Productivity and Efficiency Analysis

Researchers in this field develop various theories as well as do empirical analysis involving measures of absolute and relative economic performance, including measures of productivity and efficiency for various economics systems (firms, farms, banks, entire industries or entire countries). Some studies involve measurement of productivity growth that decompose into measures of technological change, efficiency change and other sources.  Estimation methods usually involve intensive use of various econometric techniques, statistical and economic theory for index numbers, mathematical programming methods (linear, non-linear, integer and mixed programming optimisations), etc.  Applications of these methods are frequently used in business and management sciences and in business practices.
 
A particular strength of the School in this field is due to research activities of CEPA—The Centre for Efficiency and Productivity Analysis.  CEPA is one of the best research centres of its kind in the world that embraces internationally renowned permanent and visiting scholars in the field as well as highly promising mid-career and early career researches and students and thus provides excellent platform for their research and scientific debates.  Every year, the School hosts many visiting researchers in the filed, including internationally renowned scholars, from various countries, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, UK, USA, etc.
 
The strength of the School in this area is also indicated by the fact it hosts editors and associate editors for several key journals in the field, including the Journal of Productivity Analysis, Empirical Economics, Review of Income and Wealth. As of November 2015, The School ranks among the top 3 economic research groups in the world for this field, after the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the World Bank, but above London School of Economics, OECD, IMF, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, etc. (source).
 
The School’s pioneering theoretical and applied research in this area includes firm-level, industry-level, and international comparisons in both private and government sectors. The researchers of the School have developed new theories and provided mathematical and statistical software packages to measure productivity and efficiency. Used globally, these products include four software packages that are available to the public free-of-charge.  Its research has led to the development of new techniques used in the analysis of agricultural data in the United States, Denmark, Finland, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).  Annually, the School (via CEPA) runs intensive-training courses and workshops. These attract graduate students, researchers, economists, statisticians and consultants from private and public sector organisations internationally.
 
Selected research highlights:
·          Publications in top journals, including such A* outlets as: Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, European Journal of Operational Research and the International Journal of Production Economics, OMEGA, Journal of Banking and Finance, etc.
 
·          Building a database to enable international comparisons of purchasing power parities and real incomes for 141 countries from 1971 to 2005 (the group launched the UQICD website in 2012 as a public interface to download the database).
 
·          Establishing the empirical possibility of analysing production under uncertainty when information is incomplete and without regard to the nature of producer risk preferences; applying the methodology to data on OECD agriculture, US agriculture, Finnish agriculture, Queensland hospitals and Brazilian water utilities.