IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v69y2003i3p596-611.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stochastic Estimation of Firm Inefficiency Using Distance Functions

Author

Listed:
  • Scott E. Atkinson
  • Rolf Färe
  • Daniel Primont

Abstract

Econometric estimation of allocative and technical efficiency has frequently been carried out using a shadow cost function and its associated share or demand equations. Since the problem is formulated in terms of shadow prices, the effect of allocative inefficiency on input usage must be computed indirectly from input share or demand equations. As an alternative approach, we derive and estimate an input shadow distance system comprising the dual shadow input distance function and the price equations derived from the shadow cost minimization problem. Estimated shadow quantities provide direct estimates of the effect of allocative inefficiency on input usage. One can also easily calculate firm‐ and time‐varying technical inefficiency by decomposing the residuals. We also compute returns to scale and the cost savings obtained by eliminating both types of inefficiency, Our approach is illustrated using a panel of U.S. railroads.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott E. Atkinson & Rolf Färe & Daniel Primont, 2003. "Stochastic Estimation of Firm Inefficiency Using Distance Functions," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(3), pages 596-611, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:69:y:2003:i:3:p:596-611
    DOI: 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2003.tb00515.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2003.tb00515.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2003.tb00515.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    2. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G, 1981. "Several Tests for Model Specification in the Presence of Alternative Hypotheses," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(3), pages 781-793, May.
    3. Atkinson, Scott E & Cornwell, Christopher, 1994. "Parametric Estimation of Technical and Allocative Inefficiency with Panel Data," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 35(1), pages 231-243, February.
    4. Atkinson, Scott E & Halvorsen, Robert, 1980. "A Test of Relative and Absolute Price Efficiency in Regulated Utilities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(1), pages 81-88, February.
    5. William C. Horrace & Peter Schmidt, 2000. "Multiple comparisons with the best, with economic applications," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(1), pages 1-26.
    6. Kumbhakar, Subal C, 1987. "Production Frontiers and Panel Data: An Application to U.S. Class 1 Railroads," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 5(2), pages 249-255, April.
    7. Grosskopf, S. & Hayes, K. & Hirschberg, J., 1995. "Fiscal stress and the production of public safety: A distance function approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 277-296, June.
    8. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy J. Hayes & Lori L. Taylor & William L. Weber, 1997. "Budget-Constrained Frontier Measures Of Fiscal Equality And Efficiency In Schooling," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(1), pages 116-124, February.
    9. Sickles, Robin C. & Good, David & Johnson, Richard L., 1986. "Allocative distortions and the regulatory transition of the U.S. airline industry," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1-2), pages 143-163.
    10. Battese, George E. & Coelli, Tim J., 1988. "Prediction of firm-level technical efficiencies with a generalized frontier production function and panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 387-399, July.
    11. Newey, Whitney & West, Kenneth, 2014. "A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 33(1), pages 125-132.
    12. Krinsky, Itzhak & Robb, A Leslie, 1986. "On Approximating the Statistical Properties of Elasticities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(4), pages 715-719, November.
    13. Atkinson, Scott E & Halvorsen, Robert, 1984. "Parametric Efficiency Tests, Economies of Scale, and Input Demand in U.S. Electric Power Generation," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 25(3), pages 647-662, October.
    14. Cornwell, Christopher & Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C., 1990. "Production frontiers with cross-sectional and time-series variation in efficiency levels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 185-200.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Scott E. Atkinson & Jeffrey H. Dorfman, 2009. "Feasible estimation of firm-specific allocative inefficiency through Bayesian numerical methods," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 675-697.
    2. Atkinson, Scott E. & Primont, Daniel, 2002. "Stochastic estimation of firm technology, inefficiency, and productivity growth using shadow cost and distance functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 203-225, June.
    3. David H. Good & M. Ishaq Nadiri & Robin C. Sickles, 1996. "Index Number and Factor Demand Approaches to the Estimation of Productivity," NBER Working Papers 5790, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Rungsuriyawiboon, Supawat & Stefanou, Spiro E., 2007. "Dynamic Efficiency Estimation: An Application to U.S. Electric Utilities," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 25, pages 226-238, April.
    5. Scott Atkinson & Jeffrey Dorfman, 2005. "Multiple Comparisons with the Best: Bayesian Precision Measures of Efficiency Rankings," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 359-382, July.
    6. Tai-Hsin Huang, 2000. "Estimating X-Efficiency in Taiwanese Banking Using a Translog Shadow Profit Function," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 225-245, November.
    7. Luis R. Murillo‐Zamorano, 2004. "Economic Efficiency and Frontier Techniques," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 33-77, February.
    8. Kanter, Christopher A. & Hueth, Brent & Gould, Brian W., 2013. "A Comparative Efficiency Analysis of Cooperative and Non-cooperative Dairy Manufacturing Firms," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150497, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Rafael Cuesta, 2000. "A Production Model With Firm-Specific Temporal Variation in Technical Inefficiency: With Application to Spanish Dairy Farms," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 139-158, March.
    10. Sickles, Robin C., 2005. "Panel estimators and the identification of firm-specific efficiency levels in parametric, semiparametric and nonparametric settings," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 305-334, June.
    11. Tim Coelli & Gholamreza Hajargasht & C.A. Knox Lovell, 2008. "Econometric Estimation of an Input Distance Function in a System of Equations," CEPA Working Papers Series WP012008, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    12. Pedro L Marin, 1995. "Productivity Differences in the Airline Industry: Partial Deregulation Versus Short-Run Protection," STICERD - Economics of Industry Papers 11, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    13. Supawat Rungsuriyawiboon, 2004. "A Dynamic Approach to Estimate the Efficiency of U.S. Electric Utilities," Econometric Society 2004 Australasian Meetings 91, Econometric Society.
    14. Kim, Sangho & Park, Donghyun & Park, Jong-Ho, 2009. "Productivity Growth in Different Firm Sizes in the Malaysian Manufacturing Sector: An Empirical Investigation," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 176, Asian Development Bank.
    15. Lee, Min-Yang A. & Thunberg, Eric M., 2012. "An Inverse Demand System for New England Groundfish: Welfare Analysis of the Transition to Catch Share Management," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 123879, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Park, Byeong U. & Sickles, Robin C. & Simar, Leopold, 2003. "Semiparametric-efficient estimation of AR(1) panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 279-309, December.
    17. Russell Davidson & Victoria Zinde‐Walsh, 2017. "Advances in specification testing," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1595-1631, December.
    18. Shantanu Dutta & Om Narasimhan & Surendra Rajiv, 1999. "Success in High-Technology Markets: Is Marketing Capability Critical?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 547-568.
    19. Federico Belotti & Giuseppe Ilardi & Andrea Piano Mortari, 2019. "Estimation of Stochastic Frontier Panel Data Models with Spatial Inefficiency," CEIS Research Paper 459, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 30 May 2019.
    20. Shenggen Fan, 2000. "Technological change, technical and allocative efficiency in Chinese agriculture: the case of rice production in Jiangsu," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(1), pages 1-12.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:69:y:2003:i:3:p:596-611. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.