Measuring the technical efficiency of airports in Latin America

This paper studies the technical efficiency of airports in Latin America. The evolution of productive efficiency in the region has seldom been studied, mainly due to lack of publicly available data. Relying on a unique dataset that was obtained through questionnaires distributed to airport operators, the authors use Data Envelopment Analysis methods to compute an efficient production frontier and compare the technical efficiency of Latin American airports relative to airports around the world. In a second stage, they estimate a truncated regression to study the drivers of observed differences in airport efficiency. According to the results, institutional variables (private/public operation), the socioeconomic environment (level of gross domestic product), and airport characteristics (hub airport, share of commercial revenues) matter in explaining airport productive efficiency. Finally, the authors compute total factor productivity changes for Latin American airports for 1995-2007. The region has implemented a wide variety of private sector participation schemes for the operation of airports since the mid 1990s. The results show that private operators have not had higher rates of total factor productivity change.Airports and Air Services,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Infrastructure Economics,Export Competitiveness,Knowledge for Development

Measuring educational efficiency at student level with parametric stochastic distance functions: An application to Spanish PISA results

This study explicitly considers that education is a multi-input multi-output production process subject to inefficient behaviors that can be identified at student level. Therefore a distance function allows us to calculate different aspects of educational technology. The paper presents an empirical application of this model using Spanish data from the Programme for International Student Assessment implemented by the OECD. The results provide insights into how student background, peer-group and school characteristics interact with educational outputs. Findings also suggest that, once educational inputs are taken into account; there is no statistically significant difference in efficiency levels across schools regarding public-private ownership.Secondary schools, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier, distance function.

On the generation of a regular multi-input multi-output technology using parametric output distance functions

Monte-Carlo experimentation is a well-known approach to test the performance of alternative methodologies under different hypothesis. In the frontier analysis framework, whatever parametric or non-parametric methods tested, most experiments have been developed up to now assuming single output multi-input production functions and data generated using a Cobb- Douglas technology. The aim of this paper is to show how reliable multi-output multi-input production data can be generated using a parametric output distance function approach. A flexible translog technology is used for this purpose that satisfies regularity conditions. Two meaningful outcomes of this analysis are the identification of a valid range of parameters values satisfying monotonicity and curvature restrictions and of a rule of thumb to be applied in empirical studies.Output distance function; technical efficiency, Monte-Carlo experiments.

Infrastructure performance and reform in developing and transition economies: evidence from a survey of productivity measures

The authors review about 80 studies on electricity and gas, water and sanitation, and rail and ports (with a footnote on telecommunications) in developing countries. The main policy lesson is that there is a difference in the relevance of ownership for efficiency between utilities and transport in developing countries. In transport, private operators have tended to perform better than public operators. For utilities, ownership often does not matter as much as sometimes argued. Most cross-country studies find no statistically significant difference in efficiency scores between public and private providers. As for the country-specific studies, some do find differences in performance over time but these differences tend to matter much less than a large number of other variables. Across sectors, private operators functioning in a competitive environment or regulated under price caps or hybrid regulatory regimes tend to catch up best practice faster than public operators. There is a very strong case to push regulators in developing and transition economies toward a more systematic reliance on yardstick competition in a sector in which residual monopoly powers tend to be common.Enterprise Development&Reform,Labor Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance

Does Retirement Affect Cognitive Functioning?

This paper analyzes the effect of retirement on cognitive functioning using two large scale surveys. On the one hand the HRS, a longitudinal survey among individuals aged 50+ living in the United States, allows us to control for individual heterogeneity and endogeneity of the retirement decision by using the eligibility age for Social Security as an instrument. On the other hand, a comparable international European survey, SHARE, allows us to identify the causal effect of retirement on cognitive functioning by using the cross-country differences in the age-pattern of retirement. The results highlight in both cases a significant negative, and quantitatively comparable, effect of retirement on cognitive functioning. Our results suggest that promoting labor force participation of older workers is not only desirable to insure the viability of retirement schemes, but it could also delay cognitive decline, and thus the occurrence of associated impairments at older age.labour economics ;

Disability in Belgium: there is more than meets the eye

The paper provides a perspective on the development of the Belgian disability insurance system. Using both survey and administrative data, it sketches a picture of the (changing) factors leading towards disability, as well as the outcomes in terms of program participation. The paper shows the key role of integrating other forms of early retirement programs into the analysis. The main findings are an unspectacular trend in the number of DI beneficiaries over time combined with a strong expansion of (early-) retirement schemes.

Product Specialization, Efficiency and Productivity Change in the Spanish Insurance Industry

In this paper we analyze the levels of technical efficiency and productivity growth attained by Spanish insurance companies during a period of deregulation. We compute Malmquist productivity indexes using the estimates of parametric distance function for several specialized insurance branches. In this way, we show that branch specialization matters a great deal and that firms combining two or three product lines (Health, Property-Liabilities and Life) perform better than firms operating in one insurance line exclusively. In the light of these results, we recommend that the remaining restrictions coming from the European Third Directives on the operations of multi-branch firms should be removed. Moreover, from a management point of view, it would be appropriate to encourage the creation of multi-branch insurance firms. However, in all cases, the estimated scores indicate low productivity growth (less than 2% per year) compared with a huge increase in insurance activity (premiums were multiplied by nearly 3 in a decade).Efficiency, parametric Malmquist index, output specialization, Spanish insurance

CAP Reforms and Total Factor Productivity Growth in Belgian Agriculture: A Malmquist Index Approach

Have the 1992 and 2000 CAP reforms had any discernable effect upon agricultural productivity? In this study we derive detailed information on the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of arable farms in Belgium over a 16-year period from 1987 to 2002. Calculations are based on a carefully constructed high-quality detailed farm-level data set containing 1728 observations, involving over 100 farms in most years. Three output variables (cereals, other crops, other outputs) and four input variables (land, labour, capital and other inputs) are constructed, using multilateral Fisher index numbers where crop aggregation is required. The TFP measures are calculated using a Malmquist TFP index relative to a series of data envelopment analysis (DEA) frontiers. Annual average TFP change of 1.0% per year is estimated for this industry. This rate does not compare well with rates of over 2% that are commonly reported in studies involving other developed countries. The pattern of TFP growth over the period indicates that the two CAP reforms (in 1992 and 2000) have had no discernable effect upon TFP trends. An inspection of shadow shares (derived from the DEA frontiers) indicates that substantial distortions remain in this industry, especially with regards to the excess use of labour and constrained use of land, relative to other inputs. Finally, tabulation of results by region and farm size shows fairly uniform TFP change across regions, but poor performance in small farms, where TFP actually levels actually fell over this period.CAP reforms, Belgian agriculture, total factor productivity, Malmquist index, shadow shares, Agricultural and Food Policy, Productivity Analysis, C6, D2, O4, Q1,

Micro-Simulation of Social Security Reforms in Belgium

The present paper analyzes the budgetary impact of various Social Security reforms in the Belgian institutional setting. Our approach relies on parameters that were derived in Dellis et alii (2002) using a micro-modeling strategy. focusing our attention on a hypothetical age cohort, we illustrate the budgetary impact that the reforms considered might have on the budget of the federal government.