Cátedra Santander en Eficiencia y Productividad

Title: Measuring Productivity Change Accounting for Adjustment Costs: Evidence from the Food Industry in the European Union

Speaker: Magdalena Kapelko, Wroclaw University of Economics, Institute of Applied Mathematics, Department of Logistics

Date: 11/07/2017, 10:00h

Location: Sala de Seminarios (Edificio Torretamarit), Universidad Miguel Hernández (Campus de Elche) 

Abstract: This paper extends the measurement of dynamic productivity change over time to provide its full decomposition into economically meaningful components in the Data Envelopment Analysis framework. The dynamic approach accounts for dynamics of production decisions via adjustment costs and is visualized as a dynamic Luenberger productivity change indicator. The paper also estimates the dynamic productivity change and its components for a large dataset of European food companies from 2004 till 2012, grouped into Eastern, Southern, and Western regions. The study reveals three main results. First, the overall trend of dynamic technical regress and positive dynamic technical inefficiency change across almost all regions and sectors was found. Second, some differences for this general pattern were found for the bakery industry and for Eastern European firms. Thirdly, there are also some remarkable changes in indicators observed during the periods related to the financial crisis and the volatility of agricultural commodity prices.

­­­Título: «Differences in teachers’ efficiency: evidence for Spain»

Ponente: Gabriela Sicilia (UAM)

Fecha: 07/06/2017, 12:00h

Lugar: Sala de seminarios, Edificio Torretamarit, Universidad Miguel Hernández (Campus de Elche)

Abstract:

This research contributes to the ongoing debate about differences in teachers’ performance. We introduce a new methodology that combine production frontier and impact evaluation insights that allows using DEA as an identification strategy of a treatment with high and low quality teachers within schools to assess their performance. We use a unique database in Spain that supplies information on two classrooms at 4th grade in primary education, where students and teachers were randomly assigned into the two classrooms at each school. We find considerable differences in teachers’ efficiency across schools and also significant effects on students’ achievement. In line with previous findings, we find that neither teacher experience nor academic training explains teachers’ efficiency. Conversely, being a female teacher, having worked five or more years in the same school, repeating a second year with the same group or having smaller class sizes positively affects the efficiency of teachers.