THEORY AND PRACTICE OF EFFICIENCY & PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT:

STATIC & DYNAMIC ANALYSIS

Fortaleza 8-12 and 15-19 January 2024

Chris Parmeter, Greg Emvalomatis, Alfons Oude Lansink and Frederic Ang

Introduction

Productivity growth entails changes in scale, efficiency gains and technological change. Innovations are needed to keep pushing the competitive envelope, and efficiency gains are needed to ensure that implemented technologies achieve their potential. Conventional economic approaches assume that all firms operate rationally and efficiently. This summer school, however, challenges this assumption and presents concepts, models and tools needed to analyze and quantify the levels of inefficiency and productivity at a point in time and their movement over time.  The summer school is designed to bridge the gap between theory and practice. It is organized into distinct parts: “Parametric, Static Approaches” (Week 1) and “Dynamic Approaches” (Week 2). Participants may enroll for either week 1 or 2, or both weeks. Although each week is independent, participants are encouraged to take both weeks.

 

Week 1 (8-12 January 2024): Parametric Efficiency and Productivity Analysis

Lecturers: Prof. Chris Parmeter                          Dr. Greg Emvalomatis

     Professor of Economics                        Associate Professor of Economics

    University of Miami, USA                       University of Crete, Greece

The parametric course uses Stochastic Frontier Analysis and semi-parametric techniques to measure efficiency and productivity by letting the data span the frontier to establish best practice. This approach coupled with the microeconomic theory of the firm provides firm-specific measurements of efficiency and best practice role models for improving performance.

 

Week 2 (15–19 January 2024) : Data Envelopment Analysis : Static and Dynamic Efficiency and Productivity Analysis

Lecturers: 

Prof. Alfons Oude Lansink                 Dr. Frederic Ang

Professor of Business Economics        Associate Professor of Business Economics

Wageningen University, Netherlands   Wageningen University, Netherlands

 

The second week introduces the students into Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the dynamic perspective to measuring efficiency and productivity. DEA is a nonparametric technique for measuring efficiency and productivity. The technique does not require distributional assumptions on the efficiency term and is a flexible approach that can be applied to many situations. Dynamic efficiency and productivity analysis is a relatively new approach that has found a more wide application the economics literature. The approach explicitly accounts for the role of adjustment costs in investments.

 

Location

The summer school will be held at the Universidade do Ceara in Fortaleza. Fortaleza is a major city on Brazil's northeast coast, and the capital of Ceará state. It is one of the largest cities in Brazil and certainly one of the most vibrant. The city is perhaps the most popular domestic package tour destination, and Europeans are following suit.In 2018, there were 2.6 million inhabitants in the city, and 4.1 million in the metropolitan area.With a tropical climate, the weather is always sunny year-round, but never extremely hot. Temperatures range from 22 ºC (72 ºF) to 31°C (87 ºF) with rare exceptions. There is usually a breeze blowing from the east softening the temperature and forming the sand dunes. The rainy season occurs in Fortaleza between February and May. In the driest months, between July and December, the winds are stronger and lessen the heat, rainfall practically stop and these are the most favorable months for windsurfers. More information about the how to travel to Fortaleza and what to do there is found here.