Search

It is known that inability of the farmers to exploit the available production technologies results in lower efficiencies of production. So, the measurement of technical efficiency in agricultural crops in developing countries like India gained renewed attention since the late 1980s from an increasing number of researchers. Accordingly, the present study has employed Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist Total Factor Productivity Index to ascertain the Technical Efficiency of rice productivity (2021-2022) and its changes over the study period (2019-2020 to 2021- 2022) respectively in Telangana, India. This study was based on secondary data pertaining to rice productivity (output variable), fertilizer doses (NPK), seed rate, water applied and organic manure (input variables). The findings of Data Envelopment Analysis revealed that the overall mean technical efficiency score across all the Decision-Making Units was 0.860 ranged between 0.592 to 1.000. So, the Decision-Making Units, on an average, could reduce their input usage by 14 per cent and still could produce the same level of rice output. Further, fertilizers (60.54 kg/ha); seed (5.63 kg/ha); water (234.48 mm) and organic manure (3.76 t/ha) use can be reduced without affecting the current level of rice productivity. Malmquist Total Factor Productivity indices (2019-2020 to 2021-2022) revealed that the mean scores of technical efficiency change, pure technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change are more than one (1.153, 1.042 and 1.009 respectively), unlike technological change (0.983). All the Decision-Making Units showed impressive progress with reference to technical efficiency change (1.112) and it is the sole contributor for Total Factor Productivity change in rice cultivation. The DEA results suggest that farmers should be informed about the use of inputs as per the scientific recommendations to boost the technical efficiency of rice productivity in Telangana. It also calls for policy initiatives for distribution of quality inputs to the farmers to boost technical efficiency in rice production.

RESUMEN El objetivo principal de este trabajo es analizar el comportamiento de la elasticidad del producto ante cambios en los dos factores de producción: capital y trabajo, en una función de producción con rendimientos constantes a escala. Para ello, se discute el marco teórico de acuerdo a la revisión bibliográfica efectuada y mediante algunos modelos econométricos se estima una función con propiedades neoclásicas como la función Cobb-Douglas para el caso del Ecuador en el período 1950-2014. En el modelo teórico la elasticidad es otra forma de presentar las participaciones de cada insumo dentro del producto, y en competencia perfecta son iguales a las remuneraciones recibidas en la distribución del ingreso. Las estimaciones efectuadas arrojan resultados que indican una participación del capital dentro del producto que oscila entre 0,60 y 0,70, es decir, esto es la elasticidad del producto respecto al capital, según varias regresiones a corto y a largo plazo de la función de producción agregada e intensiva. Los resultados hallados coinciden con las estimaciones disponibles para un amplio grupo de países en vía de desarrollo. JEL: C22, D24, E23, E24. ABSTRACT The principal aim of this work is to analyze the behavior of the elasticity of the output before changes in both factors of production: capital and labour, in a function of production with constant returns to scale. For it, the theoretical framework of agreement is discussed to the bibliographical effected review and by means of some econometrics models a function is estimated by neoclassic properties as the function Cobb-Douglas for the case of the Ecuador in the period 1950-2014. In the theoretical model the elasticity is another way of presenting the participations of every input inside the output, and in perfect competition they are equal to the remunerations received in the distribution of the income. The effected estimations throw results that indicate a participation of the capital inside the output that ranges between 0,60 and 0,70, that is to say, this is the elasticity of the output with regard to the capital, according to several regressions to shortly and long-term of the function of added and intensive production. The found results coincide with the available estimations for a wide group of developing countries. JEL: C22, D24, E23, E24. RESUMO O principal objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o comportamento da elasticidade do produto antes das mudanças nos dois fatores de produção: capital e trabalho, em função da produção com rendimentos constantes. Para isso, o quadro teórico é discutido de acordo com a revisão bibliográfica realizada e, usando alguns modelos econométricos, uma função com propriedades neoclássicas é estimada, como a função Cobb-Douglas para o caso do Equador no período 1950-2014. En el modelo teórico la elasticidad es otra forma de presentar las participaciones de cada insumo dentro del producto, y en competencia perfecta son iguales a las remuneraciones recibidas en la distribución del ingreso. As estimativas feitas mostram resultados que indicam uma participação capital no produto que oscila entre 0,60 e 0,70, ou seja, esta é a elasticidade do produto em relação ao capital, de acordo com várias regressões de curto e longo prazo da função de produção agregada e intensiva. Os resultados encontrados coincidem com as estimativas disponíveis para um longo grupo de países em desenvolvimento. JEL: C22, D24, E23, E24.

