This note provides an introduction to two prominent econometric benchmarking methods: Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Analysis. It discusses the econometric techniques, provides a practical example using the World Bank's Enterprise Survey data, and offers conclusions for...

This paper analyzes the distribution of technical efficiency within manufacturing industries. Using a representative sample of 35,000 firms in 255 industries of the German cost structure census, technical efficiencies are estimated by applying a deterministic frontier production function with...

Using micro-level panel data of about 35,000 firms from the German Cost Structure Census, we analyze the differences of technical efficiency across industries. Technical efficiency is estimated by firms' fixed effects. One striking result is that the distribution of technical efficiency across...