IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ewc/wpaper/wp75.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Technical Efficiency in the Iron and Steel Industry: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Jung Woo Kim

    (Samsung Economic Research Institute, Seoul, Korea)

  • Jeong Yeon Lee

    (Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University)

  • Jae Yong Kim

    (Korea Institute Public Finance, Seoul Korea)

  • Hoe Kyung Lee

    (Korea Advanced Institute of Science of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea)

Abstract

In this paper we examine the technical efficiency of firms in the iron and steel industry and try to identify the factors contributing to the industry's efficiency growth, using a time-varying stochastic frontier model. Based on our findings, which pertain to 52 iron and steel firms over the period of 1978-1997, POSCO and Nippon Steel were the most efficient firms, with their production, on average, exceeding 95 percent of their potential output. Our findings also shed light on possible sources of efficiency growth in the industry. If a firm is government-owned, its privatization is likely to improve its technical efficiency to a great extent. A firm's technical efficiency also tends to be positively related to its production level as measured by a share of the total world production of crude steel. Another important source of efficiency growth identified by our empirical findings is adoption of new technologies and equipment. Our findings clearly indicate that continued efforts to update technologies and equipment are critical in pursuit of efficiency in the iron and steel industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Jung Woo Kim & Jeong Yeon Lee & Jae Yong Kim & Hoe Kyung Lee, 2005. "Technical Efficiency in the Iron and Steel Industry: A Stochastic Frontier Approach," Economics Study Area Working Papers 75, East-West Center, Economics Study Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:ewc:wpaper:wp75
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/ECONwp075.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kumbhakar, Subal C., 1990. "Production frontiers, panel data, and time-varying technical inefficiency," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 201-211.
    2. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 1993. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency: Techniques and Applications," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072181, Decembrie.
    3. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    4. Lieberman, Marvin B. & R. Johnson, Douglas, 1999. "Comparative productivity of Japanese and U.S. steel producers, 1958-1993," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-27, January.
    5. Rafael Cuesta, 2000. "A Production Model With Firm-Specific Temporal Variation in Technical Inefficiency: With Application to Spanish Dairy Farms," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 139-158, March.
    6. Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C, 1984. "Production Frontiers and Panel Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(4), pages 367-374, October.
    7. Jefferson, Gary H., 1990. "China's iron and steel industry : Sources of enterprise efficiency and the impact of reform," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 329-355, October.
    8. Ray, Subhash C. & Kim, Hiung Joon, 1995. "Cost efficiency in the US steel industry: A nonparametric analysis using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 654-671, February.
    9. Cornwell, Christopher & Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C., 1990. "Production frontiers with cross-sectional and time-series variation in efficiency levels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 185-200.
    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. 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. Kim, Jung Woo & Lee, Jeong Yeon & Kim, Jae Yong & Lee, Hoe Kyung, 2006. "Sources of productive efficiency: International comparison of iron and steel firms," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 239-246, December.
    2. Antonio Alvarez & Carlos Arias, 2014. "A selection of relevant issues in applied stochastic frontier analysis," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 3-11.
    3. Lee, Young Hoon, 2006. "A stochastic production frontier model with group-specific temporal variation in technical efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 174(3), pages 1616-1630, November.
    4. Roberto Colombi & Gianmaria Martini & Giorgio Vittadini, 2017. "Determinants of transient and persistent hospital efficiency: The case of Italy," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(S2), pages 5-22, September.
    5. Martín Rossi, 2015. "The Econometrics Approach to the Measurement of Efficiency: A Survey," Working Papers 117, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Feb 2015.
    6. Julio Peña-Torres & Michael Basch & Sebastian Vergara, "undated". "EFICIENCIA TÉCNICA Y ESCALAS DE OPERACIÓN EN PESCA PELÁGICA: UN ANÁLISIS DE FRONTERAS ESTOCÁSTICAS (Pesquería Centro-Sur en Chile)," ILADES-UAH Working Papers inv137, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business.
    7. Roberto Colombi & Subal Kumbhakar & Gianmaria Martini & Giorgio Vittadini, 2014. "Closed-skew normality in stochastic frontiers with individual effects and long/short-run efficiency," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 123-136, October.
    8. MAIMOUNA DIAKITE & Jean-François BRUN, 2016. "Tax Potential and Tax Effort: An Empirical Estimation for Non-Resource Tax Revenue and VAT’s Revenue," EcoMod2016 9537, EcoMod.
    9. Farsi, Mehdi & Filippini, Massimo, 2009. "An analysis of cost efficiency in Swiss multi-utilities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 306-315, March.
    10. Federico Belotti & Giuseppe Ilardi & Andrea Piano Mortari, 2019. "Estimation of Stochastic Frontier Panel Data Models with Spatial Inefficiency," CEIS Research Paper 459, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 30 May 2019.
    11. Sickles, Robin C. & Song, Wonho & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2018. "Econometric Analysis of Productivity: Theory and Implementation in R," Working Papers 18-008, Rice University, Department of Economics.
    12. Mastromarco Camilla & Laura Serlenga & Yongcheol Shin, 2013. "Globalisation and technological convergence in the EU," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 15-29, August.
    13. William Horrace & Seth Richards-Shubik & Ian Wright, 2015. "Expected efficiency ranks from parametric stochastic frontier models," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 829-848, March.
    14. Jan De Loecker, 2002. "Are EU Candidate Countries Ready for the Single Market? Comparing Performance with an EU Benchmark," LICOS Discussion Papers 12302, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    15. Julio Peña & Julio Aguirre & René Cerca D'amico, 2004. "Pesca demersal en Chile: eficiencia técnica y escalas de operación," Revista de Analisis Economico – Economic Analysis Review, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business, vol. 19(1), pages 119-160, June.
    16. Ahmad, Munir & Boris E., Bravo-Ureta, 1996. "Technical efficiency measures for dairy farms using panel data: a comparison of alternative model specifications," MPRA Paper 37703, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Young Hoon Lee, 2009. "Frontier Models and their Application to the Sports Industry," Working Papers 0903, Nam Duck-Woo Economic Research Institute, Sogang University (Former Research Institute for Market Economy), revised 2009.
    18. Munir Ahmad & Azkar Ahmad, 1998. "An Analysis of the Sources of Wheat Output Growth in the Barani Area of the Punjab," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 231-249.
    19. Simwaka, Kisu, 2012. "Maximum likelihood estimation of a stochastic frontier model with residual covariance," MPRA Paper 39726, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Martini, Gianmaria & Scotti, Davide & Viola, Domenico & Vittadini, Giorgio, 2020. "Persistent and temporary inefficiency in airport cost function: An application to Italy," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 999-1019.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L61 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Metals and Metal Products; Cement; Glass; Ceramics
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ewc:wpaper:wp75. 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: Brenda Higashimoto (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ewchius.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.