Technical efficiency of cocoa farms at varying elevation levels in Davao City, Philippines: implications to sustainable upland farming systems

Elevation is one of many components that influence agriculture, and this in turn affects the level of both inputs and outputs of farmers. This article focuses on the productivity and technical efficiency of 100 cocoa farms using cross-sectional data from areas ranging from 190 to 1021 m above sea level which were classified as low, medium, and high elevation in Davao City, considered as the chocolate capital of the Philippines. Using stochastic frontier analysis, the results showed that the cost of inputs per ha and the number of cocoa trees per ha significantly increase yield. Farms at high elevations were less technically efficient, as this entails lower temperatures and increased rainfall, and cocoa farming in those areas and conditions can be more challenging, especially with changes in farming practices, terrain, and distance to markets. Other significant variables were age of cocoa farms, married farmers, and age of the farmers. Older farms may be more developed, farmers who are married benefit from their spouses being able to readily contribute as farm labor, and lastly, older farmers' inefficiency may likely stem from nonadaptation of newer farming practices. With an average technical efficiency of 0.61, 0.63, and 0.26 in low, medium, and high elevation areas, respectively, farmers therefore have an incentive to improve farm practices and consider topographical variations found in high elevation areas. Recommendations for the improvement of technical efficiency of cocoa farms are better connectivity to markets, enhancing farm practices, and continuation and improvement of government programs on cocoa with an added emphasis on research. For farmers in high elevation areas, mitigating solutions such as sustainable agriculture practices and ecolabelling are key to improving efficiency and minimizing the potential negative impact on upland farming systems. Moreover, such adaptation measures may also contribute to sustainability of cocoa farming in high elevation areas.

ISO Certification and Technical Efficiency in the Banking Sector:An Evidence from WAEMU’s Countries Using the DEA Method

In the view of the international organization of standardization,the introduction of ISO standards is typical of quality management systems oriented towards strengthening the efficiency of enterprises.Business banks are not excluded from this requirement.The current study aims to evaluate the effect of ISO certification on the technical performance of WAEMU banks.Using BCEAO data(2020),the DEA model and Tobit estimates show that ISO certification has no effect on the efficiency scores of the banks in the sample.It is therefore appropriate for these banks to work on improving their business climate.

Technical Efficiency of"Master Switch"in Widening the Human Living Space by Fenlong Tillage

This paper reports"the fourth set"of drilling tillage after"ploughing(hoeing)"by manpower,animal power and tractor——Fenlong tillage technology(referred to as"Fenlong technology").It makes the cultivated land and saline alkali land transformed into"sponge"farmland through"drill bit"vertically digging into the soil,one-time deep cultivation,not disturbing soil layer,and granulating the soil,to bring about the effects of"expanding the land,releasing the natural force,water conservation,disaster reduction,carbon reduction,tillage saving,fertilizer saving and grain increasing",and can broaden the space for human survival and development.It has been applied to more than 50 crops in 28 provinces,including Guangxi,Hebei and Tibet.Without increasing the use of fertilizer and water,the yield of varieties in cultivated land increased by 10%-50%,while that in saline and alkaline land increased by 20%-100%.The storage of natural precipitation increased by 100%,and drought,high temperature and low temperature decreased by 20%-30%,and carbon sequestration and emission reduction reached 20%.It is proposed that China can implement the"dual strategy"platform of farmland,saline alkali land,rivers and water bodies constructing the"incremental""five new warehouses"of grain,water,fish,sugar,etc.and"increased grain return"abroad,to ensure national security.

Spatial variation of technical efficiency of cereal production in China at the farm level

Rice, wheat and maize are the main staple food crops to ensure the food security in China with diversified climate condition, cropping system and environmental and socio-economic factors across provinces. Spatial variation of technical efficiency in farmers' field is helpful to understand the potential to improve farmers' yield given the inputs level and reduce the yield gap. The study is based on a large-scale farm household survey which covered 1 218 rice farmers, 3 566 wheat farmers and 2 111 maize farmers in the main producing areas. The results indicate that rice farmers are with very high technical efficiency level, nearly 0.9 on average, with little room to improve the efficiency of agricultural inputs. Similar results have been found in wheat and maize farmers' fields, although the technical efficiency levels are lower than that of rice farmers while still at a high level with obvious variation across regions. Farmers with higher yield level also achieve better technical efficiency in most locations. Both local environmental and socio-economic factors significantly affect farmers' technical efficiency. In the context of urbanization and economic development, improved and new agricultural technologies need to be prioritized and facilitated to improve cereal yield at farm level.

