Essays on: Application of Cross Sectional Efficiency Analysis
(2001) In Lund Economic Studies- Abstract
- This thesis consists of three different essays, all of which have arisen from a practical problem. In the first essay, “Technical efficiency and ownership: The case of booking centers in the Swedish Taxi Market” the purpose is to examine the question of competition on an equal basis between privately and publicly owned booking centers in the Swedish taxi market. One way to answer this question is to study technical efficiency, and decomposing technical efficiency into managerial and organizational efficiency. In the empirical investigation, no evidence was found of a relation between amount of technical efficiency and ownership type. The result of the Mann-Whitney test indicates that there is no statistically significant difference in... (More)
- This thesis consists of three different essays, all of which have arisen from a practical problem. In the first essay, “Technical efficiency and ownership: The case of booking centers in the Swedish Taxi Market” the purpose is to examine the question of competition on an equal basis between privately and publicly owned booking centers in the Swedish taxi market. One way to answer this question is to study technical efficiency, and decomposing technical efficiency into managerial and organizational efficiency. In the empirical investigation, no evidence was found of a relation between amount of technical efficiency and ownership type. The result of the Mann-Whitney test indicates that there is no statistically significant difference in technical efficiency between the privately owned and the publicly owned booking centers. In the second essay, “Identification of References: An Explorative Approach” the focus is on implementing the result from a efficiency study in the investigated industry, by providing inefficient units with information on relevant reference units. The aim of the study is to provide guidelines on which properties one can expect of a reference unit, and on methods for detecting reference units for an inefficient unit. Relevant reference units make it possible for inefficient units to, on site, study production that is more efficient than its own. This makes it possible to adopt more efficient ways to organize production. In the study, we argue that to be a relevant reference unit the unit has to be the existing and efficient unit that are most similar, indicated by the Euclidian distance, to the inefficient unit. To identify reference units, three methods are explored: Dominance, non-zero Intensity variables and the Sphere. Strengths and weaknesses of each method are explored in the study. In the third essay, “The Effect of Omitted Variables on Optimal Scale: An Application on Swedish Employment Offices”, we investigate the effects of omitting/adding variables on both the source of scale inefficiency and on the input-output size of scale efficient units. Both a non-parametric and a parametric distance function approach are used to compute measures of scale efficiency and scale elasticity respectively. This information is used to classify units in one of the following groups; scale efficient, scale inefficiency due to increasing returns to scale and, finally, scale inefficiency due to decreasing returns to scale. We then investigate if, as an effect of omitting/adding variables, changes exist between these groups and changes within the group of scale efficient units, with respect to input and output size. Changes between the groups imply that policy recommendations, concerning means to reducing inefficiency, change. Changes within the scale efficient group, with respect to input and output size, imply a change in the optimal scale of production. In the empirical application, we show that omission of variables will influence the source of scale inefficiency. In general, when the two quality indicators are omitted, scale inefficiency is to a larger extent explained by increasing returns to scale. Further, we show that optimal scale is larger, if the quality indicators are omitted. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Popular Abstract in Swedish
Denna avhandling består av tre olika uppsatser. Den första uppsatsen, Technical Efficiency and Ownership: The Case of Booking Centres on the Swedish Taxi Market” behandlar problemet med konkurrens på lika villkor. Upprinnelsen till uppsatsen var diskussioner mellan privata och offentliga aktörer på den svenska taximarknaden. De privata aktörerna hävdade att de offentliga aktörerna var subventionerade i sin beställningscentral verksamhet. För att undersöka om det förhöll sig på detta sätt initierades en studie där angreppssättet var att studera den tekniska effektiviteten, vid respektive ägartyps produktion av beställningscentral tjänst. Hypotesen som testades var; Om, exempelvis de offentliga... (More) - Popular Abstract in Swedish
Denna avhandling består av tre olika uppsatser. Den första uppsatsen, Technical Efficiency and Ownership: The Case of Booking Centres on the Swedish Taxi Market” behandlar problemet med konkurrens på lika villkor. Upprinnelsen till uppsatsen var diskussioner mellan privata och offentliga aktörer på den svenska taximarknaden. De privata aktörerna hävdade att de offentliga aktörerna var subventionerade i sin beställningscentral verksamhet. För att undersöka om det förhöll sig på detta sätt initierades en studie där angreppssättet var att studera den tekniska effektiviteten, vid respektive ägartyps produktion av beställningscentral tjänst. Hypotesen som testades var; Om, exempelvis de offentliga beställningscentralerna, hade en systematisk lägre nivå på effektiviteten, jämfört med de privata aktörerna kunde man inte utesluta att konkurrensen var på olika villkor. Undersökningen gav vid hand att man ej kunde påvisa dessa systematiska skillnader, varför man ej heller kunde säga att konkurrensen inte var på lika villkor. I den andra uppsatsen, ”Identification of references: An Explorative Approach”, studeras problemet hur man kan implementera resultaten från en studie av teknisk effektivitet, tillbaka till industrin. När man har genomfört en effektivitetsstudie har man också identifierat en effektiviserings potential, men för att det skall bli några ekonomiska effekter, krävs att företagen som varit delaktiga i undersökningen