This paper aims to provide empirical researchers with an overview of the methodological issues that arise when estimating total factor productivity at the establishment level, as well as of the existing techniques designed to overcome them. Apart from the well-known simultaneity and selection...

This paper shows how to construct locally robust semiparametric GMM estimators, meaning equivalently moment conditions have zero derivative with respect to the first step and the first step does not affect the asymptotic variance. They are constructed by adding to the moment functions the...

This paper analyzes the impact of load factor, facility and generator types on the productivity of Korean electric power plants. In order to capture important differences in the effect of load policy on power output, we use a semiparametric smooth coefficient (SPSC) model that allows us to model...

From an empirical perspective, this paper critically examines the concepts of returns to scale (RTS) and economies of scale (EOS), and argues that the concept of EOS is more relevant and broader enough to exhibit proper scale economies behavior of firms. Two approaches, i.e., production function...

Control function approaches to estimating production functions rely on a proxy that is monotone in an unobserved scalar productivity conditioning on other state variables. Ackerberg, Caves, and Frazer (2015) point out a potential functional dependence problem when conditioning only on capital....

In this paper we show that the relationship between trade liberalization and fi rm productivity is sensitive to the method used to estimate the production function. We estimate the productivity of Colombian manufacturing plants using the methods of Levinsohn and Petrin (2003), Ackerberg, Caves...

This article illustrates a straightforward and useful method for incorporating exogenous inefficiency effects in the estimation of semiparametric stochastic frontier models. An iterative estimation algorithm based on two-step nonlinear least squares is developed allowing for any flexible and...

Most empirical studies seeking to estimate firm-level production technologies via proxy variable estimators focus on single-output production functions despite that, in practice, the majority of firms produce multiple outputs. Arguably, the primary reason for vast popularity of a single-product...

Estimating efficiencies of higher education institutions (HEIs) has become a central area of research in efficiency analysis literature, particularly during the last two decades. Although the number of efficiency analysis researches in higher education has risen, comparative research estimating...

We study Ackerberg, Caves, and Frazer (2015)'s production function estimation method using Monte Carlos simulations. First, we replicate their results by using the same procedure and confirm the existence, as noted by ACF, of a spurious minimum in the estimation. In the population, or when the...