Gary Ferrier - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Gary Ferrier

European Journal of Operational Research, 1997

This paper surveys 130 studies that apply frontier efficiency analysis to financial institutions ... more This paper surveys 130 studies that apply frontier efficiency analysis to financial institutions in 21 countries. The primary goals are to summarize and critically review empirical estimates of financial institution efficiency and to attempt to arrive at a consensus view. We find that the various efficiency methods do not necessarily yield consistent results and suggest some ways that these methods might be improved to bring about findings that are more consistent, accurate, and useful. Secondary goals are to address the implications of efficiency results for financial institutions in the areas of government policy, research, and managerial performance. Areas needing additional research are also outlined.

Finance and economics discussion series, 1997

We propose a set of consistency conditions that frontier efficiencymeasures should meet to be mos... more We propose a set of consistency conditions that frontier efficiencymeasures should meet to be most usefd for re@atory analysis or other purposes. The efficiency estimates shotid be consistent in their efficiency levels, rankings, and identification of best and worst fus, consistent over time and with competitiveconditions in the market, and consistent with standard nonfrontier measures of performance. We provide evidence on these conditions by evaluating and comparing efficiency estimates on U.S. bank efficiency from variants of all four of the major approaches-DEA, SFA, TFA, and DFA-and fmd mixed results.

Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Dec 23, 2022

Journal of Public Economic Theory, Mar 23, 2016

Technological innovations generate knowledge spillovers-non-innovators benefit through the adopti... more Technological innovations generate knowledge spillovers-non-innovators benefit through the adoption, imitation, and extension of new technologies. International trade facilitates technology diffusion by providing importing countries access to technical knowledge that they can potentially internalize. Previous studies of the effect of trade on technology diffusion typically only consider the impact of direct (bilateral) trade on indirect measures of technology (e.g., TFP). We contend that the analysis of trade's impact on technology diffusion would be more accurately assessed by using direct measures of specific technologies (e.g., intensity levels) and by allowing for the influence of both the direct and indirect effects of trade in the analysis. The latter is accomplished by modeling the international trade system as a weighted network, which quantifies both direct and indirect trade linkages. Combining trade data with data on the adoption of various technologies, we find that the network effects of trade play a significant role in technology diffusion. In most cases, countries that are better-connected on the trade network have higher technology intensities. Further support for the importance of trade is provided by the finding that for "outdated" technologies, better-connected countries have lower technology intensities due to their adoption of newer, substitute technologies.

74th International Atlantic Economic Conference, Oct 7, 2012

86th International Atlantic Economic Conference, Oct 12, 2018

84th International Atlantic Economic Conference, Oct 6, 2017

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 1995

Social Science Research Network, 1998

Advances in health economics and health services research, Dec 5, 2007

Based on the Current Population Survey, 46.6 million Americans did not have health insurance in 2... more Based on the Current Population Survey, 46.6 million Americans did not have health insurance in 2005 (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2006). Lack of insurance is often associated with lower utilization rates, which may in turn adversely affect health status (Ayanian, Weissman, Schneider, Ginsburg, & Zaslavsky, 2000). Since universal health insurance is not provided for in the US, uninsured individuals must either self-pay or rely on charity care provided by hospitals and health clinics. The majority of charity care is produced in the public sector, either at the state, county, or local level (federal hospitals primarily serve a particular segment of the population – e.g., veterans in the case of Veterans Administration hospitals). Public hospital provision of “safety net” hospital services is particularly prevalent in large urban areas (Lipson & Naierman, 1996). These safety net hospitals are defined by the Institute of Medicine as having an “open door policy to serve all patients regardless of their ability to pay and provide substantial levels of care to Medicaid, the uninsured, and other vulnerable patients” (IOM, 2000). Private not-for-profit (NFP) hospitals also provide charity care but to a lesser extent than public providers, especially since the imposition of cost cutting measures both by Medicare and Medicaid (federal programs that fund health care for the elderly and indigent, respectively) and by managed care. Given that approximately 15% of US GDP is allocated to health care, cost cutting measures are laudable; however, care still needs to be provided for individuals who cannot afford it, and the burden of providing this care has to be borne somewhere in the health care system.