What explains the technical efficiency of banks in Tunisia?Evidence from a two‑stage data envelopment analysis

In this study we examine the potential determinants of technical efficiency for the Tunisian commercial banking sector over the period of 1995–2017.First,we estimate banking technical efficiency with a radial and non-radial bootstrap data envelopment analysis.For the radial technique,we use an input-oriented approach and for non-radial we use the Range Adjusted Measure(RAM).Second,we use a double bootstrapping regression technique to estimate the influence of a set of eventual determinants on technical efficiency.Finally,based on all possible regressions,we gauge the overall effect of each determinant.Our results reveal that the input-oriented and RAM approach gave somewhat similar results.We found that the return on equity,the expense to income ratio,the loan to deposit ratio,and the growth rate are insignificant to Tunisian banking technical efficiency.In particular,banking technical efficiency increases with capitalization and inflation,whereas,it decreases with size,number of bank branches,management to staff ratio,and loan to asset ratio.In addition,we identified evidence supporting the moderate success of the last decade of reforms and a noticeable one for the post-revolution reforms in helping improve banking technical efficiency.The post-revolution reforms,largely revolving around reinforcing the rules of good governance and banking supervision,coupled with the restructuring of public banks,were found to be insufficient to raise overall banking technical efficiency despite improvement in the technical efficiency of private banks.

The Econometric Approach to Technical Efficiency of Public and Private Textile Enterprises in Iran

This study considers measurement of technical efficiency of 250 public and privately owned textile companies in Iran.Two stochastic frontier production functions are used for this purpose.One assumes that firm characteristics directly influence the degree of technical inefficiency while the other assumes that the technology plays a key role.Maximum likelihood method is used to estimate parameters of the models and predict technical efficiency for each enterprise.The results obtained when using these two models are compared.The sensitivity of efficiency measures with respect to different model specifications is also analyzed.Empirical results show that most of the enterprises are operating at high level of efficiencies.The overall mean efficiency is 86%,indicating that,on average,there is a potential for an increase of output by 14%.The result also shows that the public firms are operating more inefficiently than the private ones.

A technical efficiency evaluation system for vegetable production in China

With the increasing demand for food worldwide,it has attracted increasing attention how to improve the agricultural production efficiency.This paper aims to develop a technical efficiency evaluation system for vegetable production to provided decisions for the practice of precision agriculture.The paper analyses the system-needs and business processes,and proposes a system framework which has three tiers architectures,based on B/S model.The stochastic frontier analysis(SFA)algorithm model which is the incorporated into the system is established.The system was tested and evaluated by real business data,which were from Beijing from 2003 to 2011 to test system performance based on the temporal perspective and China during 2011 and 2012 to test system performance based on the spatial characteristics.The results shows that the system achieves the business requirements with an intelligent tool for data management and technical efficiency evaluation for vegetable production to improve automation,efficiency and convenience.

Technical Efficiency in the Chinese Textile Industry

This paper presents a measurement of the technical efficiency of textile industries with 4-digit codes in China by using the cross-section data from 2002 and 2007 and a fully nonparametric stochastic frontier estimation approach. The technical efficiency of these textile industries is compared across six economic ownership types and across seven regions in China. This uncovers the effects of the proprietary characteristics and the location of a firm on its technical efficiency performance. The nonparametric estimation provides some interesting findings. First, textile production in China performs with a decreasing return to scale. The difference between the output elasticity of labor and that of capital decreases from the year 2002 to 2007. Second, the technical efficiency of the 4-digit textile industry in China is significantly contingent on its ownership and location. Privately-run textile enterprises on average perform with the highest level of technical efficiency among the six ownership types while state-owned enterprises perform with the lowest level of technical efficiency, whether or not the location dummies are accounted for. Third, the technical efficiency evaluated by regions follows the order： ＂eastern area 〉 southern area 〉 central area 〉 northern area,＂ which remains unchanged across the two years.

Nonfarm employment, agricultural machinery service purchase and agricultural production efficiency:An empirical study based on China's major wheat-producing areas

Based on the cross-sectional data of the survey conducted in China's main wheat producing areas at the end of 2019,this paper uses the translog production function model to estimate agricultural technical efficiency,and studies the relationship between nonfarm employment,agricultural machinery service purchase and agricultural production efficiency.The results show that the household non-agricultural employment ratio and non-agricultural income have a significant positive impact on the purchase of agricultural machinery services.In addition to the effect of scale efficiency,non-agricultural employment does not have a significant impact on agricultural technical efficiency,and labor transfer does not have a significant negative impact on agricultural production.

