Cooperative production and efficiency

We characterize the sharing rule for which a contribution mechanism achieves efficiency in a cooperative production setting when agents are heterogeneous. The sharing rule bears no resemblance to those considered by the previous literature. We also show for a large class of sharing rules that if Nash equilibrium yields efficient allocations, the production function displays constant returns to scale, a case in which cooperation in production is useless

Cooperative production and efficiency

We characterize the sharing rule for which a contribution mechanism achieves efficiency in a cooperative production setting when agents are heterogeneous. The sharing rule bears no resemblance to those considered by the previous literature. We also show for a large class of sharing rules that if Nash equilibrium yields efficient allocations, the production function displays constant returns to scale, a case in which cooperation in production is useless.

Administrative Costs and Production Efficiency.

Economists providing policy advice often justify recommendations of government non-interference in the allocation of resources between production sectors and free trade with reference to the Diamond and Mirrlees efficiency theorem. However, such policy advice may be misleading when, as is in general the case, administrative costs effectively restrict the set of feasible tax instruments available to the government. Under plausible assumptions about the administrative costs of alternative tax structures optimal government policies may in fact be associated with significant production inefficiencies.

Maximizing efficiency of rumen microbial protein production.

Rumen microbes produce cellular protein inefficiently partly because they do not direct all ATP toward growth. They direct some ATP toward maintenance functions, as long-recognized, but they also direct ATP toward reserve carbohydrate synthesis and energy spilling (futile cycles that dissipate heat). Rumen microbes expend ATP by vacillating between (1) accumulation of reserve carbohydrate after feeding (during carbohydrate excess) and (2) mobilization of that carbohydrate thereafter (during carbohydrate limitation). Protozoa account for most accumulation of reserve carbohydrate, and in competition experiments, protozoa accumulated nearly 35-fold more reserve carbohydrate than bacteria. Some pure cultures of bacteria spill energy, but only recently have mixed rumen communities been recognized as capable of the same. When these communities were dosed glucose in vitro, energy spilling could account for nearly 40% of heat production. We suspect that cycling of glycogen (a major reserve carbohydrate) is a major mechanism of spilling; such cycling has already been observed in single-species cultures of protozoa and bacteria. Interconversions of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) may also expend ATP and depress efficiency of microbial protein production. These interconversions may involve extensive cycling of intermediates, such as cycling of acetate during butyrate production in certain butyrivibrios. We speculate this cycling may expend ATP directly or indirectly. By further quantifying the impact of reserve carbohydrate accumulation, energy spilling, and SCFA interconversions on growth efficiency, we can improve prediction of microbial protein production and guide efforts to improve efficiency of microbial protein production in the rumen

Production Efficiency and Agricultural Technologies in the Ethiopian Agriculture

Stochastic frontier production function analysis was performed to examine relative crop and milk production efficiency among peasants in Ada and Selale districts of the Central highlands of Ethiopia. The results indicate that Ada farmers exhibit relatively higher efficiency scores in cereal production compared to Selale producers. Farmers who adopted cross-bred cows attained higher efficiency scores than farmers who did not adopted. Production efficiency scores are higher in enterprises that enjoys experience and location specific comparative advantages. The magnitude of the impacts of knowledge-related variables (i.e., production knowledge and schooling) on production efficiency are higher relative to other variables. Adoption of one or two innovations show a consistently large, positive and significant effect on all measures of production efficiency in the Selale region. Higher production efficiency is attained in Ada region if producers adopt two or more technologies. Development strategies should examine the mixes of production technologies that may contribute to increases in agricultural production compared to the conventional package approach.Stochastic frontier production function; production efficiency; Ethiopia; comparative advantages; knowledge; adoption of technologies; agriculture

MEASURING PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY USING AGGREGATE DATA

This paper develops a measure of efficiency when data have been aggregated. Unlike the most commonly used efficiency measures, our estimator handles the heteroskedasticity created by aggregation appropriately. Our estimator is compared to estimators currently used to measure school efficiency. Theoretical results are supported by a Monte Carlo experiment. Results show that for samples containing small schools (sample average may be about 100 students per school but sample includes several schools with about 30 students), the proposed aggregate data estimator performs better than the commonly used OLS and only slightly worse than the multilevel estimator. Thus, when school officials are unable to gather multilevel or disaggregate data, the aggregate data estimator proposed here should be used. When disaggregate data is available, standardizing the value-added estimator should be considered.Productivity Analysis,

Production efficiency of Feshbach molecules in fermion systems

We present a consistent nonequilibrium theory for the production of molecular dimers from a two-component quantum-degenerate fermion atomic gas, via a linear downward sweep of the magnetic field across a Feshbach resonance. This problem raises interest because it is presently unclear as to why deviations from the universal Landau-Zener formula for the transition probability at two-level crossing are observed in the experimentally measured production efficiencies. We show that the molecular conversion efficiency is represented by a power series in terms of a dimensionless parameter which, in the zero-temperature limit, depends solely on the initial gas density and the Landau-Zener parameter. Our result reveals a hindrance of the canonical Landau-Zener transition probability due to many-body effects, and presents an explanation for the experimentally observed deviations [K.E. Strecker \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 91}, 080406 (2003)].Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

NONPARAMETRIC ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY: DISCUSSION

Productivity Analysis,

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF GRAIN PRODUCTION IN UKRAINE

A stochastic grain production frontier model is estimated on a representative sample of Ukrainian state farms. Technical inefficiency effects are modeled as a function of workforce composition, other farm-specific variables, and time. Technical inefficiency increased over time. Investment in farm infrastructure is associated with higher levels of technical efficiency.Productivity Analysis,

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF CHINESE GRAIN PRODUCTION: A STOCHASTIC PRODUCTION FRONTIER APPROACH

This article examines technical efficiency of the Chinese grain sector using the framework of stochastic production frontier. The results reveal that: the marginal products of labor and fertilizer are much smaller than that of land; human capital and farm-level specialization have positive effect on efficiency, land fragmentation is detrimental to efficiency, and elder farmers are as efficient as younger farmers. We also examine the effects of size, mechanization and geographic location. Simulation results show that significant output gains can be obtained by eliminating land fragmentation, improving rural education and promoting specialization and mechanization.Crop Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis,