The potential determinants of German firms' technical efficiency: An application using industry level data

This paper explores the distribution of the technical efficiencies across German manufacturing industries and looks at the association of technical efficiency to other economic categories. Aggregating 1995 to 2001 firm-level data yields an unbalanced panel with 241 cross-sections (industries). While the unbalanced nature of the data precludes some time-varying specifications, one can estimate the parameters of a time-invariant fixed-effects model. With only one industry being fully efficient, the rest perform poorly, having an efficiency mode of .32. To account for outliers 7 industries were dropped from the sample (a 2.9% reduction of the sample). In the smaller sample, the estimated mode of technical efficiency is .78. The distribution of TE is only slightly positively skewed, contrary to the rationale for using a one-sided distribution for the efficiencies. This problem has been noticed by other researchers, and so far the only solution proposed has involved changing the assumed distribution for the technical efficiencies. However, since fixed-effects estimation does not assume a particular distribution for the firm level inefficiencies, our purified-of-outliers scores of technical efficiencies can be trusted and used as endogenous variable in further analysis.

Downsizing in German Chemical Manufacturing Industry during the 1990s: Why Small Is Beautiful?

German chemical manufacturing industry is marked by two major structural changes during 1992-2004. Firstly, number of firms was ranging extensively: from 676 to 901, while only 96 firms represented balanced panel. Secondly, size of the firm dropped considerably-by 88%. This paper is intended to shed light on both phenomena. Based on reliable census data analysis suggests the former evidence be explained (i) by persistent poor performance of firms and (ii) by so called "general purpose technology" argument. The latter phenomenon was found to be a rational behaviour because numerous firms continually operated under decreasing returns to scale.DEA, technical and scale efficiency, technological change, firm size, firm level data, chemical manufacturing

Small is beautiful: deutsche Chemieunternehmen schrumpfen sich produktiv

In der deutschen Chemieindustrie ging die Zahl der Beschäftigten von 1992 bis 2004 deutlich zurück, und die durchschnittliche Unternehmensgröße sank von 824 auf 433 Beschäftigte. Die Triebfeder dieser Entwicklung war weniger die Beseitigung technischer oder organisatorischer Ineffizienzen. Den Unternehmen ging es vielmehr darum, die für sie optimale Größe zu erreichen und überschüssige Kapazitäten abzubauen. Diese Erkenntnisse wurden durch Einsatz eines innovativen statistischen Verfahrens - der Effizienzanalyse - gewonnen.Chemical manufacturing, Firm size, Technical and scale efficiency, DEA

What Determines the Technical Efficiency of a Firm? The Importance of Industry, Location, and Size

This paper investigates the factors that explain the level of technical efficiency of a firm. In our empirical analysis, we use a unique sample of about 35,000 firms in 256 industries from the German Cost Structure Census over the years 1992-2004. We estimate the technical efficiency of the firms and relate it to firm- and industry-specific characteristics. One third of the explanatory power is due to industry effects. Size accounts for another 25 percent and the headquarters? location explains ten percent of the variation in efficiency. Most other firm characteristics such as ownership structure, legal form, age of the firm and outsourcing activities have an extremely small explanatory power. R&D activity does not exert any positive influence on technical efficiency.Frontier analysis, determinants of technical efficiency, firm     performance, industry effects, regional effects.

What Drives the Productive Efficiency of a Firm?: The Importance of Industry, Location, R&D, and Size

This paper investigates the factors that explain the level and dynamics of manufacturing firm productive efficiency. In our empirical analysis, we use a unique sample of about 39,000 firms in 256 industries from the German Cost Structure Census over the years 1992-2005. We estimate the efficiencies of the firms and relate them to firm-specific and environmental factors. We find that (1) about half the model's explanatory power is due to industry effects, (2) firm size accounts for another 20 percent, and (3) location of headquarters explains approximately 15 percent. Interestingly, most other firm characteristics, such as R&D intensity, outsourcing activities, or the number of owners, have extremely little explanatory power. Surprisingly, our findings suggest that higher R&D intensity is associated with being less efficient, though higher R&D spending increases a firm's efficiency over time.Frontier analysis, determinants of efficiency, firm performance, industry effects, regional effects, firm size

Is Private Equity Investor Good or Evil?

The paper investigates the motives of Private Equity (PE) investors to engage in European companies. Investment of a PE firm is not viewed unambiguously. First, it is claimed that PE investing is made for the sake of poor redistribution of wealth. Second, PE firm invests because of prior identification of chances to add value to the company. We attempt to resolve these two conflicting conjectures. We use the Bureau van Dijk's Amadeus database of very large, large and medium sized European companies. Our major results can be summarized as follows. A financially constraint or risky company has lower chances to lure a PE firm to invest. On the one hand, the larger the equity of the company the larger the likelihood of receiving investment from a PE firm. On the other hand, larger cash flow is likely to repel PE investor.Private equity financing, leverage, corporate finance

Allocative Efficiency Measurement Revisited: Do We Really Need Input Prices?

The traditional approach to measuring allocative efficiency is based on input prices, which are rarely known at the firm level. This paper proposes a new approach to measure allocative efficiency which is based on the output-oriented distance to the frontier in a profit - technical efficiency space - and which does not require information on input prices. To validate the new approach, we perform a Monte-Carlo experiment which provides evidence that the estimates of the new and the traditional approach are highly correlated. Finally, as an illustration, we apply the new approach to a sample of about 900 enterprises from the chemical industry in Germany.Allocative efficiency, data envelopment analysis, frontier analysis, technical efficiency, Monte-Carlo study, chemical industry

Risk Attitude and Investment Decisions across European Countries : Are Women More Conservative Investors Than Men?

This study questions the popular stereotype that women are more risk averse than men in their investment decisions. The analysis is based on micro-level data from large-scale surveys of private households in five European countries. We enrich the conventional approach to examination of gender differences by explicitly controlling for investors' self-perceived risk aversion. Our results confirm the gender stereotype only partially. We find that women are less likely to hold risky assets. However, female owners of risky assets allocate an equal or even a higher share of their wealth to these assets than men. Our findings suggest that especially in case of women, the declared attitude toward financial risks may be misleading as it does not necessarily reflect the actual willingness to bear risks.gender, risk aversion, financial behavior

Investments: Women Are More Cautious than Men because They Have Less Financial Resources at Their Disposal

Experts on investments and financial products assume that women are less amenable to risks and therefore put their money into secure investment products. A current study conducted by the DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research) challenges this view. The study demonstrates that men and women are equally likely to take a chance on risky investments - assuming that they have the same financial resources at their disposal. A general cliché may not longer be true: that sex is a determinant factor in investment decisions and that the difference in attitudes toward investment between men and women is a result of gender-based investment attitudes. Women are likely to have cautious investment habits because - as a rule - they have only half the investment resources available that men have at their disposal.Gender, Risk aversion, Financial behavior

Does the Tenure of Private Equity Investment Improve the Performance of European Firms?

The paper investigates whether the presence and tenure of Private Equity (PE) investment in European companies improves their performance. Previous studies documented the unambiguous merit of a buyout during the 1980s and 1990s for listed firms in the US and UK markets. This study analyzes such influences in both listed and unlisted European firms during 2002-2007. Our analysis suggests that shortterm PE investments have, on average, a detrimental effect on firm performance. The performance of a firm that has PE backing is lower than that of a firm without PE backing in the first year of PE investment. Such an effect disappears if PE investments remain in the firm for an uninterrupted six-year termPrivate equity financing, corporate finance