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Does productivity change at all in Swedish district courts? Empirical analysis focusing on horizontal mergers

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoqing Chen

    (School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing)

  • Kristiaan Kerstens

    (LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Mike Tsionas

    (Montpellier Business School)

Abstract

This contribution is the first to compare the Malmquist and Hicks-Moorsteen productivity indices in the context of horizontal mergers of Swedish district courts during the period 2000-2017. It is also the first to calculate these productivity indices for convex and nonconvex nonparametric frontier specifications in courts under both constant and variable returns to scale. Moreover, a one-sample symmetric Wilcoxon test and a t-test are performed on the average productivity index to determine whether it is significantly different from unity. Also Li-test statistics examine the differences in productivity between these two indices or between convexity and nonconvexity for a given index. Furthermore, we compare these two productivity indices before and after the mergers to investigate the impact of the horizontal merger activity. The empirical results indicate that overall there is no significant technical change at all. Furthermore, horizontal mergers overall do neither result in technical change, nor in post-merger productivity gains.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoqing Chen & Kristiaan Kerstens & Mike Tsionas, 2024. "Does productivity change at all in Swedish district courts? Empirical analysis focusing on horizontal mergers," Post-Print hal-04548513, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04548513
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2023.101787
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