IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/osloec/2003_008.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Tale of two Research Communities: The Diffusion of Research on Productive Efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Førsund, Finn R.

    (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo)

  • Sarafoglou, Nikias

    (Department of Economics, Mid-Sweden University)

Abstract

The field of theoretical and applied efficiency analysis is pursued both by economists and people from operational research and management science. Each group tends to cite a different paper as the seminal one. Recent availability of electronically accessible databases of journal articles makes studies of the diffusion of papers through citations possible The conventional wisdom that the seminal paper within economics lay dormant for two decades, and that efficiency studies only got rolling after the operational research paper appeared, is shown to be wrong. Citation peaks have been found to be typically five to seven years, with a long tailing off. Both seminal papers followed quite different diffusion patterns. Research strands inspired by the seminal paper within economics are identified and followed by citation analysis. In recent years a weak trend toward convergence of the two camps into a common network for efficiency and productivity analyses is documented.

Suggested Citation

  • Førsund, Finn R. & Sarafoglou, Nikias, 2003. "The Tale of two Research Communities: The Diffusion of Research on Productive Efficiency," Memorandum 08/2003, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:osloec:2003_008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sv.uio.no/econ/english/research/unpublished-works/working-papers/pdf-files/2003/Memo-08-2003.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Léopold Simar & Paul Wilson, 2000. "Statistical Inference in Nonparametric Frontier Models: The State of the Art," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 49-78, January.
    2. Banker, Rajiv D. & Thrall, R. M., 1992. "Estimation of returns to scale using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 74-84, October.
    3. repec:bla:jorssa:v:165:y:2002:i:3:p:405-434 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Banker, Rajiv D. & Chang, Hsihui, 1995. "A simulation study of hypothesis tests for differences in efficiencies," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1-2), pages 37-54, April.
    5. Forsund, Finn R & Hjalmarsson, Lennart, 1979. "Generalised Farrell Measures of Efficiency: An Application to Milk Processing in Swedish Dairy Plants," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 89(354), pages 294-315, June.
    6. Per Andersen & Niels Christian Petersen, 1993. "A Procedure for Ranking Efficient Units in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(10), pages 1261-1264, October.
    7. Afriat, Sidney N, 1972. "Efficiency Estimation of Production Function," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 13(3), pages 568-598, October.
    8. Henry Tulkens & Philippe Eeckaut, 2006. "Non-Frontier Measures of Efficiency, Progress and Regress for Time Series Data," Springer Books, in: Parkash Chander & Jacques Drèze & C. Knox Lovell & Jack Mintz (ed.), Public goods, environmental externalities and fiscal competition, chapter 0, pages 373-394, Springer.
    9. Lovell, C A Knox & Sickles, Robin C, 1983. "Testing Efficiency Hypotheses in Joint Production: A Parametric Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(1), pages 51-58, February.
    10. Knox Lovell, C. A., 1995. "Measuring the macroeconomic performance of the Taiwanese economy," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1-2), pages 165-178, April.
    11. repec:bla:scandj:v:94:y:1992:i:0:p:s211-28 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Banker, Rajiv D., 1984. "Estimating most productive scale size using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 35-44, July.
    13. Timmer, C P, 1971. "Using a Probabilistic Frontier Production Function to Measure Technical Efficiency," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(4), pages 776-794, July-Aug..
    14. Tim Coelli & Sergio Perelman, 2000. "Technical efficiency of European railways: a distance function approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(15), pages 1967-1976.
    15. Finn Førsund & Nikias Sarafoglou, 2002. "On the Origins of Data Envelopment Analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 23-40, January.
    16. Finn Førsund & Lennart Hjalmarsson, 2004. "Are all Scales Optimal in DEA? Theory and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 25-48, January.
    17. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    18. M. J. Farrell, 1959. "The Convexity Assumption in the Theory of Competitive Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 67(4), pages 377-377.
    19. F R Førsund & L Hjalmarsson, 2004. "Calculating scale elasticity in DEA models," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(10), pages 1023-1038, October.
    20. SIMAR , Léopold, 1995. "Aspects of Statistical Analysis in DEA-Type Frontier Models," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 1995061, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    21. Fare, Rolf & Knox Lovell, C. A., 1978. "Measuring the technical efficiency of production," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 150-162, October.
    22. Tulkens, H. & Vanden Eeckaut, Ph., 1991. "Non-frontier measures of efficiency, progress and regress," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 1991055, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    23. Fare, Rolf & Shawna Grosskopf & Mary Norris & Zhongyang Zhang, 1994. "Productivity Growth, Technical Progress, and Efficiency Change in Industrialized Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 66-83, March.
    24. Wesley D. Seitz, 1970. "The Measurement of Efficiency Relative to a Frontier Production Function," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 52(4), pages 505-511.
    25. M. Stone, 2002. "How not to measure the efficiency of public services (and how one might)," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 165(3), pages 405-434, October.
    26. R. G. Chambers & Y. Chung & R. Färe, 1998. "Profit, Directional Distance Functions, and Nerlovian Efficiency," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 98(2), pages 351-364, August.
    27. S Gattoufi & M Oral & A Kumar & A Reisman, 2004. "Content analysis of data envelopment analysis literature and its comparison with that of other OR/MS fields," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(9), pages 911-935, September.
    28. Ritchie, P. C. & Rowcroft, J. E., 1996. "Choice of metric in the measurement of relative productive efficiency," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 433-439, December.
    29. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 1998. "Sensitivity Analysis of Efficiency Scores: How to Bootstrap in Nonparametric Frontier Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 49-61, January.
    30. Fare, R. & Grosskopf, S. & Roos, P., 1995. "Productivity and quality changes in Swedish pharmacies," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1-2), pages 137-144, April.
    31. Battese, George E. & Coelli, Tim J., 1988. "Prediction of firm-level technical efficiencies with a generalized frontier production function and panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 387-399, July.
    32. Leibenstein, Harvey, 1973. "Competition and X-Efficiency: Reply," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 765-777, May-June.
    33. Seitz, Wesley D, 1971. "Productive Efficiency in the Steam-Electric Generating Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(4), pages 878-886, July-Aug..
    34. Pitt, Mark M. & Lee, Lung-Fei, 1981. "The measurement and sources of technical inefficiency in the Indonesian weaving industry," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 43-64, August.
    35. Hanoch, Giora & Rothschild, Michael, 1972. "Testing the Assumptions of Production Theory: A Nonparametric Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 256-275, March-Apr.
    36. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "The Economic Theory of Index Numbers and the Measurement of Input, Output, and Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1393-1414, November.
    37. Malcolm R. Fisher, 1976. "The Economic Contribution of Michael James Farrell," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 43(3), pages 371-382.
    38. Gattoufi, Said & Oral, Muhittin & Kumar, Ashok & Reisman, Arnold, 2004. "Epistemology of data envelopment analysis and comparison with other fields of OR/MS for relevance to applications," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 38(2-3), pages 123-140.
    39. Banker, Rajiv D. & Cooper, William W. & Seiford, Lawrence M. & Thrall, Robert M. & Zhu, Joe, 2004. "Returns to scale in different DEA models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(2), pages 345-362, April.
    40. Grubbstrom, Robert W., 1995. "Modelling production opportunities -- an historical overview," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1-3), pages 1-14, October.
    41. Nishimizu, Mieko & Page, John M, Jr, 1982. "Total Factor Productivity Growth, Technological Progress and Technical Efficiency Change: Dimensions of Productivity Change in Yugoslavia, 1965-78," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(368), pages 920-936, December.
    42. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Golany, B. & Seiford, L. & Stutz, J., 1985. "Foundations of data envelopment analysis for Pareto-Koopmans efficient empirical production functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1-2), pages 91-107.
    43. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 1983. "Measuring output efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 173-179, June.
    44. Stigler, George J, 1976. "The Xistence of X-Efficiency," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(1), pages 213-216, March.
    45. Berg, Sigbjorn Atle & Forsund, Finn R. & Hjalmarsson, Lennart & Suominen, Matti, 1993. "Banking efficiency in the Nordic countries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 371-388, April.
    46. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Logan, James, 1983. "The relative efficiency of Illinois electric utilities," Resources and Energy, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 349-367, December.