också får vägledning hur de skall effektivisera. Att identifiera referenser gör det möjligt för ineffektiva enheter att på plats, dels studera hur produktionen bedrivs, men också hur produktionen är organiserad vid den effektiva enheten. I studien, som är explorativ används existerande metoder på ett datamaterial om den svenska taximarknaden. Med utgångspunkt från de brister som dessa metoder härleds en lista med egenskaper som är önskvärda för de enheter som väljs ut som referenser. I korthet är dessa egenskaper; referenserna skall vara effektiva, existera samt vara så lika de ineffektiva enheterna som möjligt. Efter detta föreslås ett mått, vilken i uppsatsen benämns ”Sphere measure”. Detta mått är konstruerat så att det uppfyller de önskvärda egenskaperna som redovisats tidigare. I den tredje uppsatsen, “The Effect of Omitted Variables on Optimal Scale: An Application on Swedish Employment Offices” studeras vilka effekter det ger att, i vårt fall, ignorera kvalitetsdimensioner. Effekterna som studeras är vad som händer med policyinformation, dels med avseende på optimal skala, dels med avseende på optimal storlek, mätt i insatsvaru- och produktions termer. I uppsatsen visas att, när det gäller arbetsförmedlingar, kommer en ignorering att leda till felaktig policy information. Skalineffektiviteten kan till en större del förklaras av tilltagande skalavkastning om man ignorerar kvalitetsvariablerna, samtidigt som den optimala storleken är större, än vad som är fallet då kvalitetsvariablerna inkluderas. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/41553
- author
- Månsson, Jonas LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Brännlund, Runar
- organization
- publishing date
- 2001
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- economic theory, econometrics, Economics, quality indicators, omitted variables, reference units, competition, identification, ownership, Technical efficiency, economic systems, economic policy, Nationalekonomi, ekonometri, ekonomisk teori, ekonomiska system, ekonomisk politik
- in
- Lund Economic Studies
- pages
- 130 pages
- publisher
- Department of Economics, Lund University
- defense location
- EC3 211
- defense date
- 2001-05-30 10:15:00
- ISSN
- 0460-0029
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- f8b16355-f95f-44b3-b243-1b2841b52f32 (old id 41553)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:01:36
- date last changed
- 2019-05-21 17:00:04
@phdthesis{f8b16355-f95f-44b3-b243-1b2841b52f32,
abstract = {{This thesis consists of three different essays, all of which have arisen from a practical problem. In the first essay, “Technical efficiency and ownership: The case of booking centers in the Swedish Taxi Market” the purpose is to examine the question of competition on an equal basis between privately and publicly owned booking centers in the Swedish taxi market. One way to answer this question is to study technical efficiency, and decomposing technical efficiency into managerial and organizational efficiency. In the empirical investigation, no evidence was found of a relation between amount of technical efficiency and ownership type. The result of the Mann-Whitney test indicates that there is no statistically significant difference in technical efficiency between the privately owned and the publicly owned booking centers. In the second essay, “Identification of References: An Explorative Approach” the focus is on implementing the result from a efficiency study in the investigated industry, by providing inefficient units with information on relevant reference units. The aim of the study is to provide guidelines on which properties one can expect of a reference unit, and on methods for detecting reference units for an inefficient unit. Relevant reference units make it possible for inefficient units to, on site, study production that is more efficient than its own. This makes it possible to adopt more efficient ways to organize production. In the study, we argue that to be a relevant reference unit the unit has to be the existing and efficient unit that are most similar, indicated by the Euclidian distance, to the inefficient unit. To identify reference units, three methods are explored: Dominance, non-zero Intensity variables and the Sphere. Strengths and weaknesses of each method are explored in the study. In the third essay, “The Effect of Omitted Variables on Optimal Scale: An Application on Swedish Employment Offices”, we investigate the effects of omitting/adding variables on both the source of scale inefficiency and on the input-output size of scale efficient units. Both a non-parametric and a parametric distance function approach are used to compute measures of scale efficiency and scale elasticity respectively. This information is used to classify units in one of the following groups; scale efficient, scale inefficiency due to increasing returns to scale and, finally, scale inefficiency due to decreasing returns to scale. We then investigate if, as an effect of omitting/adding variables, changes exist between these groups and changes within the group of scale efficient units, with respect to input and output size. Changes between the groups imply that policy recommendations, concerning means to reducing inefficiency, change. Changes within the scale efficient group, with respect to input and output size, imply a change in the optimal scale of production. In the empirical application, we show that omission of variables will influence the source of scale inefficiency. In general, when the two quality indicators are omitted, scale inefficiency is to a larger extent explained by increasing returns to scale. Further, we show that optimal scale is larger, if the quality indicators are omitted.}},
author = {{Månsson, Jonas}},
issn = {{0460-0029}},
keywords = {{economic theory; econometrics; Economics; quality indicators; omitted variables; reference units; competition; identification; ownership; Technical efficiency; economic systems; economic policy; Nationalekonomi; ekonometri; ekonomisk teori; ekonomiska system; ekonomisk politik}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Department of Economics, Lund University}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{Lund Economic Studies}},
title = {{Essays on: Application of Cross Sectional Efficiency Analysis}},
year = {{2001}},
}