IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v11y2023i3p657-d1049151.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are State-Owned Enterprises Really Ineffective? An Empirical Study Based on Stochastic Frontier Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Chao Liu

    (School of Business, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China)

  • Jiaye Lu

    (School of Business, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China)

  • Ding Li

    (School of Culture and Communication, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China)

  • Mengyao Jia

    (School of Business, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China)

  • Kunru Han

    (School of Business, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China)

Abstract

Technical efficiency (TE) and total factor productivity (TFP) are important criteria to ensure the enhancement of the quality and efficiency of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and function as important indicators to assess the quality of their accomplishments. The purpose of this study is to explore whether the efficiency of SOEs is higher or lower than that of private enterprises. Transcendental logarithmic production function and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) are used to assess the TE and TFP of listed central SOEs, local SOEs, and private enterprises, the data of which were taken from 2006–2020. The results show that the sampled private enterprises had the highest average TE during the study period, followed by the central and local SOEs. The private enterprises also had the highest average TFP growth rate, followed by the local and central SOEs. The TFP decompositions show that the TE change (TEC) and technical change (TC) indices of the SOEs were lower than those of the private enterprises. The TC, TEC, and scale change (SC) are limiting the TFP growth rates of the SOEs in labor-intensive industries. The SC of the SOEs has changed less than that of private enterprises in the sampled capital-intensive industries. Northern and southern China had the highest rates of TE and TFP growth. Indeed, this paper measures and decomposes TFP, and analyzes the efficiency of SOEs and private enterprises in different industries and regions in an international context.

Suggested Citation

  • Chao Liu & Jiaye Lu & Ding Li & Mengyao Jia & Kunru Han, 2023. "Are State-Owned Enterprises Really Ineffective? An Empirical Study Based on Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:11:y:2023:i:3:p:657-:d:1049151
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/11/3/657/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/11/3/657/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simeon Djankov & Peter Murrell, 2002. "Enterprise Restructuring in Transition: A Quantitative Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(3), pages 739-792, September.
    2. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, J, 1977. "Technical Efficiency and Dimension of the Firm: Some Results on the Use of Frontier Production Functions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 109-122.
    3. Saul Estrin & Jan Hanousek & Evzen Kocenda & Jan Svejnar, 2009. "The Effects of Privatization and Ownership in Transition Economies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 699-728, September.
    4. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    5. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2009. "Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in China and India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(4), pages 1403-1448.
    6. Seog-Chan Oh & Jaemin Shin, 2021. "The Assessment of Car Making Plants with an Integrated Stochastic Frontier Analysis Model," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-21, June.
    7. Liu, Zheng & Spiegel, Mark M. & Zhang, Jingyi, 2021. "Optimal capital account liberalization in China," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 1041-1061.
    8. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    9. Bogart, Dan & Chaudhary, Latika, 2015. "Off the rails: Is state ownership bad for productivity?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 997-1013.
    10. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    11. J. David Brown & John S. Earle & Almos Telegdy, 2006. "The Productivity Effects of Privatization: Longitudinal Estimates from Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(1), pages 61-99, February.
    12. Subal Kumbhakar & M. Denny & M. Fuss, 2000. "Estimation and decomposition of productivity change when production is not efficient: a paneldata approach," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 312-320.
    13. Daniel Berkowitz & Hong Ma & Shuichiro Nishioka, 2017. "Recasting the Iron Rice Bowl: The Reform of China's State-Owned Enterprises," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(4), pages 735-747, July.
    14. Larissa Batrancea, 2021. "The Influence of Liquidity and Solvency on Performance within the Healthcare Industry: Evidence from Publicly Listed Companies," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(18), pages 1-15, September.
    15. Atkinson, Scott E. & Halvorsen, Robert, 1986. "The relative efficiency of public and private firms in a regulated environment: The case of U.S. electric utilities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 281-294, April.
    16. J. David Brown & John S. Earle & Almos Telegdy, "undated". "The Productivity Effects of Privatization: Longitudnal Estimates for Hungary, romania, Russia, and Ukraine," Upjohn Working Papers jse20063, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    17. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hanousek, Jan & Kočenda, Evžen & Mašika, Michal, 2012. "Firm efficiency: Domestic owners, coalitions, and FDI," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 471-486.
    2. Svejnar, Jan & Hagemejer, Jan & Tyrowicz, Joanna, 2018. "Are Rushed Privatizations Substandard? Analyzing Firm-level Privatization under Fiscal Pressure," CEPR Discussion Papers 12991, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Jan Hagemejer & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2020. "A New Instrument for Measuring the Local Causal Effect of Privatisation on Firm Performance," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 35-52.
    4. Bogart, Dan & Chaudhary, Latika, 2015. "Off the rails: Is state ownership bad for productivity?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 997-1013.
    5. Lovász, Anna & Rigó, Mariann, 2013. "Vintage effects, aging and productivity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 47-60.
    6. Taining Wang & Jinjing Tian & Feng Yao, 2021. "Does high debt ratio influence Chinese firms’ performance? A semiparametric stochastic frontier approach with zero inefficiency," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 587-636, August.
    7. Fusheng Xie, 2023. "Productivity Improvement from the Mixed-Ownership Reform: A Financial Frictions Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-20, January.
    8. Ge, Ying & Lai, Huiwen & Zhu, Susan Chun, 2015. "Multinational price premium," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 181-199.
    9. Jin, Zhangfeng & Pan, Shiyuan, 2020. "Incentive Pay and Firm Productivity: Evidence from China," GLO Discussion Paper Series 479, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    10. Chad Syverson, 2011. "What Determines Productivity?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 326-365, June.
    11. Jan Hagemejer & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2021. "Structural change and misallocation: Firm‐level evidence from Poland," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 95-122, January.
    12. Jan Hanousek & Evzen Kocenda, 2016. "FDI and Ownership in Czech Firms: Pre- and Post-crisis Efficiency," KIER Working Papers 942, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.
    13. Giovanni Calice & Levent Kutlu & Ming Zeng, 2021. "Understanding US firm efficiency and its asset pricing implications," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 803-827, February.
    14. David Greenaway & Alessandra Guariglia & Zhihong Yu, 2014. "The more the better? Foreign ownership and corporate performance in China," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(7-9), pages 681-702, September.
    15. Andrea Lasagni & Annamaria Nifo & Gaetano Vecchione, 2015. "Firm Productivity And Institutional Quality: Evidence From Italian Industry," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 774-800, November.
    16. Stepan Jurajda & Juraj Stancik, 2012. "Foreign Ownership and Corporate Performance: The Czech Republic at EU Entry," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 62(4), pages 306-324, August.
    17. Ichiro Iwasaki & Satoshi Mizobata & Alexander Muravyev, 2018. "Ownership dynamics and firm performance in an emerging economy: a meta-analysis of the Russian literature," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 290-333, May.
    18. Chun‐Yu Ho & Yue Sheng, 2022. "Productivity advantage of large cities for creative industries," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(6), pages 1289-1306, December.
    19. Ádám Szentpéteri & Álmos Telegdy, 2010. "Political Selection Of Firms Into Privatization Programs. Evidence From Romanian Comprehensive Data," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 298-328, November.
    20. Laura Cabeza García & Silvia Gómez Ansón, 2012. "What Drives the Operating Performance of Privatised Firms?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 59(1), pages 1-27, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    SOEs; efficiency; SFA;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:11:y:2023:i:3:p:657-:d:1049151. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.