In this paper, we assess the potential for rehabilitation of comparative analysis under its new guise of benchmarking. After a brief description of comparative analysis, we discuss the deficiencies that surrounded its fall in reputation: neglect of economic principles, limited scope for action,...

Multifactor productivity growth measures can be constructed using different input–output concepts. We estimate three distinct productivity growth measures respectively based on gross output, value added, and cash flow and discuss their economic interpretation. By making use of an index theory...

Many developing countries are currently experiencing a rapid expansion of supermarkets. New supermarket procurement systems could have important implications for farming and wider rural development. While previous studies have analyzed farm profit and income effects, possible employment effects...

This study determines how production and trade policy distortions affected rice productivity in thirty-three rice-producing countries. A rice-productivity index for each country is constructed, and a model linking the productivity gap with policy distortions is presented. After controlling for...

A growth accounting method is used to analyze the sources of growth in China's rice, wheat, corn and soybeans, the four most important crops in China's grain sector, during 1978-97. A large TFP contribution to growth in grain production is found in the period immediately following China's rural...

Relying on the frontier production approach, we investigated the performance of the agricultural sector in 28 transition countries and its changes over time, especially focusing on the dynamics of productivity changes and the effects of reform policy. Our findings are: (i) Asian and CEE...

Social networks play an increasingly important role in knowledge management, information retrieval, and collaboration. In order to leverage the full potential of social networks, social networks need to be supported through technical systems. Within this paper, we introduce such a technical...

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach used to estimate technical efficiency and followed by regressing the technical efficiency scores to farm specific characters under tobit regression model. Primary data was collected from random samples of 240 (120 from each) coffee famers. Mean technical...

This paper examined cost efficiency differences between rural hospitals participating in the Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Program and a group of non-converting, prospectively paid rural hospitals using both a two-stage semi-parametric approach as well as stochastic frontier analysis (SFA)....

The moist savannah zone in sub-Saharan Africa is regarded as a high potential area for crop and livestock production. Currently, human labour is the principal source of power for crop production and the level of commercial energy use is very low. Agropastoralism and pastoralism are the principal...