Skip to main content
Log in

Heteroscedasticity and Non-Monotonic Efficiency Effects of a Stochastic Frontier Model

  • Published:
Journal of Productivity Analysis Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We consider a model that provides flexible parameterizations of the exogenous influences on inefficiency. In particular, we demonstrate the model's unique property of accommodating non-monotonic efficiency effect. With this non-monotonicity, production efficiency no longer increases or decreases monotonically with the exogenous influence; instead, the relationship can shifts within the sample. Our empirical example shows that variables can indeed have non-monotonic effects on efficiency. Furthermore, ignoring non-monotonicity is shown to yield an inferior estimation of the model, which sometimes results in opposite predictions concerning the data.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aigner, D., C. A. Knox Lovell and P. Schmidt. (1977). “Formulation and Estimation of Stochastic Frontier Production Function Models.” Journal of Econometrics 6, 21–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrow, D. F. and A. C. Cohen. (1954). “On Some Functions Involving Mill's Ratio.” Annals of Mathematical Statistics 25, 405–408.

    Google Scholar 

  • Battese, G. E. and T. J. Coelli. (1995). “A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data.” Empirical Economics 20, 325–332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, P. W. (1990). “Recent Developments in the Econometric Estimation of Stochastic Frontiers.” Journal of Econometrics 46, 39–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bera, A. K. and S. C. Sharma. (1999). “Estimating Production Uncertainty in Stochastic Frontier Production Function Models.” Journal of Productivity Analysis 12, 187–210.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caudill, S. B. and J. M. Ford. (1993). “Biases in Frontier Estimation Due to Heteroscedasticity.” Economics Letters 41, 17–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caudill, S. B., J. M. Ford and D. M. Gropper. (1995). “Frontier Estimation and Firm-Specific Inefficiency Measures in the Presence of Heteroscedasticity.” Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 13, 105–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coelli, T. J. and G. E. Battese. (1996). “Identification of Factors which Influence the Technical Inefficiency of Indian Farmers.” Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 40, 103–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene, W. H. (1993). “The Econometric Approach to Efficiency Analysis.” In Harold O. Fride, C. A. Knox Lovell and Shelton S. Schmidt (eds.), The Measurement of Productive Efficiency. New York, Oxford: Oxford University, pp. 68–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadi, A. S. (1994). “A Modification of a Method for the Detection of Outliers in Multivariate Samples.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B 56, 393–396.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadri, K. (1999). “Estimation of a Doubly Heteroscedastic Stochastic Frontier Cost Function.” Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 17, 359–363.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang, C. J. and J. T. Liu. (1994). “Estimation of a Non-Neutral Stochastic Frontier Production Function.” Journal of Productivity Analysis 5, 171–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumbhakar, S. C. and C. A. K. Lovell. (2000). Stochastic Frontier Analysis. Cambridge (England), New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumbhakar, S. C., S. Ghosh and J. T. McGuckin. (1991). “A Generalized Production Frontier Approach for Estimating Determinants of Inefficiency in U.S. Dairy Farms.” Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 9, 279–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meeusen, W. and J. van den Broeck. (1977). “Technical Efficiency and Dimension of the Firm: Some Results on the Use of Frontier Production Functions.” Empirical Economics 2, 109–122.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, P. and H. J. Wang. (2002). “One-Step and Two-Step Estimation of the Effects of Exogenous Variables on Technical Efficiency Levels.” Journal of Productivity Analysis 18, 129–144.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wang, HJ. Heteroscedasticity and Non-Monotonic Efficiency Effects of a Stochastic Frontier Model. Journal of Productivity Analysis 18, 241–253 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020638827640

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020638827640

Navigation