1st Edition

Efficiency Issues in Transitional Economies Application to Hungary

By Jenifer Piesse Copyright 1999
    247 Pages
    by Routledge

    248 Pages
    by Routledge

    Published in 1999, this text uses a number of approaches to measure the performance of firms in the transition economies of Central Eastern Europe during the early stages of reform. There is considerable controversy about the level of productivity in this period, as is evident by contradictory evidence quoted in the literature and a high degree of inconsistency in published national statistics. Indeed, the disagreement extends to the measurement approach and the results for this group of countries. Particularly difficult is any analysis at the firm level, as data is inconsistent, incomplete and based on now out-dated accounting systems. The information used in this book is a panel data set of 64 items collected from 1000 firms across 25 industry sectors in Hungary. Productive efficiency is measured and the reasons for poor performance are discussed. It was found that industrial sectors differ in their average performance levels and in the factors most likely to account for this. Finally, recommendations are developed to help to reverse the decline in productivity.

    Part 1: The Transition, Production Theory, Hungarian Accounting and Data  1. Measurement in Periods of Transition  2. The Economics Transition  3. Parametric and Nonparametric Measures of Efficiency and Total Factor Productivity: Theoretical Relationships  4. The Contribution of Accounting Information in Efficiency Measurement: Hungarian Firm Level Data  Part 2: Models, Estimation and Results  5. Primal and Dual Approaches and Functional Forms: Production Function Estimation and Explanation  6. Firm and Industry Level Efficiency Measurement Using Parametric and Nonparametric, Deterministic and Stochastic Frontiers  7. The Importance of Firm Size: Estimations of Returns to Scale and Decomposition of Technical and Scale Efficiency  8. Inter-Temporal Consistency, Panel Data Estimation, One and Two-Factor Error Component Models  Part 3: The Index Number Approach to Productivity, Efficiency and Technical Change; An Application to Structural Transformation  9. Examining Changes Over Time Using Parametric and Nonparametric TFP Indices  10. Decomposing Productivity into Efficiency and Technical Change: Leading Sectors and the Transformation.