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Efficiency Levels (efficiency + level)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	85%

Selected Abstracts

Production Efficiency and the Pricing of Audit Services,

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 1 2003
Nicholas Dopuch
Abstract In this paper, we examine the relative efficiency of audit production by one of the then Big 6 public accounting firms for a sample of 247 geographically dispersed audits of U.S. companies performed in 1989. To test the relative efficiency of audit production, we use both stochastic frontier estimation (SFE) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). A feature of our research is that we also test whether any apparent inefficiencies in production, identified using SFE and DEA, are correlated with audit pricing. That is, do apparent inefficiencies cause the public accounting firm to reduce its unit price (billing rate) per hour of labor utilized on an engagement? With respect to results, we do not find any evidence of relative (within-sample) inefficiencies in the use of partner, manager, senior, or staff labor hours using SFE. This suggests that the SFE model may not be sufficiently powerful to detect inefficiencies, even with our reasonably large sample size. However, we do find apparent inefficiencies using the DEA model. Audits range from about 74 percent to 100 percent relative efficiency in production, while the average audit is produced at about an 88 percent efficiency level, relative to the most efficient audits in the sample. Moreover, the inefficiencies identified using DEA are correlated with the firm's realization rate. That is, average billing rates per hour fall as the amount of inefficiency increases. Our results suggest that there are moderate inefficiencies in the production of many of the subject public accounting firm's audits, and that such inefficiencies are economically costly to the firm. [source]

Ketopinic Acid Derived Bis(hydroxy amides) as Cheap, Chiral Ligands for the Enantioselective Ethylation of Aromatic Aldehydes

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, Issue 9 2010
Tomás de las Casas Engel
Abstract Readily accessible, C2 - and pseudo- C2 -symmetric bis(hydroxy amides), derived from commercially available (+)-ketopinic acid and protic diamines, are promising, cheap, chiral ligands for the synthetically valuable, enantioselective addition of organozinc reagents to carbon electrophiles. A series of ligands of this type, having key structural differences, has been synthesized and tested in the enantioselective ethylation of benzaldehydes and (E)-cinnamaldehyde, in order to gain information on the origin of ligand efficiency. The results obtained allow for the definition of a privileged structural pattern for the design of improved cheap ligands and support interesting models proposed for both the acting catalytic species and the controlling transition states. The most efficient ligands proved to be less efficient than commercially available (,)-MIB; nevertheless, an impressive efficiency level was obtained, which should sustain interest in this cheap type of ligands. [source]

Planned obsolescence and marketing strategy

MANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 8 2000
Atsuo Utaka
By using a two-period model of a durable goods monopolist, we investigate marketing activities that have an obsolescence effect on products already sold in the past period. We assume that the monopolist can stimulate consumer demand for second-period products by marketing activities, and analyse not only the case where the level of marketing is determined in the second period, but also the case where it is determined in advance, namely, in the first period. It is shown that the equilibrium level of marketing becomes higher than the efficiency level not only in the former case, but also in the latter case if the obsolescence effect is not so large. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Does heterogeneity in goals and preferences affect efficiency?

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3-4 2010
A case study of farm households in northern Nigeria
Heterogeneous behavior; Efficiency analysis; Smallholder agriculture; Nigeria Abstract Household characteristics are commonly used to explain variation in smallholder efficiency levels. The underlying assumption is that differences in intended behavior are well described by such variables, while there is no,a priori,reason that this is the case. Moreover, heterogeneity in farmer goals and preferences, in relation to the role of the farm enterprise, are not well documented in developing countries. This article makes a contribution to fill this gap, by empirically determining heterogeneity in farmer goals and attitudes in Nigeria through a pair-wise ranking, supplemented with Likert scales. Factor analysis is used to reduce these data into behavioral factors. We estimate technical and allocative efficiency levels and analyze how these are related to farm characteristics and the identified behavioral factors. The models in which both intended behavior and farmer characteristics are included give a significantly better fit over models in which only household characteristics are included. These regression results suggest that the socioeconomic environment affects efficiency levels both directly and indirectly, through changes in goals and attitudes. [source]

Technical Efficiency in a Semi-Formal Financial Sector: The Case of Mexico,

OXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 1 2007
Julia Paxton
Abstract The semi-formal financial sector in Mexico is playing an increasingly important role in serving a largely poor, rural clientele. A stochastic frontier with non-monotonic marginal effects [Wang, Journal of Productivity Analysis (2002), Vol. 18, pp. 241,253] reveals a wide disparity in technical efficiency levels among 190 Mexican semi-formal financial intermediaries. The results show that technology, average loan size, rural outreach and institutional age are all positively associated with technical efficiency. The marginal effects vary widely and, in some cases, the effects are non-monotonic over percentile groups. The results indicate that strengthening younger, technologically undeveloped financial institutions will have the strongest marginal benefit in revitalizing the rural financial sector. [source]

Educational inputs and outcomes before the transition from communism,

THE ECONOMICS OF TRANSITION, Issue 1 2007
John Beirne
O11; J24; P27; P39 Abstract Conventional wisdom suggests that the stocks of human capital were one of the few positive legacies from communism. However, if factories under communism were so inefficient, why would the education system not have been? Using the education production function approach and new data on educational inputs and outcomes from 1960 to 1989, we find evidence suggesting that the official human capital stocks figures were ,overestimated' during the communist period. In other words, we find that the official human capital stock numbers are significantly higher than those predicted not only in relation to countries at similar levels of development, but also on the basis of educational systems with comparable features and efficiency levels. [source]

Firm Efficiency in a Transitional Economy: Evidence from Vietnam

ASIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 1 2008
Thi Bich Tran
C31; O12; R38 The paper examines efficiency performance of the non-state small and medium manufacturing industries in a transitional and developing economy. Using firm level data in Vietnam from 1996 and 2001, cross-sectional models are estimated using the stochastic frontier method. The results show a considerable variation in efficiency levels among firms and that a greater use of family labor and a metropolitan location are associated with improvement in technical efficiency. The results indicate few benefits from direct government financial and non-financial assistance to businesses. [source]