Frame Work of Data Envelopment Analysis—A Model to Evaluate the Environmental Efficiency of China'S Industrial Sectors

Objective To evaluate the environmental and technical efficiencies of China＇s industrial sectors and provide appropriate advice for policy makers in the context of rapid economic growth and concurrent serious environmental damages caused by industrial pollutants. Methods A data of envelopment analysis （DEA） framework crediting both reduction of pollution outputs and expansion of good outputs was designed as a model to compute environmental efficiency of China＇s regional industrial systems. Results As shown by the geometric mean of environmental efficiency, if other inputs were made constant and good outputs were not to be improved, the air pollution outputs would have the potential to be decreased by about 60% in the whole China. Conclusion Both environmental and technical efficiencies have the potential to be greatly improved in China, which may provide some advice for policy-makers.

Bootstrapping Data Envelopment Analysis of Efficiency and Productivity of County Public Hospitals in Eastern, Central, and Western China after the Public Hospital Reform

China implemented the public hospital reform in 2012. This study utilized bootstrapping data envelopment analysis（DEA） to evaluate the technical efficiency（TE） and productivity of county public hospitals in Eastern, Central, and Western China after the 2012 public hospital reform. Data from 127 county public hospitals（39, 45, and 43 in Eastern, Central, and Western China, respectively） were collected during 2012–2015. Changes of TE and productivity over time were estimated by bootstrapping DEA and bootstrapping Malmquist. The disparities in TE and productivity among public hospitals in the three regions of China were compared by Kruskal–Wallis H test and Mann–Whitney U test. The average bias-corrected TE values for the four-year period were 0.6442, 0.5785, 0.6099, and 0.6094 in Eastern, Central, and Western China, and the entire country respectively, with average non-technical efficiency, low pure technical efficiency（PTE）, and high scale efficiency found. Productivity increased by 8.12%, 0.25%, 12.11%, and 11.58% in China and its three regions during 2012–2015, and such increase in productivity resulted from progressive technological changes by 16.42%, 6.32%, 21.08%, and 21.42%, respectively. The TE and PTE of the county hospitals significantly differed among the three regions of China. Eastern and Western China showed significantly higher TE and PTE than Central China. More than 60% of county public hospitals in China and its three areas operated at decreasing return scales. There was a considerable space for TE improvement in county hospitals in China and its three regions. During 2012–2015, the hospitals experienced progressive productivity; however, the PTE changed adversely. Moreover, Central China continuously achieved a significantly lower efficiency score than Eastern and Western China. Decision makers and administrators in China should identify the causes of the observed inefficiencies and take appropriate measures to increase the efficiency of county public hospitals in the three areas of China, especially in Central China.

Mechanization and efficiency in rice production in China

Agricultural mechanization and custom machine services have developed rapidly in China,which can influence rice production efficiency in the future.We calculate technical efficiency,allocative efficiency,and scale efficiency using data collected in 2015 from a face-to-face interview survey of 450 households that cultivated 3096 plots located in the five major rice-producing provinces of China.We use a one-step stochastic frontier model to calculate technical efficiency and regress the efficiency scores on socio-demographic and physical land characteristics to find the influencing variables.Variables influencing technical efficiency are compared at three different phases of rice cultivation.We also calculate technical efficiency by using the Heckman Selection Model,which addresses technological heterogeneity and self-selection bias.Results indicate that:(1)the average value of technical efficiency using a one-step stochastic frontier model was found to be 0.74.When self-selection bias is accounted for using the Heckman Selection Model,the average value of the technical efficiency increases to 0.80;(2)mechanization at the chemical application phase has a positive effect on technical efficiency,but mechanization does not affect efficiency at the plowing and harvesting phases;(3)machines are overused relative to both land and labor,and high machine input use on the small size of landholding has resulted in allocative inefficiency;(4)rice farmers are overwhelmingly operating at a sub-optimal scale.Future policies should focus on encouraging farmland transfer in rural areas to achieve scale efficiency and allocative efficiency while promoting mechanization at the chemical application phase of rice cultivation to improve technical efficiency.

