International Applications of Productivity and Efficiency Analysis features a complete range of techniques utilized in frontier analysis, including extensions of existing techniques and the development of new techniques. Another feature is that most of the contributions use panel data in a variety of approaches. Finally, the range of empirical applications is at least as great as the range of techniques, and many of the applications are of considerable policy relevance.

This proceedings volume examines the state-of-the art of productivity and efficiency analysis and adds to the existing research by bringing together a selection of the best papers from the 8th North American Productivity Workshop (NAPW). It also aims to analyze world-wide perspectives on challenges that local economies and institutions may face when changes in productivity are observed. The volume comprises of seventeen papers that deal with productivity measurement, productivity growth, dynamics of productivity change, measures of labor productivity, measures of technical efficiency in different sectors, frontier analysis, measures of performance, industry instability and spillover effects. These papers are relevant to academia, but also to public and private sectors in terms of the challenges firms, financial institutions, governments and individuals may face when dealing with economic and education related activities that lead to increase or decrease of productivity. The North American Productivity Workshop brings together academic scholars and practitioners in the field of productivity and efficiency analysis from all over the world. It is a four day conference exploring topics related to productivity, production theory and efficiency measurement in economics, management science, operations research, public administration, and related fields. The papers in this volume also address general topics as health, energy, finance, agriculture, utilities, and economic dev elopment, among others. The editors are comprised of the 2014 local organizers, program committee members, and celebrated guest conference speakers.

The volume examines the state-of-the-art of productivity and efficiency analysis. It brings together a selection of the best papers from the 10th North American Productivity Workshop. By analyzing world-wide perspectives on challenges that local economies and institutions may face when changes in productivity are observed, readers can quickly assess the impact of productivity measurement, productivity growth, dynamics of productivity change, measures of labor productivity, measures of technical efficiency in different sectors, frontier analysis, measures of performance, industry instability and spillover effects. The contributions in this volume focus on the theory and application of economics, econometrics, statistics, management science and operational research related to problems in the areas of productivity and efficiency measurement. Popular techniques and methodologies including stochastic frontier analysis and data envelopment analysis are represented. Chapters also cover broader issues related to measuring, understanding, incentivizing and improving the productivity and performance of firms, public services, and industries.

This book surveys the state-of-the-art in efficiency and productivity analysis, examining advances in the analytical foundations and empirical applications. The analytical techniques developed in this book for efficiency provide alternative ways of defining optimum outcome sets, typically as a (technical) production frontier or as an (economic) cost, revenue or profit frontier, and alternative ways of measuring efficiency relative to an appropriate frontier. Simultaneously, the analytical techniques developed for efficiency analysis extend directly to productivity analysis, thereby providing alternative methods for estimating productivity levels, and productivity change through time or productivity variation across producers. This book includes chapters using data envelopment analysis (DEA) or stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) as quantitative techniques capable of measuring efficiency and productivity. Across the book’s 15 chapters, it broadly extends into popular application areas including agriculture, banking and finance, and municipal performance, and relatively new application areas including corporate social responsibility, the value of intangible assets, land consolidation, and the measurement of economic well-being. The chapters also cover topics such as permutation tests for production frontier shifts, new indices of total factor productivity, and also randomized controlled trials and production frontiers.

In companies that produce goods and services, productivity and efficiency improvements are a constant challenge. This book reviews the differences between productivity and efficiency. It proposes a new method and makes available a computational tool for implementation that contributes to facilitating the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The book presents a discussion about productivity and efficiency, illustrating the potentials of use and conceptual differences. It covers the concepts and techniques for analysis of productivity and efficiency, analyzing critical benefits and limitations, explains in detail how to use DEA for analysis, provides innovative methods for using DEA, offers a free online computer tool with a direction guide, shows real empirical applications, and covers other techniques that can be used to complement the analysis performed. The book is for professionals, managers, consultants, students working and taking courses in productive systems of goods and services. Ancillary materials include a free online computer tool to operationalize the concepts and methods proposed in the book, a guide on how to use the method and the software developed for the DEA application. Solutions manual, instructor’s manual, PowerPoint slides, and figure slides also will be available upon qualified adoption.

This book provides a coherent description of the main concepts and statistical methods used to analyse economic performance. The focus is on measures of performance that are of practical relevance to policy makers. Most, if not all, of these measures can be viewed as measures of productivity and/or efficiency. Linking fields as diverse as index number theory, data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis, the book explains how to compute measures of input and output quantity change that are consistent with measurement theory. It then discusses ways in which meaningful measures of productivity change can be decomposed into measures of technical progress, environmental change, and different types of efficiency change. The book is aimed at graduate students, researchers, statisticians, accountants and economists working in universities, regulatory authorities, government departments and private firms. The book contains many numerical examples. Computer codes and datasets are available on a companion website.

This book explores novel research perspectives at the intersection of environmental/natural resource economics and productivity analysis, emphasizing the link between productivity and efficiency measurement, and environmental impacts. The purpose of the book is to present new approaches and methods for measuring environmentally adjusted productivity and efficiency, and for incorporating natural resources in standard national accounting practices. These methods are applicable in many contexts, including air and water pollution, climate change, green accounting, and environmental regulation. The contributions, written by distinguished leaders in the field, provide an up-to-date assessment of the state of the art in environmentally adjusted productivity and efficiency analysis. A review of the rapidly expanding literature is included and complemented by international case studies. The book's forward-looking ideas and new theories and methods trace future directions in this exciting and topical research area. This is an essential tool for researchers and scholars, including postgraduate students, working in the area of international and environmental accounting, and productivity and efficiency analysis. The book will also have a broad appeal for various professionals including statisticians, national accountants and policymakers. Contributors include: M. Akter, T. Ancev, M.A.S. Azad, Á. Bellver-Domingo, H.K. Edmonds, M. Eigenraam, R.G. Färe, K.J. Fox, S. Grosskopf, A. Hailu, F. Hernández-Sancho, V.-N. Hoang, N. Hughes, W. Ingram, H. Jahan, B. Lamizana-Diallo, K. Lawson, L.Y.T. Lee, C.A.K. Lovell, J.E. Lovell, C. Ma, C. Obst, C.A. Pasurka, Jr., C. Wilson

Softcover version of the second edition Hardcover. Incorporates a new author, Dr. Chris O'Donnell, who brings considerable expertise to the project in the area of performance measurement. Numerous topics are being added and more applications using real data, as well as exercises at the end of the chapters. Data sets, computer codes and software will be available for download from the web to accompany the volume.