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Productivity and Efficiency Analysis

Abstract

This book describes a coherent framework for analysing managerial performance. The focus is on measures of performance that are useful for policy makers. The title of the book reflects the fact that most, if not all, of these measures can be viewed as measures of productivity and/or efficiency. This chapter provides an overview of the main concepts and analytical methods described later in the book.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for example, Charnes et al. (1981), Cooper et al. (2004) and Färe and Grosskopf (2010).

  2. 2.

    In practice, CF (resp. EKS) indices are mainly used for time-series (resp. cross-section) comparisons. For this reason, the CF numbers in Table 1.4 were computed by treating the observations in the dataset as observations on one firm over twenty-five periods. The EKS numbers were computed by treating the observations in the dataset as observations on twenty-five firms in one period.

  3. 3.

    Again, the CF numbers were computed by treating the observations in the dataset as observations on one firm over twenty-five periods. The EKS index numbers were computed by treating the observations in the dataset as observations on twenty-five firms in one period.

  4. 4.

    In mathematics, a piecewise function is a function defined on a sequence of intervals (or sub-domains). Examples include the absolute value function and the Heaviside step function.

  5. 5.

    Barton and Cooper (1948) found in, for example, Barton and Cooper (1948, p. 123) use the term ‘output per unit of input’ instead of TFP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Christopher J. O’Donnell

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  1. Christopher J. O’Donnell
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Correspondence to Christopher J. O’Donnell .

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O’Donnell, C.J. (2018). Overview. In: Productivity and Efficiency Analysis. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2984-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2984-5_1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-2982-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-2984-5

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