involved youth.
Design/methodology/approach
Youth (n = 51) were recruited as part of a larger study and were participants in a community-based mentoring program in a large, urban county in the Southern USA. Youth completed the PSI at baseline prior to their participation in the community-based mentoring program. The authors obtained follow-up data on recidivism from the county juvenile justice department.
Findings
PSI scores were positively related to a lower rate of recidivism and a decrease in offending frequency over a 12-month follow-up period.
Originality/value
The current findings complement previous work, suggesting that prosocial attributes are measurable and related to important outcomes among justice-involved youth and support the utility of strengths-based treatment approaches. Moreover, it provides preliminary evidence of the utility of a new self-report measure to assess these traits within a juvenile justice population.
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Eri Nakamura, Takuya Urakami and Kazuhiko Kakamu
This chapter examines the effect of the division of labor from a Bayesian viewpoint. While organizational reforms are crucial for cost reduction in the Japanese water supply…
Abstract
This chapter examines the effect of the division of labor from a Bayesian viewpoint. While organizational reforms are crucial for cost reduction in the Japanese water supply industry, the effect of labor division in intra-organizational units on total costs has, to the best of our knowledge, not been examined empirically. Fortunately, a one-time survey of 79 Japanese water suppliers conducted in 2010 enables us to examine the effect. To examine this problem, a cost stochastic frontier model with endogenous regressors is considered in a cross-sectional setting, because the cost and the division of labor are regarded as simultaneously determined factors. From the empirical analysis, we obtain the following results: (1) total costs rise when the level of labor division becomes high; (2) ignoring the endogeneity leads to the underestimation of the impact of labor division on total costs; and (3) the estimation bias on inefficiency can be mitigated for relatively efficient organizations by including the labor division variable in the model, while the bias for relatively inefficient organizations needs to be controlled by considering its endogeneity. In summary, our results indicate that integration of internal sections is better than specialization in terms of costs for Japanese water supply organizations.
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Family constitutions are relatively new to the law of family companies, although there might have been forerunners in the history of entrepreneur families. The practical…
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Family constitutions are relatively new to the law of family companies, although there might have been forerunners in the history of entrepreneur families. The practical importance and the proliferation of family constitutions in German family companies are increasing, along with the discussion of family constitutions in legal literature. This new instrument of family governance is not law driven but business driven, it has been designed by business advisors. Its analysis and classification are still at the very beginning in academic research and practice. Even though family constitutions are generally deemed to be without any legal effect and not legally binding, from a legal point of view, this assumption is at least highly questionable.
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This chapter provides a survey of alternative methodologies for measuring and comparing productivity and efficiency of airlines, and reviews representative empirical studies. The…
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This chapter provides a survey of alternative methodologies for measuring and comparing productivity and efficiency of airlines, and reviews representative empirical studies. The survey shows the apparent shift from index procedures and traditional OLS estimation of production and cost functions to stochastic frontier methods and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methods over the past three decades. Most of the airline productivity and efficiency studies over the last decade adopt some variant of DEA methods. Researchers in the 1980s and 1990s were mostly interested in the effects of deregulation and liberalization on airline productivity and efficiency as well as the effects of ownership and governance structure. Since the 2000s, however, studies tend to focus on how business models and management strategies affect the performance of airlines. Environmental efficiency now becomes an important area of airline productivity and efficiency studies, focusing on CO2 emission as a negative or undesirable output. Despite the fact that quality of service is an important aspect of airline business, limited attempts have been made to incorporate quality of service in productivity and efficiency analysis.
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Rustem Barıs Yesilay and Umut Halac
Introduction – In recent years, there has been a growing interest in innovation, not only in developed countries but also in developing countries. However, there has been limited…
Abstract
Introduction – In recent years, there has been a growing interest in innovation, not only in developed countries but also in developing countries. However, there has been limited literature for the developing countries.
Purpose – The literature on national innovation systems (NIS) mainly consists of case studies or qualitative researches aiming to explain the patterns of innovation, while the quantitative analysis are limited in explaining the innovation capability and efficiency of innovation. This study is unique in a sense that it compares the innovation efficiencies of the EECA countries. This chapter aims to measure the efficiency of NIS via data envelopment analysis (DEA) method.
Methodology – DEA is used to consider a sample of 18 Eastern European and Central Asian (EECA) countries and Turkey. One of the main issues is to determine the input and output variables because the available data for some of these countries were limited. Therefore, research and development expenditure (% of GDP), government expenditure on education, total (% of GDP), imports of goods and services (% of GDP) and foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP) were determined as input variables. Output variables were as follows; patent applications both residents and non-residents, high-technology exports (% of manufactured exports) and scientific and technical journal articles.
Findings – Based on the key findings it can be noted that Kazakhstan, Turkey, Latvia and Uzbekistan are more efficient in innovation performance compared to other EECA countries. Throughout the results of the DEA, these countries may develop new policies about their innovation systems to reach out the higher performance.