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Abstract

In this study, we explore the distribution of productive efficiency among workers’ cooperatives operating in each of four sectors of French manufacturing. We use stochastic frontier panel data techniques to estimate production relationships in each sector, and to decompose output variation into input variation, variation in the effects of two indicators of the degree of worker participation in management, variation in productive efficiency, and an unexplained residual. In all four sectors we find that conventionally measured capital and labor inputs make a significant contribution to productivity. In only one sector do participation indicators contribute significantly. Variation in productive efficiency contributes significantly in all four sectors.

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the ORSA/TIMS Joint National Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, October 1990, and at the Allied Social Science Associations meetings in Washington, DC, December 1990. Helpful comments from discusants at both meetings, and from two good referees, are gratefuly acknowledged, as is financial support of AUPELF and the UNC University Research Council.

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Thomas R. Gulledge Jr. C. A. Knox Lovell

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Defourny, J., Lovell, C.A.K., N’gbo, A.G.M. (1992). Variation in Productive Efficiency in French Workers’ Cooperatives. In: Gulledge, T.R., Lovell, C.A.K. (eds) International Applications of Productivity and Efficiency Analysis. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1923-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1923-0_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5793-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1923-0

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