IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/diw/diwwpp/dp621.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Benchmarking Efficiency of Telecommunication Industries in the US and Major European Countries: A Stochastic Possibility Frontiers Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Georg Erber

Abstract

The impact of ICT on the efficiency of different national telecommunication industries of the US, Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands is analysed by using a stochastic production possibility frontier approach. The relative inefficiencies of these industries measured as distances to the general production possibility frontier are estimated by a multi-country panel maximum-likelihood-estimation. By determining the technology efficiency effect frontiers for each single country one obtains a measure for the evolution of relative inefficiencies over time for each country's industry. Looking at these different patterns a common characteristic shape of stylised J-curves is revealed. This can be interpreted as J-curves of adoption of innovations in different national telecommunication industries. Since the troughs of these J-curves occur in different years for different countries a phase delay in adoption of innovations occurs differing from country to country. The time period covered by the data include a time when the deregulation of the telecommunication industries in these countries took place and the rapid diffusion of two key innovations - the Internet and mobile communications - changed the technological and organisational foundations everywhere. The results show that even if the US telecommunication industry led in this wave of major innovations as a first mover in comparison to the others and diminished by this their relative efficiency disadvantage opposite the European countries the EU countries still maintain a comparative efficiency advantage inherited from the early 1980's. In particular after their delayed adoption of the recent innovations like deregulation and Internet began there during the late 1990's the rapid catch up of the US telecommunication industry relative to the European industries has stalled. However, overall the inefficiency differences between national telecommunication industries have decreased in the long-run. Differences in the capability to establish and maintain a competitive and innovative national industry, however, still prevail between these countries even if they have become less pronounced as before.

Suggested Citation

  • Georg Erber, 2006. "Benchmarking Efficiency of Telecommunication Industries in the US and Major European Countries: A Stochastic Possibility Frontiers Approach," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 621, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp621
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.44732.de/dp621.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Inklaar & Mary O'Mahony & Marcel Timmer, 2005. "ICT AND EUROPE's PRODUCTIVITY PERFORMANCE: INDUSTRY‐LEVEL GROWTH ACCOUNT COMPARISONS WITH THE UNITED STATES," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 51(4), pages 505-536, December.
    2. Dale W. Jorgenson & Kevin J. Stiroh, 2000. "Raising the Speed Limit: U.S. Economic Growth in the Information Age," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 31(1), pages 125-236.
    3. repec:dgr:rugggd:200368 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Pitt, Mark M. & Lee, Lung-Fei, 1981. "The measurement and sources of technical inefficiency in the Indonesian weaving industry," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 43-64, August.
    5. Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C, 1984. "Production Frontiers and Panel Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(4), pages 367-374, October.
    6. Moch, Dietmar, 2001. "Price indices for information and communication technology industries: an application to the German PC market," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-20, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Johanna Melka & Nanno Mulder & Laurence Nayman & Soledad Zignago, 2003. "Skills, Technology and Growth is ICT the Key to Success ? An Analysis of ICT Impact on French Growth," Working Papers 2003-04, CEPII research center.
    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. Liao, Hailin & Wang, Bin & Li, Baibing & Weyman-Jones, Tom, 2016. "ICT as a general-purpose technology: The productivity of ICT in the United States revisited," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 10-25.
    2. Binlei Gong & Robin C. Sickles, 2020. "Non-structural and structural models in productivity analysis: study of the British Isles during the 2007–2009 financial crisis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 243-263, April.
    3. Melka, Johanna & Nayman, Laurence, 2005. "L’impact des nouvelles technologies de l’information sur la croissance française, 1980-2001," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 81(1), pages 75-110, Mars-Juin.
    4. Antonopoulos, Christos & Sakellaris, Plutarchos, 2009. "The contribution of Information and Communication Technology investments to Greek economic growth: An analytical growth accounting framework," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 171-191, August.
    5. Victor Moutinho & Mara Madaleno, 2021. "Assessing Eco-Efficiency in Asian and African Countries Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    6. Chen, Yi-Yi & Schmidt, Peter & Wang, Hung-Jen, 2014. "Consistent estimation of the fixed effects stochastic frontier model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 181(2), pages 65-76.
    7. Banfi, Silvia & Filippini, Massimo, 2010. "Resource rent taxation and benchmarking--A new perspective for the Swiss hydropower sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2302-2308, May.
    8. Inanoglu, Hulusi & Jacobs, Michael, Jr. & Liu, Junrong & Sickles, Robin, 2015. "Analyzing Bank Efficiency: Are "Too-Big-to-Fail" Banks Efficient?," Working Papers 15-016, Rice University, Department of Economics.
    9. Liu, Lili, 1991. "Entry-exit, learning, and productivity change : evidence from Chile," Policy Research Working Paper Series 769, The World Bank.
    10. Mehdi Farsi & Aurelio Fetz & Massimo Filippini, 2007. "Benchmarking and Regulation in the Electricity Distribution Sector," CEPE Working paper series 07-54, CEPE Center for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich.
    11. repec:dgr:rugggd:gd-79 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. I. Fraser & W. Horrace, 2003. "Technical Efficiency of Australian Wool Production: Point and Confidence Interval Estimates," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 169-190, September.
    13. Luca Casolaro & Giorgio Gobbi, 2004. "Information technology and productivity changes in the Italian banking industry," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 489, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. MAIMOUNA DIAKITE & Jean-François BRUN, 2016. "Tax Potential and Tax Effort: An Empirical Estimation for Non-Resource Tax Revenue and VAT’s Revenue," EcoMod2016 9537, EcoMod.
    15. Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer & Bart Van Ark, 2007. "Mind the Gap! International Comparisons of Productivity in Services and Goods Production," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8(2), pages 281-307, May.
    16. Farsi, Mehdi & Filippini, Massimo, 2009. "An analysis of cost efficiency in Swiss multi-utilities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 306-315, March.
    17. Hans-Günther Vieweg & Thomas Fuchs & Reinhard Hild & Andreas Kuhlmann & Stefan Lachenmaier & Michael Reinhard & Uwe Christian Täger & Sebastian de Ramon & Jan-Egbert Sturm, 2005. "Status and outlook of the “New Economy” in selected EU member states from a German Viewpoint," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 19.
    18. Massimo Filippini & Lester C. Hunt, 2013. "'Underlying Energy Efficiency' in the US," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 13/181, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    19. Ark, Bart van, 2002. "ICT investments and growth accounts for the European Union," GGDC Research Memorandum 200256, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    20. Yoro Diallo & Sébastien Marchand & Etienne Espagne, 2019. "Impacts of extreme events on technical efficiency in Vietnamese agriculture," CERDI Working papers halshs-02080285, HAL.
    21. Lach, Saul & Trajtenberg, Manuel & Shiff, Gil, 2008. "Together but Apart: ICT and Productivity Growth in Israel," CEPR Discussion Papers 6732, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Benchmarking; Production Possibility Frontiers; Efficiency/Inefficiency Measurement; J-Curve of Adoption of Innovations; Convergence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:diw:diwwpp:dp621. 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: Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/diwbede.html .

    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.