Measuring macroeconomic performance through a non-parametric Taylor curve

Recently, frontier techniques have been utilised in the measurement of countries' macroeconomic performance by constructing a "production set" where the outputs are some macroeconomic indicators, while the inputs collapse to a unit scalar. In the present study, a different approach is proposed. The trade-off between the variability of inflation and of the level of activity (often defined as the Taylor Curve) is posited as the relevant policy frontier. This frontier is estimated through non-parametric techniques on a sample of 19 OECD countries during the 1960-99 period. There seems to be a definite role for cost-shocks, as well as for some supply-side characteristics, in shifting the variability trade-off. Also, the relative shadow price of the variability of inflation increases over time. Countries appear on the whole to have become slightly more efficient, but their performance has worsened, because the frontier has shifted upwards.inflation-output variability trade-off; labour market rigidities; policy efficiency

Health, Capabilities and Functionings: An Empirical Analysis for the UK

We analyse the relationship between socio-economic variables and health outcomes for adult participants in three waves of the British Household Panel Survey from 1999 to 2001. We adopt Sen’s capability approach and compute a capability index ranking individuals on the basis of their ability to transform health and economic resources into health functionings. The results show that, even when controlling for access to health resources, socio-economic variables affect significantly the health functionings in the UK. This suggests the need for more equalitarian access policies to health care facilities.Health; Capability Approach; Production Frontier

PATTERNS OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN ITALIAN MANUFACTURING.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the corporate governance system and technical efficiency in Italian manufacturing. We use a non-parametric frontier technique (DEA) to derive technical efficiency measures for a sample of Italian firms taken from 9 manufacturing industries. These measures are then related to the characteristics of the corporate governance system. Two of these characteristics turn out to have a positive impact on technical efficiency: the percentage of the company shares owned by the largest shareholder and the fact that a firm belongs to a pyramidal group. Interestingly, a trade-off emerges between these influences, in the sense that one is stronger in industries where the other is weaker.

Labour-Market Reforms and the Beveridge Curve. Some Macro Evidence for Italy

A matching theory approach is utilised to assess the impact on the Italian labour market of the 1997 legge Treu, which considerably eased the regulation of temporary work and favoured its growth in Italy. We re-parameterise the matching function as a Beveridge Curve and estimate it as a production frontier, finding huge differences in matching efficiency between the South and the rest of the country. The legge Treu appears to have improved matching efficiency in the North of the country, particularly for skilled workers, but also to have strengthened competition among skilled and unskilled workers, especially in the South.temporary contracts, matching efficiency, regional disparities

More Jobs? A Panel Analysis of the Lisbon Strategy

We assess the impact on employment growth of the Lisbon Strategy, examining long-run trends in total, female and old-age employment rates from 1994 to 2009. We find that the Strategy had some favourable (but weak) impact, especially for old-age workers. However, no improvement ensued from its mid-term reassessment.European Employment Strategy, difference-in-difference, employment policies

"Labor-market Performance in the OECD--An Assessment of Recent Evidence"

In this paper we assess the evolution of labor-market performance in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) over the last decade. We provide a survey of the literature dealing with labor-market performance in the OECD, finding that, while this literature tends to conclude that institutions are a key part of the story, the survey's results appear far less robust and uniform than is commonly believed. We then assess the robustness of the claims made in the most recent (2005) OECD follow-up study within a very similar cross-country setup, and highlight the impact of unobserved heterogeneity and outliers on the policy estimates. We find that in recent OECD cross-country data, changes in labor-market performance are consistently (and inversely) linked to its lagged level. Structural changes are also important: changes in the share of construction employees are very significant, even in the presence of various kinds of policy change indicators. As far as the latter are concerned, some consistent role seems to emerge only for active labor-market policies and (to a lesser extent) unemployment.

Matching Efficiency and Labour Market Reform in Italy. A Macroeconometric Assessment

A matching theory approach is utilised to assess the impact on the Italian labour market of the 1997 legge Treu, which considerably eased the regulation of temporary work and favoured its growth in Italy. We re-parameterise the matching function as a Beveridge Curve and estimate it as a production frontier. We find huge differences in matching efficiency between the South and the rest of the country. The legge Treu appears to have reduced unemployment in the more developed regions of the country but did not greatly affect the matching efficiency of the regional labour markets.temporary contracts; matching efficiency; regional disparities

Assessing the Productive Efficiency of Non-Profit Organisations: a Comparative Analysis

Empirical evidence on the productive efficiency of non-profit organisations is at present scarce and not conclusive. In the present work, we analyse this issue by relying on a new data-set about Italian for-profit and non-profit organisations engaged in the provision of communal services. While most of the existing evidence relates to health-care organisations only, our data-set also surveys organisations involved in other communal services. The results indicate that the efficiency of non-profit organisations does not significantly differ from that of other organisations, and shed some light about the determination of their performance. The selection procedures adopted in hiring labour are found to be very relevant. We also find that the production of relational goods (measured by two different proxies) is related to organisational efficiency and to the promotion efforts of non-profit organisation.non-profit organisations; efficiency;

Technology and Firm Size Distribution:Evidence from Italian Manufacturing

This paper explores the relationship between firm size distribution and technology. Similarly to Crosato and Ganugi (2006), we focus on six industries from the Micro1 survey by the Italian Statistical National Office (ISTAT). Firm technology is analysed across selected industries by means of a non-parametric production analysis, the Free Disposal Hull approach (Deprins et al., 1984; Kerstens and Vanden Eeckaut, 1999). The existence of a link between technical efficiency and size on the one hand, and between scale elasticity and size on the other is investigated. Graphical analyses show the absence of a clear-cut relation in the first case, while an inverse relation is found in the second one. Building on this relation, we inquire whether the shape of the firm size-distribution is related to a particular pattern of returns to scale. This problem is studied through the Zipf Plot (Stanley et al., 1995) of the Pareto IV distribution, which is concave for firms up to a given threshold, and then becomes linear. Results show that firms in the concave part of the plot experience increasing returns to scale. On the contrary, firms in the linear part are mainly characterised by constant returns to scale.Italian manufacturing; Free Disposal Hull; Pareto distributions; Returns to scale;

Unit root and cointegration tests for cross-sectionally correlated panels. Estimating regional production functions

This paper employs recently developed non stationary panel methodologies that assume some cross-section dependence to estimate the production function for Italian regions in the industrial sector over the period 1970-1998. The analysis consists in three steps. First, unit root tests for cross-sectionally dependent panels are used. Second, the existence of a co-integrating relationship among value added, physical capital and human capital-augmented labor is investigated. The Dynamic OLS (DOLS) and Fully modified (FMOLS) estimators developed by Pedroni (1996, 2000, 2001) and the Panel Dynamic OLS (PDOLS) estimator proposed by Mark and Sul (2003)are then used to estimate the long run relationship between the variables considered.panel cointegration; cross-section dependence; production function