MCom (Risk Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2019 The economic growth and stability of any country is strongly dependent of the performance and efficiency of its financial sector, of which the banking industry forms an integral part. South Africa's financial sector is one of the most developed on the African continent, especially the banking industry in which advanced credit and management systems have been implemented. However, as is expected of a developing economy, the country's banking industry is highly concentrated, due to the dominance of the five major banks. Many authors argue that a concentrated banking industry contributes to greater financial instability, which raises concerns regarding the performance and efficiency of the smaller banks. While the efficiency of the large banks in South Africa has been analysed, little is known about the efficiency of the of the medium and small-sized banks in the country. The focus of this study was to estimate the technical and scale efficiency of the medium-sized banks of South Africa over a 13-year period from January 2004 until December 2017, which consisted of four different business cycle phases. A multi-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model was applied using the intermediation approach with an input-oriented measure under the constant returns to scale and variable returns to scale model specifications to determine the efficiency levels of the medium-sized banks. Total deposits, central bank and money, total equity, and South Africa (SA) group and finance were used as inputs, while other liabilities, deposits, loans and advances, and investments and bills were used as the outputs in the analysis. The hierarchal cluster analysis, using the single linkage method was applied to identify the medium-sized banks, which were namely: African Bank Ltd. (AB), Capitec Bank (CB), Deutsche Bank AG (DB), Investec South Africa (IB), JP Morgan Chase Bank (JPM), and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd.-Johannesburg Branch (HSBC). IB was identified as the most technical efficient bank, followed by JPM and DB as the $2^{\mathrm{th}}$ and $3^{\mathrm{rd}}$-most technical efficient banks. AB was ranked $4^{\mathrm{th}}$, followed by HSBC and CB that were ranked $5^{\mathrm{th}}$ and $6^{\mathrm{th}}$ respectively. In contrast, JPM was identified as the medium-sized bank that generally exhibited the highest scale efficiency, followed by DB as the $2^{\mathrm{th}}$-most scale efficient, and AB and HSBC collectively $3^{\mathrm{rd}}$. CB was ranked $4^{\mathrm{th}}$, followed by IB which exhibited the highest level of inefficiency. It is concluded that the medium-sized banks show some signs of technical and scale inefficiency, especially in terms of central bank and money, and SA group and finance as inputs. This is somewhat concerning, since inefficient banks are more likely to experience higher levels of exposure to risks. Various recommendations are therefore made that can be considered by the banks to improve their respective efficiencies. It was also found that the technical and scale efficiency scores did not display a clear correlation with the upward and downward business cycle phase. Often, upward phases correlated with suppressed efficiency scores, while increased efficiency scores were noted for the downward phases, especially during Phase 2 in which the global financial crisis occurred. This behaviour, especially during Phase 2, was also found in other studies on the efficiency levels of the major South African banks and is thought to be due to conservative banking practises that are supported by strict regulatory frameworks that limits foreign risk. Masters

This paper formalizes and estimates the process of search and matching between entrepreneurs and financiers in the business angel (BA) market. Our theoretical model describes the market for entrepreneurial finance as a fair in which the two sides of the market can meet bilaterally and transform a rough entrepreneurial idea into a real start-up firm. We then collect a new dataset from the BA markets of 17 developed countries for the period 1996–2014, and we estimate the aggregate matching function expressing the number of deals as a function of the number of submitted entrepreneurial projects and of business angels. Empirical findings confirm the technological features assumed in the theoretical literature: positive and decreasing marginal returns to both inputs (stepping on toes effect), technological complementarity across the two inputs (thick market effect) and constant returns to scale. We discuss the theoretical and policy implications of these findings.

