Five Statistical Analyses on Efficiency and Productivity. The Data Envelopment Analysis in Economic History

This thesis uses the Data Envelopment Analysis to analyze topics in economic history. All parts are concerned with productivity and efficiency. For the United States in the nineteenth century, it is shown that factories were more efficient than artisanal shops, and the hypothesis that regional efficiency differences were responsible for different industrial development paths cannot be confirmed.It is also shown that the american civil war had rather less influence on manufacturing efficiency. The war-torn regions were somewhat stronger after the war in technical efficiency, while they were worse in scale efficiency. Analyzing the determinants of labor productivity in Russia the results suggest a strong positive influence of nutrition and education in the 1870s on labor productivity. Political influences proved to be important. When looking at a global dataset of up to 62 countries from the 1850s to the 1980s estimates of government efficiency are presented and the correlates analyzed. Results suggest that some highly developed countries were remarkably deficiency with regard to efficiency and that ethnic heterogeneity lowers efficiency. Altogether, this thesis shows the potential of the data envelopment analysis to shed light on controversial topics in economic history.