IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oeg/wpaper/2002-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rent-Seeking Measurement in Coal Mining by Means of Labour Unrest: An Application of the Distance Function

Author

Listed:
  • Rodríguez-Álvarez, Ana
  • Del Rosal, Ignacio
  • Baños, José

Abstract

We propose a method based on the distance function to empirically estimate the social cost arising from rent seeking behaviour in declining industries. Due to import competition, the factors of a particular industry undergo losses in real income, and have incentives to seek protection. In the case of declining industries, workers play a central role and the losses in output due to strikes are used to quantify the social cost of rent seeking. In our model, strikes are considered as a “bad” input into the production process. We apply our approach to the case of Spanish coal mining. We have estimated a system of equations formed by the input distance function and cost share equations using annual data over the period 1974-1997. This procedure has allowed us to calculate the cost that strikes have imposed on the sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodríguez-Álvarez, Ana & Del Rosal, Ignacio & Baños, José, 2002. "Rent-Seeking Measurement in Coal Mining by Means of Labour Unrest: An Application of the Distance Function," Efficiency Series Papers 2002/02, University of Oviedo, Department of Economics, Oviedo Efficiency Group (OEG).
    • Handle: RePEc:oeg:wpaper:2002/02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.unioviedo.es/oeg/ESP/esp_2002_02.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 1990. "A distance function approach to price efficiency," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 123-126, October.
    2. Robert E. Baldwin, 1986. "Rent-Seeking and Trade Policy: An Industry Approach," International Economic Association Series, in: Bela Balassa & Herbert Giersch (ed.), Economic Incentives, chapter 16, pages 429-453, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Ferrier, Gary D. & Lovell, C. A. Knox, 1990. "Measuring cost efficiency in banking : Econometric and linear programming evidence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 229-245.
    4. Ignacio del Rosal & Alberto Fonseca, 2001. "Rent-seeking measurement by means of labour unrest in trade-related adjustment processes. A note," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(4), pages 273-277.
    5. Tullock, Gordon, 1997. "Where Is the Rectangle?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 149-159, April.
    6. Cornes,Richard, 1992. "Duality and Modern Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521336017.
    7. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    8. Krueger, Anne O, 1974. "The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(3), pages 291-303, June.
    9. Rolf Färe & Shawna Grosskopf, 1998. "Shadow Pricing of Good and Bad Commodities," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(3), pages 584-590.
    10. Patrick A. McNutt, 1996. "The Economics of Public Choice," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 58.
    11. Battese, George & Rao, D.S. Prasada & Walujadi, Dedi, 2001. "Technical Efficiency and Productivity Potential of Firms Using a Stochastic Metaproduction Frontier," Efficiency Series Papers 2001/08, University of Oviedo, Department of Economics, Oviedo Efficiency Group (OEG).
    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. Ana Rodríguez-Álvarez & Ignacio Rosal & José Baños-Pino, 2007. "The cost of strikes in the Spanish mining sector: modelling an undesirable input with a distance function," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 73-83, February.
    2. Gema Carrera-Gómez & José Baños-Pino & Pablo Coto-Millán & Vicente López de Sabando, 2005. "Rate of Return Regulation: The Case of Spanish Ports," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 11(2), pages 191-200, May.
    3. Ana Rodríguez‐Álvarez & C. A. Knox Lovell, 2004. "Excess capacity and expense preference behaviour in National Health Systems: an application to the Spanish public hospitals," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 157-169, February.
    4. Rodriguez-Alvarez, Ana & Fernandez-Blanco, Victor & Lovell, C. A. Knox, 2004. "Allocative inefficiency and its cost:: The case of Spanish public hospitals," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 99-111, November.
    5. Luis R. Murillo‐Zamorano, 2004. "Economic Efficiency and Frontier Techniques," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 33-77, February.
    6. repec:kap:iaecre:v:11:y:2005:i:2:p:191-200 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Jongmoo Jay Choi & Hoje Jo & Jimi Kim & Moo Sung Kim, 2018. "Business Groups and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 931-954, December.
    8. Banos-Pino, Jose & Fernandez-Blanco, Victor & Rodriguez-Alvarez, Ana, 2002. "The allocative efficiency measure by means of a distance function: The case of Spanish public railways," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 191-205, February.
    9. Gylfason, Thorvaldur, 1999. "Exports, Inflation and Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1031-1057, June.
    10. Matthew D. Mitchell, 2019. "Uncontestable favoritism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 167-190, October.
    11. Lay, Jann & Omar Mahmoud, Toman, 2004. "Bananas, oil, and development: examining the resource curse and its transmission channels by resource type," Kiel Working Papers 1218, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    12. Evan Osborne, 2004. "Corruption and Its Alternatives: A Takeoff Theory of Good Governance," ISER Discussion Paper 0604, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    13. Arye L. Hillman & Ngo Van Long, 2017. "Rent Seeking: The Social Cost of Contestable Benefits," CESifo Working Paper Series 6462, CESifo.
    14. Ludovic Comeau, 2003. "Democracy and Growth: A Relationship Revisited," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 1-21, Winter.
    15. Murray, Cameron K., 2012. "Markets in political influence: rent-seeking, networks and groups," MPRA Paper 42070, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Claessens, Stijn & Feijen, Erik & Laeven, Luc, 2008. "Political connections and preferential access to finance: The role of campaign contributions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 554-580, June.
    17. Serrao, Amilcar, 2002. "Influence of Political Campaign Contributions by American Agribusiness Firms on U.S. Farm Policy," 2002 International Congress, August 28-31, 2002, Zaragoza, Spain 24855, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. Kinsey, Jean D. & Ndayisenga, Fidele, 1999. "The Impact Of Political Contributions By Food Manufacturing Firms On U.S. Farm Policy," Journal of Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics Association of Georgia, vol. 17(1), pages 1-15.
    19. Paul C. Cheshire & Gerard H. Dericks, 2020. "‘Trophy Architects’ and Design as Rent‐seeking: Quantifying Deadweight Losses in a Tightly Regulated Office Market," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(348), pages 1078-1104, October.
    20. Andrew Smith & Graham Brownlow, 2023. "Informal Institutions as Inhibitors of Rent-Seeking Entrepreneurship: Evidence From U.S. Legal History," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2323-2346, November.
    21. Zhong-qin Su & Hung-Gay Fung, 2013. "Political Connections and Firm Performance in Chinese Companies," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 283-317, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Production theory; rent seeking; input distance function; shadow prices; coal sector;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • L71 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Hydrocarbon Fuels

    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:oeg:wpaper:2002/02. 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: Luis Orea or David Roibas (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/geovies.html .

    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.