International audience; Competition is often presented in a free market. Efficiency evaluation of decision-making units (DMUs) needs accommodation of such competition among various units due to constrained resources. This paper develops an innovative quantitative approach to address the above-mentioned performance evaluation problem with constrained resource using output-oriented DEA. The proposed model allows DMUs to identify the maximum input reduction and resource savings to achieve performance improvement. Relations between the proposed model and classical output-oriented DEA models are explored and some economic insights are derived from these models. The proposed approach is validated by use of computational examples.

The authors use different data sets to investigate the dependence of transport costs on geography and infrastructure. Infrastructure is an important determinant of transport costs, especially for landlocked countries. Analysis of bilateral trade data confirms the importance of infrastructure and gives an estimate of the elasticity of trade flows with respect to the trade cost factor of around-3. A deterioration of infrastructure from the median to the 75th percentile raises transport costs by 12 percentage points and reduces trade volumes by 28 percent. Analysis of African trade flows indicates that their relatively low level is largely due to poor infrastructure.

As a small and open economy, Belarus' development perspectives are intrinsically linked to its ability to produce and sell goods and services competitively in the global marketplace. While Belarus is an open economy, its trade links are concentrated both in terms of products and markets. Mineral goods –most importantly refined oil and potassium chloride - are the main export product accounting for more than 1/3 of total exports. Non mineral exports, including most importantly machinery, vehicles and transport equipment are mostly exported to Russia and other CIS markets, which account for 74 percent of non-mineral exports while the share of EU countries in Belarus non-mineral exports account for less than 15 percent. With Russia's WTO accession in 2012 competitive pressures on Belarus’ major market for non-mineral exports have further intensified. As Belarus is accelerating its own negotiations with the WTO, understanding the challenges and opportunities faced by the country's exporters is critical to putting in place an effective adaptation strategy that will enhance competitiveness and ensure Belarus can take full advantage of more open market access. The objective of this note is to analyze the economic impacts of Belarus' potential accession to the WTO. The note utilizes a modern computable general equilibrium model of the economy of Belarus to simulate impacts on the economy as a whole and on individual sectors.

This paper combines theory with data from different domains to provide an empirical analysis of the scale and variability of social capital as wealth. The analysis is used to argue, given what has been learned from the literature on social capital, that the welfare returns to investing in trust could be substantial. Using data from 132 nations covered by the Gallup World Poll, the paper presents a range of estimates of the wealth-equivalent values of social trust. Such values are usually not included in national or global accounts of income and wealth. In the light of the estimated importance of social trust as a component of wealth and well-being, the paper concludes with some policy options for how social trust might be better built and sustained.

This paper investigates differences in the composition of employment between exporting and non-exporting firms. In particular, it asks whether exporting firms hire more engineers relative to blue-collar workers than non-exporting firms. In a stylized partial-equilibrium model, firms produce goods of varying quality and exporters tend to produce higher quality goods, which are intensive in engineers relative to blue-collar workers. Firms are heterogeneous and more productive firms become exporters and have a higher demand for engineers. The paper provides causal evidence in support of these theories using the Chilean Encuesta Nacional Industrial Anual, an annual census of manufacturing firms. The results from an instrumental variable estimator suggest that Chilean exporters indeed utilize a higher share of engineers over blue-collar workers.