Agricultural inputs and output by province for China over the period 1997-2014. The data on input... more Agricultural inputs and output by province for China over the period 1997-2014. The data on inputs and output were collected from the China official statistical database (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2017); see http://data.stats.gov.cn/english/index.htm.

China Economic Review, 2019

China has undergone a series of agricultural policy reforms since 1978. The measurement of the pr... more China has undergone a series of agricultural policy reforms since 1978. The measurement of the productivity gains and identification of the underlying drivers thereof are important facets of policy analysis. The commonly used Total Factor Productivity (TFP) measures often lack such desirable properties as completeness or independence of the direction of the optimization (orientation). In this paper, we take a top down approach by beginning with a TFP measure and then decomposing it into three mutually exclusive, exhaustive elements. In particular, we begin with the additively complete Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen (LHM) TFP indicator that takes into account both input and output changes when measuring productivity and then additively decompose it into measures of technological progress, technical efficiency change, and scale efficiency change. We develop a generalized decomposition of the LHM TFP indicator which encompasses both input-oriented and output-oriented changes over time. We illustrate this additively complete LHM TFP indicator using agricultural data from 31 Chinese provinces over the period 1997-2015. Our empirical results show that Chinese agricultural productivity growth (3.05% per annum) was mainly driven by technological progress (2.35% p.a.), with relatively small contributions from scale efficiency change (0.65% p.a.) and technical efficiency change (0.04% p.a.). We also found that productivity change and the relative importance of its components varied across both time and provinces.

European Journal of Operational Research, 2019

Policy Research Working Papers, 2001

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and shonitd be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view6 of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.

Newhouse (1994) questioned the usefulness of frontier efficiency estimation for health care appli... more Newhouse (1994) questioned the usefulness of frontier efficiency estimation for health care applications. In the intervening years, numerous modeling advances have improved the econometric approach to efficiency measurement known as stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and myriad academic studies have analyzed efficiency of various health care providers using SFA. This article takes stock of the current “usefulness ” of applications of SFA in the health care sector and offers suggestions on how this usefulness can be further enhanced.

Working paper (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland), 1987

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Productivity growth is an important determinant of the economic well-being of producers, consumer... more Productivity growth is an important determinant of the economic well-being of producers, consumers, and society overall. Given its importance, economists have long measured productivity growth, often decomposing the overall measure into constituent pieces to isolate and better understand the sources of productivity change. Typically, productivity change is analyzed at a single level of analysis-e.g., a firm or a country. The objective of this research is to combine productivity analysis at the "firm-level" and the "industry-level" so that a novel, fuller decomposition of the sources of productivity change can be undertaken. Specifically, our decomposition allows us to capture changes in productivity due to the reallocation of inputs or outputs across productive units. In practice, such reallocation might take place across plants operated by the same firm, across regions within a country, or via mergers and acquisitions. By shedding light on more dimensions of productivity growth, this expanded decomposition may facilitate policy development and other efforts to improve productivity. The expanded decomposition begins with a standard decomposition of the aggregate Luenberger productivity indicator into its technical progress and efficiency change components. The efficiency change component is then further decomposed into technical, mix, and scale efficiency effects. The 2 decomposition yielding the mix and scale efficiency changes uses both aggregated and disaggregated data, which allows for productivity effects of reallocations of inputs and outputs across members of a group to be measured. The new decomposition of the aggregate Luenberger productivity indicator is illustrated using data at both the provincial and regional levels for China's healthcare sector over the period 2009-2014. Given the rapid growth in the Chinese healthcare sector in recent years and the various healthcare reforms initiated by the government, a deeper understanding of productivity in this traditionally low-productivity sector is warranted. Our results indicate that the growth of the aggregate Luenberger productivity indicator varied across both time and regions; the annual average growth rates were 0.73%, 0.53%, and 0.18% for China's Central, Eastern, and Western regions, respectively. We find that China's regional productivity growth in healthcare was primarily driven by technological progress; the contributions of the efficiency related elements of productivity change were smaller and more varied across regions.