Productive Efficiency: A Dynamic Consideration

Abstract

效率乃經濟理論之精義。本文探討準固定要素下之生產效率。因準固定生產要素之本質，一動態生產效率之廠商於決定要素投入時，並非根據當前要素之價格，而是根據未來預期要素價格之折扣加權平均值，此預期值可能是理性之預期結果。本文假定動態成本函數為一超越泛函數，生產效率服從隨機性截斷正常分配。理論模型應用於美國製造業，實證結果顯示：準固定性顯著地影響要素使用之決定，資本和勞動為準固定要素，而能源為一變動投入。實證結果並揭露：此產業之總生產效率逐時改善，但呈一循環現象；資源錯誤配置所導致之效率損失，主要來自技術面。Efficiency is the essential theme of economic theory. This study investigates productive efficiency in a production process where quasi-fixed factors may appear. With the nature of quasi-fixed factors, a dynamically efficient firm will adjust factor proportions not to prevailing input prices but rather to some weighted average of discounted future input prices, probably rationally expected. To assess dynamic productive efficiency, a Translog dynamic cost function and a stochastic truncated normal distribution of productive efficiency are assumed. The constructed dynamic productive efficiency structure is applied to the U.S. manufacturing sector. The empirical results show that the quasi-fixity of factor inputs is significant in firm`s input decisions, especially capital and labor, while energy is a variable or flexible input. The estimates of productive efficiency in the Farrell measurement reveal that the sector has improved its productive efficiency over time with a cyclical pattern, and that technical inefficiency accounts for the major source of the efficiency loss from resource misallocation.