    47. 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.
    48. Rajiv D. Banker & Richard C. Morey, 1986. "Efficiency Analysis for Exogenously Fixed Inputs and Outputs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 513-521, August.
    49. 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.
    50. 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.
    51. Gattoufi, Said & Oral, Muhittin & Reisman, Arnold, 2004. "A taxonomy for data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 38(2-3), pages 141-158.
    52. Rajiv D. Banker & Richard C. Morey, 1986. "The Use of Categorical Variables in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(12), pages 1613-1627, December.
    53. Rajiv D. Banker, 1993. "Maximum Likelihood, Consistency and Data Envelopment Analysis: A Statistical Foundation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(10), pages 1265-1273, October.
    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. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2015. "Efficiency of the banking system in Vietnam under financial liberalization," OSF Preprints qsf6d, Center for Open Science.
    2. Tim J. Coelli, 1995. "Recent Developments In Frontier Modelling And Efficiency Measurement," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 39(3), pages 219-245, December.
    3. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2019. "Data Envelopment Analysis and Business Analytics: The Big Data Challenges and Some Solutions," CEPA Working Papers Series WP072019, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    4. Luis R. Murillo‐Zamorano, 2004. "Economic Efficiency and Frontier Techniques," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 33-77, February.
    5. Lampe, Hannes W. & Hilgers, Dennis, 2015. "Trajectories of efficiency measurement: A bibliometric analysis of DEA and SFA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(1), pages 1-21.
    6. Cherchye, L. & Post, G.T., 2001. "Methodological Advances in Dea," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2001-53-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    7. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2015. "Statistical Approaches for Non-parametric Frontier Models: A Guided Tour," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 83(1), pages 77-110, April.
    8. Rafael Benítez & Vicente Coll-Serrano & Vicente J. Bolós, 2021. "deaR-Shiny: An Interactive Web App for Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-19, June.
    9. F R Førsund & L Hjalmarsson, 2004. "Calculating scale elasticity in DEA models," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(10), pages 1023-1038, October.
    10. Cook, Wade D. & Seiford, Larry M., 2009. "Data envelopment analysis (DEA) - Thirty years on," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 192(1), pages 1-17, January.
    11. Sinuany-Stern, Zilla, 2023. "Foundations of operations research: From linear programming to data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(3), pages 1069-1080.
    12. Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2020. "Aggregation of inputs and outputs prior to Data Envelopment Analysis under big data," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 282(1), pages 172-187.
    13. Mehdiloo, Mahmood & Podinovski, Victor V., 2019. "Selective strong and weak disposability in efficiency analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(3), pages 1154-1169.
    14. 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.
    15. Voigt, Peter, 2004. "Russlands Weg vom Plan zum Markt: Sektorale Trends und regionale Spezifika. Eine Analyse der Produktivitäts- und Effizienzentwicklungen in der Transformationsphase," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 28, number 93021.
    16. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2023. "Productivity analysis: roots, foundations, trends and perspectives," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 229-247, December.
    17. Finn Førsund & Nikias Sarafoglou, 2002. "On the Origins of Data Envelopment Analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 23-40, January.
    18. Ole Bent Olesen & Niels Christian Petersen & Victor V. Podinovski, 2022. "Scale characteristics of variable returns-to-scale production technologies with ratio inputs and outputs," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 318(1), pages 383-423, November.
    19. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2008. "A survey of data envelopment analysis in energy and environmental studies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 1-18, August.
    20. C. Lovell & Shawna Grosskopf & Eduardo Ley & Jesús Pastor & Diego Prior & Philippe Eeckaut, 1994. "Linear programming approaches to the measurement and analysis of productive efficiency," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 2(2), pages 175-248, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bibliometric methods; Farrell efficiency measures; DEA;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

    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:hhs:osloec:2003_008. 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: Mari Strønstad Øverås (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/souiono.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.