This paper contributes to the economic analysis of illicit activities and money laundering. First, it presents a theoretical model of long-run growth that explicitly considers illicit workers, activities, and income, alongside a licit private sector and a functioning government. Second, it generates estimates of the size of illicit income and provides simulated and econometric estimates of the volume of laundered assets in the Colombian economy. In the model, the licit sector operates in a perfectly competitive environment and produces a licit good through a standard neoclassical production function. The illicit sector operates in an imperfectly competitive environment and is composed of two different activities: The first activity produces an illicit good that nonetheless is valuable in the market (for example illicit drugs); the second does not add value to the economy but only redistributes wealth (for example robbery, kidnapping, and fraud). The paper provides a series of comparative statics exercises to assess the effects of changes in government efficiency, licit sector productivity, and illicit drug prices. From the model, the analysis derives a set of estimable macroeconometric equations to measure the size of laundered assets in the Colombian economy in the period 1985 to 2013. The paper assembles a data set whose key components are estimates of illicit income from drug trafficking and common crime. Illicit incomes increased drastically until 2001, reaching a peak of nearly 12 percent of gross domestic product and then decreasing to less than 2 percent by 2013. The decline overlaps not only in a period of high economic growth, but also after the implementation of Plan Colombia. The data set is used to estimate the volume of laundered assets in the economy by applying the Kalman filter for the estimation of unobserved dynamic variables onto the derived macroeconometric equations from the model. The findings show that the volume of laundered assets increased from about 8 percent of gross domestic product in the mid-1980s to a peak of 14 percent by 2002, and declined to 8 percent in 2013.

This paper studies the possibility of using financial regulation that prohibits the use of money substitutes as a tool for mitigating the adverse effects of deviations from the Friedman rule. When inflation is not too high regulation aimed at eliminating money substitutes improves welfare by economizing on transaction costs. The gains from regulation depend on the distribution of income and the level of direct taxation. The area under the demand for money curve is equal to the welfare cost of inflation only when there are no direct taxes and no proportional intermediation cost: otherwise, the area under the demand curve overstates the welfare cost of inflation when money substitutes are not important and understates the welfare cost when money substitutes are important.

How do global supply chain linkages modify countries' incentives to impose import protection? Are these linkages empirically important determinants of trade policy? To address these questions, this paper introduces supply chain linkages into a workhorse terms-of-trade model of trade policy with political economy. Theory predicts that discretionary final goods tariffs will be decreasing in the domestic content of foreign-produced final goods. Provided foreign political interests are not too strong, final goods tariffs will also be decreasing in the foreign content of domestically-produced final goods. The paper tests these predictions using newly assembled data on bilateral applied tariffs, temporary trade barriers, and value-added contents for 14 major economies over the 1995-2009 period. There is strong support for the empirical predictions of the model. The results imply that global supply chains matter for trade policy, both in principle and in practice.

This paper analyzes the business cycle characteristics of the economies of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States using a model of a small open economy subject to interest rate and fiscal expenditure shocks and financial frictions. The paper shows that macroeconomic aggregates in this region are quite volatile, with consumption exhibiting higher volatility than gross domestic product. The analysis also finds that in these economies real interest rates are highly volatile and strongly countercyclical with gross domestic product and other macroeconomic aggregates. Similarly, fiscal expenditures show significant volatility, but are pro-cyclical with gross domestic product. The results suggest two major directions for designing policies to help reduce the volatility experienced by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States economies. First, Organization of Eastern Caribbean States countries should seek a greater openness to international financial markets, which could help them smooth out the effects of fundamental shocks, such as shocks to technology and terms of trade, and shocks associated with natural hazards. However, this removal of international financial barriers needs to be accompanied by improvements in domestic financial conditions, as this would reduce the vulnerability of these economies to country risk premium shocks. Second, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States region should try harder to move toward a countercyclical fiscal policy stance, as this could help to stabilize the domestic risk premium and cushion the negative effects of interest rate shocks on economic activity, hence reducing volatility.

This paper establishes that the rise in the income share of information and communication technology accounts for half of the decline in labor income share in the United States. This decline can be decomposed into a sharp decline in the income share of “routine” labor—which is relatively more prone to automation—and a milder rise in the non-routine share. Quantitatively, this decomposition suggests large effects of information and communication technology on the income distribution within labor, but only moderate effects on the distribution of income between capital and labor. A production structure calibrated to match these trends suggests modest aggregate welfare gains from automation.

