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,...

Most analyses of technical efficiency and productivity focus on the activities of firms or institutions using inputs to produce outputs. In this paper, we report the results of an efficiency analysis that is couched in a different context. We analyse the efficiency with which physical...

Estimates of total factor productivity in the meat processing industry in Queensland over the period 1968-69 to 1980-81 are provided, There was no overall improvement in productivity over this period, notwithstanding a decade of new investment during which the real value of the capital stock...

The Lau and Yotopoulos restricted profit function methodology for testing for differences in economic efficiency and its components of allocative and technical efficiency is applied to data from grazing properties in the High Rainfall Zone of New South Wales. Tests are made on the basis of...

Recent low estimates of total factor productivity change for wool producers in the Australian sheep industry indicate that they are struggling to improve their performance. This evidence is at odds with the views of many technical observers of industry performance, prompting us to re-estimate...

The study described in this article is concerned with the derivation of an average production function for 50 sheep farms on an area of light land in the Malvern County, Canterbury Plains, New Zealand. It is based on farm survey data for the 1955/6 season. The locality of the survey was chosen...

In a competitive market dairy production will shift to that region which is the most productive. Thus, this paper reports the measurement of productivity of dairy production in the various states of the U.S. using recent Census data and non-parametric Malmquist index techniques. These are total...

The technical efficiencies of New York dairy farms were estimated using a frontier production function. The average farm was 69 percent efficient. Individual farm efficiency was regressed on variables not considered inputs to explain why a farm was not on the frontier. Favorable location in the...