Technical Efficiency,Allocative Efficiency and Profitability in Hungarian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A Model with Frontier Functions

By applying a simple model of frontier production functions, this article shows that Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) produce far below their feasible level, given their input endowment. The SMEs' under-production is rooted in the allocative inefficiency of small and medium-sized firms: they use labour in excess while they lack a sufficient level of capital assets. As a consequence of large inefficiencies, Hungarian SMEs improve profitability by scaling down production rather than by expansion.     

Privatization,efficiency and market failure : transforming ecuador's public sector

Much of the privatization that is occurring in Latin America is leading to improved efficiency. However, privatization in areas where markets do not yield efficient solutions, for example of public goods, like light houses, natural monopolies, mainly utilities, and goods with externalities, like education, can lead to lower output and higher costs in the long run. This paper first presents an outline of the shift in development theory with respect to the role of the public sector. It then examines the growth of Ecuador's public sector and its current debate on how privatization should proceed. It concludes that while careful privatization can be positive, privatizing natural monopolies like the electric utility and/or quasi-public goods, like highways are likely to be detrimental to long run economic development. In order for Ecuador's economy to continue to develop, the public sector still needs to play a significant role in developing human capital and physical infrastructure.     

Firm size,age and efficiency: Evidence from Kenyan manufacturing firms

Translog stochastic frontier production functions are estimated using an unbalanced panel of 235 Kenyan manufacturing firms in the food, wood, textile and metal sectors. The sectors are estimated individually in order to investigate whether technical efficiency is systematically related to the size and age of firms. The evidence suggests that firm size has a positive and significant effect in the wood and textile sectors. The age effect is less systematic, but is insignificant in all sectors, except textiles.     

Intra-provincial fiscal decentralization,relative wealth,and healthcare efficiency: Empirical evidence from China

Decentralizing fiscal power to locally elected governments is often regarded as beneficial for public service efficiency. However, questions remain about whether decentralizing fiscal responsibilities work well in countries lacking political decentralization. In China, fiscal decentralization has significantly strengthened the role of local governments in the provision of healthcare services, but evidence of its efficiency effects is scarce. To cast light on this issue, this study investigates the relationship between intra-provincial fiscal decentralization and the productive efficiency of healthcare services in China. Analysis of panel data for 2006–2017 suggests that expenditure and revenue decentralization from provincial to sub-provincial governments significantly improves healthcare efficiency. Further analysis suggests that the positive impact of healthcare expenditure decentralization on healthcare efficiency may be stronger in wealthier provinces. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications.     

Efficacy,effectiveness and efficiency in human resource use: A primer on the three e's

Disputes over resource use, particularly in the public sector, often stem from conflict over what is “efficient.” This paper systematizes and critiques the most frequently encountered efficiency notions, focusing on their their use and misuse in making human resource decisions. The conclusion is drawn that a triad comprising technical, cost, and allocative efficiency is the base upon which decisions ultimately must be founded if the aim is to obtain the most value from available resources. A corollary is that other conceptions mislead more often than clarify.

Technical efficiency requires getting the most from inputs; there must be no way to obtain greater output from those we are using. It underpins cost efficiency, which requires using the production technique that sacrifices least value from other outputs foregone. Allocative efficiency demands that resources cannot be redirected to produce outputs of higher value and in turn has both technical and cost efficiency as necessary preconditions.

Allocative efficiency is by far the most problematic. Few economists object to the Pareto principle, which states that resources are being misused if redeploying inputs or redistributing outputs can yield added benefits for some members of society without harming any others. However, it is rare to find real-world cases that simple and even when it can be applied, the approach risks biasing policy toward piecemeal methods when broader perspectives may be called for. The Kaldor-Hicks approach in part overcomes these limitations, but at a price. Since it sanctions what may be substantial income redistribution, willingness to accept its implications is much less certain.     

Mayor vs. manager revisited: an archival approach to comparing efficiency

The efficiency of municipal government is defined as a function of two factors: financial indicators such as per capita spending and taxation, and quality of life. If the financial indicators differ between cities without a corresponding change in quality of life, then the city with the lower value can be said to be better managed. An analysis of data from the County and City Data Book and the Places Rated Almanac found that large cities managed by city managers are more efficient than those managed by mayors. There was no significant difference in efficiency between mayors and managers of small cities; theoretically, mayors of small cities are unable to tax, spend, and borrow in relative anonymity. A cluster analysis of 114 large U.S. cities suggested that they may be classified into one of four categories: (1) Drunken Sailors; (2) High rollers; (3) Prudent Big Boys; and (4) Solvent Citizens.     

Intellectual Property Rights and the Potential for Universal Access to Treatment: trips,acta and hiv/aids medicine

Where hiv/aids is concerned, the twin goals of ‘zero new infections’ and an ‘aids-free generation’ are now, due to advances in treatment (and treatment as prevention), a realistic possibility. However, these goals can only be achieved through the scaling-up of treatment to the point of universal access. It is inevitable that the success of any scaling-up will be predicated on cost, particularly of hiv/aids medicines. This article argues that recent changes in the global intellectual property landscape—effected by way of bilaterally- and plurilaterally-negotiated trade agreements initiated by developed countries—jeopardise the target of universal access. Enhanced protection of international intellectual property rights increasingly poses a threat to the development of, and international trade in, generic medicines. Unless developing countries move to reinvigorate moribund multilateral institutions, particularly the wto, they will lose control of the intellectual property agenda, and thus the ability to impose an alternative vision regarding universal access.