International supply chains require the coordination of numerous activities across multiple countries and firms. This paper develops a theoretical model of supply chains in which the measure of tasks completed within a firm is determined by parameters that define transaction costs and the cost of coordinating more activities within the firm. The structural parameters that govern these costs explain variation in supply chain length as well as cross-country variation in gross-output-to-value-added ratios. The structural parameters are linked to comparative advantage along and across supply chains. The paper provides an analytical treatment of trade and welfare responses to trade cost change in a simple two-country model. To explore the models implications in a richer setting, the model is calibrated to match key observables in East Asia, and the calibrated model is used to evaluate implications of changes in model parameters for trade, welfare, the length of supply chains, and countries relative position within them.

The objective of this study was to assess the economy wide indirect benefits of investments in the East West highway (EWH). This study has used a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, which simulates indirect benefits associated with the completion of the upgraded road corridor. The transmission channel modeled is the reduction in transportation costs - reduction in vehicle operating costs, and time savings - resulting from the investments in the EWH. A CGE model is a simultaneous equation system that consists of equations representing various economic relationships for different economic agents, such as producers and households. CGE models are commonly used by countries and international financial institutions to simulate policy interventions to determine economy-wide impacts. This study involved modifying the existing social accounting matrix (SAM) and CGE model in order to carry out simulations to answer the question of economy wide impacts of the EWH investments, including impacts on real gross domestic product (GDP) growth, jobs, and trade, as well as impacts on households disaggregated by income. It aims to answer the following questions: how will the EWH lower the transportation costs for producers of goods and services?; what are the economy wide impacts of the EWH on employment, real GDP growth, trade, and household income?; and can the EWH help bridge the existing economic divide between rural and urban areas in Georgia? The study is aims to simulate quantitatively how the EWH as a large-scale infrastructure investment program can bring significant stimulus to foster economic growth and welfare in Georgia.

This paper makes analytical, methodological and empirical contributions to the literature on purchasing power parity. Purchasing power parities are required in a host of cross-country welfare comparisons, such as poverty rates and gross domestic product. The subject has recently generated much interest in the wake of the release of the final results of the 2011 International Comparison Program. This paper introduces a preference-based analytical framework that departs from the conventional Balassa-Samuelson framework in deriving empirically verifiable propositions on the link between purchasing power parity and exchange rates, and between purchasing power parity and inequality. The paper also provides an alternative methodology for calculating purchasing power parities that are benchmarked against the 2011 International Comparison Program purchasing power parities. As this study shows, the alternative methodology is capable of easy implementation on readily available data sets. The benchmarking exercise suggests that the 2011 International Comparison Program generally understates purchasing power parity and overstates gross domestic product, and that the purchasing power parities vary across expenditure percentiles. The study reports regional variation in the direction of the difference between the two purchasing power parities. The empirical evidence is supportive of the positive association between inequality and purchasing power parity derived in the paper.

The petroleum sector contributes substantially to the Nigerian economy; however, the potential benefits are diminished because of the existence of significant subsidies on imports of petroleum products. Subsidies on imported petroleum products are considered to be an important instrument for keeping fuel prices, and hence the cost of living, low. The costs of these subsidies, however, have risen dramatically in recent years along with increased volatility in world petroleum and petroleum product prices and increased illegal exportation of subsidized petroleum products into neighboring countries. Removing the subsidy on fuel is one of the most contentious socioeconomic policy issues in Nigeria today. In this paper, an economy-wide framework is used to identify the impact of removing the fuel subsidy on the Nigerian economy and investigate how alternative policies might be used to meet socioeconomic objectives related to fuel subsidies. The results show that although a reduction in the subsidy generally results in an increase in Nigeria’s gross domestic product, it can have a detrimental impact on household income, and in particular on poor households. Accompanying the subsidy reduction with income transfers aimed at poor households or domestic production of petroleum products can alleviate the negative impacts on household income.

Even nearly ten years of solid growth cannot guarantee long-term income convergence. The countries of the Latin America and Caribbean region (LAC), like other emerging economies, have benefited from a decade of remarkable growth and some income per capita convergence towards the United States and other industrialized countries. Yet, despite this recent progress, LAC still faces a significant per capita income gap with the developed world. The studies in this volume contribute to the ongoing debate on the reasons for this persistent income gap and the potential drivers of convergence, and propose some broad avenues for reform.