In this paper we compare two flexible estimators of technical efficiency in a cross-sectional setting: the … nonparametric kernel SFA estimator of Fan, Li and Weersink (1996) to the nonparametric bias corrected DEA estimator of Kneip, Simar … examples. We find that the reliability of efficiency scores critically hinges upon the ratio of the variation in efficiency to …

We estimate a measure of well-being efficiency that assesses countries' ability to transform inputs into subjective … Analysis to a sample of 126 countries. Efficiency scores reveal that high ranking subjective well-being countries, such as the … Nordics, are not strictly the most efficient ones. Also, the scores are uncorrelated with economic efficiency. This suggests …

on students learning efficiency. The results indicate that the main effects of the re-organization on the learning … efficiency was a decreasing importance of students? attendance and of continuous preparation of the material. …

explained by growth in the use of factor inputs. We also find that median technical efficiency declined in all but one of the … industries between the two years, and change in technical efficiency explains a very small proportion in the change in gross …

agreements and technical efficiency, using a large sample of Italian manufacturing firms. We apply the Data Envelopment Analysis …, and its robust version based on bootstrap theory, to get reliable estimates of technical efficiency at the firm level in a … frontiers, as well as to the presence of outliers. The obtained efficiency scores are analyzed in a second stage applying a …

as pivotal input in order to control for their particular contribution to firm-level efficiency. Conceptually, the study … of low-tech industries. However, with regard to firms' technical efficiency, R&D matters for all industries (unlike …

This chapter analyzes the effect of intangible investment on firm efficiency with an emphasis on its software component … technical efficiency in the software intensive manufacturing firms in Turkey for the period 2003-2007. Firms are classified … differentials in their firm efficiency. The results show that the effect of software investment on firm efficiency is larger in high …