An application of data envelopment analysis to investigate the efficiency of lumber industry in northwestern Ontario,Canada

This study aims at exploring the technical efficiency of lum- ber industry in northwestern Ontario, Canada using data envelopment analysis （DEA）. The DEA model analyzes relative technical efficiency of lumber mills with disproportionate inputs and outputs by dividing the 10- year time series data, for inputs and outputs of 24 lumber mills, over two periods （1999-2003 and 2004-2008）. Four inputs, namely, material （log volume）, labour （man-hours）, two types of energy （hog-fuel and electric- ity）, and one output （lumber volume） are used in this study. The trend analysis shows an annual reduction of 10%, 13% and 13% for lumber output, log consumption （input） and number of employees, respectively, during the period 1999-2008. The results from DEA with two scenarios with energy inputs and without energy inputs, for the two periods are found to be mixed and interesting. While some mills have improved their performance in terms of best use of available scarce inputs in the second period, some have shown negative per cent change in efficiency. In the with energy input and the without energy input scenario, some of the mills show a reduction in efficiency in the second period from the first period, with the highest estimated reductions of-13.9% and -47.6%, respectively. A possible explanation for these negative performances of mills in the latter period is the decline in production in the second period compared to the first period, where these mills were not able to adjust their inputs （mostly labour） as proportional lay-offs might not have been possible. These results provide policy makers and industry stakeholders with an improved understanding of the trends of efficiency and employ- ment as well as reallocation opportunities of future inputs in order to increase benefits from this sector.

Efficiency and productivity analysis of vegetable farming within root and tuber-based systems in the humid tropics of Cameroon

The study analyzes the technical efficiency of vegetable farmers in root and tuber-based farming systems within selected sites of the humid tropics of Cameroon. Multistage sampling was used to collect primary data from a cross-section of vegetable farmers drawn from eight selected sites in Santa sub division, Northwest region of Cameroon. Stochastic frontier analysis was used to estimate the technical efficiency of vegetable farmer and to examine its determinants. The results showed that farmyard manure was the most productive factor input, followed by farm equipment and labor. The mean technical efficiency level was 67%, revealing production shortfalls and indicating possibilities of significantly increasing production with the current input Jevels. Female, as well as more educated farmers were found to be significantly more efficient than their counterparts. The results also showed that farmers become less technical efficient as farm sizes become larger. Our study findings suggest that smallholder farmers＇ access to manure, farm implements, and increased women participation in vegetable farming, will produce huge payoffs in vegetable production efficiency in Cameroon.

Changes in Total Factor Productivity,Technological Progress and Efficiency of Banana Industry in China

Based on the DEA-based Malmquist index method,the total factor productivity was calculated for 5 major banana production areas in 2003-2004,and it was further divided into technological progress and technical efficiency.The results show that the total factor productivity of banana industry in China was 1.3% in the sample period,mainly due to technological progress,the average growth rate was 2.6%,while the pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency was -0.1% and -1.2% respectively.The improvement of total factor productivity in banana industry in China relied mainly on technological progress,cultivation of new banana varieties,management of high quality cultivation,popularization and application of water conservation and fertilizer saving technology,and injury-free picking technologies.The pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency of banana production were negative,indicating that the management level of banana was not high.The effect of scale economy of this industry through agglomeration and consolidation is still to be practiced.Banana growers should promote the improvement of large scale and management level of the banana industry at the same time of promoting the technological progress.

Efficiency Analysis of Listed Power Companies Based on Malmquist Index

This paper improved the known study for technical progress in Malmquist productivity index calculating. In the method, all the possible movements for decision making units （DMUs） are listed, and the condition that several DMUs lie on the productivity frontier is analyzed. The dynamic efficiencies of Chinese listed power companies from 1997 to 2006 were evaluated. The empirical results indicate that the improved method is effective.

基于三阶段数据包络分析模型的苏浙沪皖经济圈医院运行效率研究

目的分析2019年苏浙沪皖经济圈内27个城市医院运行效率,为优化苏浙沪皖卫生资源配置和规划提供参考。方法选取苏浙沪皖27个城市医院指标数据,运用三阶段数据包络分析(data envelopment analysis,DEA)模型法,在控制环境变量和剔除随机效应后效率分析。结果苏浙沪皖经济圈医院综合技术效率、纯技术效率和规模效率均值分别为0.941、0.948和0.992。结论苏浙沪皖经济圈内医院运行效率有所差异,环境变量对医院运行效率影响较大,对外部的资源配置存在敏感性不同的差异,应统筹区域医疗资源,提高医院运行效率。

