Technical and Scale Efficiencies for Chinese Rural Credit Cooperatives: A Bootstrapping Approach in Data Envelopment Analysis

Chinese rural credit cooperatives (RCCs) are a major supplier of credit to the rural sector in the country. However, Chinese RCCs are currently encountering operating problems, and an experimental reform is being carried out to restructure and reform the RCCs. In order to have some idea about the efficacy of reform, it is important to have an understanding of the institutional economics underlying the delivery of rural credit in China. This paper evaluates pure technical efficiency, overall technical efficiency, and scale efficiencies for RCCs in China using nonparametric techniques. The use of a bootstrap algorithm is proposed to perform inference for efficiency measures. Keywords: bootstrapping, Chinese rural credit cooperatives, data envelopment analysis, scale efficiency, technical efficiency.

How Market Power Changes in Monopoly: Using Lau’s Hessian Identities

This research examines market power using Lau’s Hessian Identity relationships based on the empirical properties of duality theory. We compare the performance of the proposed dual approach using Lau’s Hessian Identity relationships with the simple traditional dual approach.Lau’s Hessian Identity, Monte Carlo simulation, Market Power, Monopoly, Marketing,

Nonparametric Efficiency Analysis for Coffee Farms in Puerto Rico

Coffee production in Puerto Rico is labor intensive since harvest is done by hand for quality and topography conditions. Färe's nonparametric approach was used to estimate technical, allocative, scale and overall efficiency measures for coffee farms in Puerto Rico during the 2000 to 2004 period. On average Puerto Rico coffee farms were 46% technically efficient, 79% scale efficient, and 74% allocatively efficient.coffee production, nonparametric efficiency, Crop Production/Industries, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Determining the Probability of Default of Agricultural Loans in a French Bank

Recently, financial institutions have developed improved internal risk rating systems and emphasized the probability of default and loss given default. Also they have been affected by globalization and it became important to understand the way foreign banks operate. The probability of default is studied for 756 loans from a French bank: CIC- Banque SNVB. A binomial logit regression is used to estimate a model of the probability of default of an agribusiness loan. The results show that leverage, profitability and liquidity at loan origination are good indicators of the probability of default. The loan length is another good indicator of the probability of default. Also it is more accurate to develop a model for each type of collateral (activity).Agricultural Finance,

ON THE CHOICE OF FUNCTIONAL FORMS IN THE MEASUREMENT OF SCALE AND SCOPE ECONOMIES: GENERALIZED BOX-COX AND COMPOSITE COST FUNCTIONS

This paper estimates and compares generalized Box-Cox and composite cost functions to identify scale and scope economies. The robustness of the outcomes to different functional specifications was examined. Increasing returns to scale was common for product-specific and the overall measures. Generalized Leontief and composite forms yielded more robust elasticity, scale and scope measures. The generalized Box-Cox model was selected as the appropriate functional form as all the special cases were rejected.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

A Comparative Efficiency Analysis of Wheat Farms using Parametric and Nonparametric Methods

Efficiency Analysis, Deterministic Nonparametric Method, Parametric, Stochastic Frontier., Production Economics, Q12,

FUZZY LOGIC AND COMPROMISE PROGRAMMING IN PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

The objective of this paper is to develop a portfolio optimization technique that is simple enough for an individual with little knowledge of economic theory to systematically determine his own optimized portfolio. A compromise programming approach and a fuzzy logic approach are developed as alternatives to the traditional EV model.Agricultural Finance,

NON-PARAMETRIC AND SEMI-PARAMETRIC TECHNIQUES FOR MODELING AND SIMULATING CORRELATED, NON-NORMAL PRICE AND YIELD DISTRIBUTIONS: APPLICATIONS TO RISK ANALYSIS IN KANSAS AGRICULTURE

Parametric, non-parametric, and semi-parametric approaches are commonly used for modeling correlated distributions. Semi-parametric and non-parametric approaches are used to examine the risk situation for Kansas agriculture. Results from the model indicate that 2000 will be another difficult year for Kansas farmers, although crop income will increase slightly from 1999. However, unless another supplemental infusion of government payments occurs, crop income is expected to be the lowest since 1992.correlated distributions, non-parametric modeling, semi-parametric modeling, Kansas agriculture, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

THE MULTI-PRODUCT ASYMPTOTICALLY IDEAL MODEL: AN APPLICATION TO AGRICULTURE

This paper examines the Multi-Product Asymptotically Ideal Production Model as an alternative to the translog and normalized quadratic functional forms using farm level data. Factors such as ease of estimation, imposition of regularity conditions, and quantitative differences in empirical estimates are compared.AIM, Asymptotically Ideal Model, flexible functional form, cost function, Production Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,