Regional differences and threshold characters of the impact of energy use efficiency on energy scarcity in China

The improvement of the technical efficiency of energy use has been widely seen as an important way to alleviate energy scarcity.However,the energy rebound effect demonstrates the vulnerability and unsustainability of alleviating energy scarcity relying on technology.Under the background of the consistent development of energy factor market,it is of great importance to explore the paths and differences of energy source allocation constrained by technology and cost to promote the sustainable use of energy.This study analyzed the regional differences and threshold characteristics in the impact of the technical and cost efficiency of energy use on energy scarcity using the instrumental variable-two-stage least square method,based on the panel data of Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2017.The results showed that:①Technology and price were the critical forces of the technical and cost efficiency of energy use.They changed the degree of use of surplus production factors by affecting the complementary and replacement demand relationship between energy and non-energy factors.Meanwhile,the impact of energy use efficiency on energy scarcity showed regional and time features due to the different technology capabilities and different levels of market development in different regions and different time.②The alleviation of energy scarcity at the national level relied on the improvement of energy cost efficiency.At the regional level,the alleviation of energy scarcity in central China came from the improvement of the technical efficiency of energy use.However,the alleviation of energy scarcity in the eastern and western regions was due to the improvement of energy cost efficiency.③Constrained by the economic development,openness,science and technology input and the industrial development structure,the impact of the technical and cost efficiency of energy use on energy scarcity demonstrated a nonlinear feature.And structural mutation occurred after passing a specific‘inflection point’,which showed a significant threshold feature.Therefore,energy price should play an important role in energy use and it is necessary to pay attention to the regional differences and time characteristics of energy economic development to promote the sustainable development of energy resources.

Data envelopment analysis for scale elasticity measurement in the stochastic case:with an application to Indian banking

In the nonparametric data envelopment analysis literature,scale elasticity is evaluated in two alternative ways:using either the technical efficiency model or the cost efficiency model.This evaluation becomes problematic in several situations,for example(a)when input proportions change in the long run,(b)when inputs are heterogeneous,and(c)when firms face ex-ante price uncertainty in making their production decisions.To address these situations,a scale elasticity evaluation was performed using a value-based cost efficiency model.However,this alternative value-based scale elasticity evaluation is sensitive to the uncertainty and variability underlying input and output data.Therefore,in this study,we introduce a stochastic cost-efficiency model based on chance-constrained programming to develop a value-based measure of the scale elasticity of firms facing data uncertainty.An illustrative empirical application to the Indian banking industry comprising 71 banks for eight years(1998–2005)was made to compare inferences about their efficiency and scale properties.The key findings are as follows:First,both the deterministic model and our proposed stochastic model yield distinctly different results concerning the efficiency and scale elasticity scores at various tolerance levels of chance constraints.However,both models yield the same results at a tolerance level of 0.5,implying that the deterministic model is a special case of the stochastic model in that it reveals the same efficiency and returns to scale characterizations of banks.Second,the stochastic model generates higher efficiency scores for inefficient banks than its deterministic counterpart.Third,public banks exhibit higher efficiency than private and foreign banks.Finally,public and old private banks mostly exhibit either decreasing or constant returns to scale,whereas foreign and new private banks experience either increasing or decreasing returns to scale.Although the application of our proposed stochastic model is illustrative,it can be potentially applied to all firms in the information and distribution-intensive industry with high fixed costs,which have ample potential for reaping scale and scope benefits.

上海市静安区区级医院慢性肾衰竭患者住院总费用负担评价

目的 对上海市静安区2015—2019年区级医院慢性肾衰竭患者住院总费用负担进行评价,探讨导致住院总费用负担增加的主要因素,为控制住院总费用、减轻患者本人和社会经济压力提供可行性建议。方法 利用基于松弛变量的数据包络分析法对住院总费用技术效率进行测算。结果 各年度的住院总费用技术效率均低于0.8,其中2015年技术效率值最高,而2019年技术效率值最低。各类医疗费用中治疗费和检查化验费技术效率值较低。不同医院之间技术效率值存在显著差异。结论 慢性肾衰竭患者住院总费用负担呈逐年上升趋势。慢性肾衰竭住院患者药费支出较为合理。降低治疗费和检查化验费是控制住院总费用的关键。各医疗机构诊疗行为的不同是造成疾病经济负担差异的重要因素。