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This book is an accessible update to the widely-hailed collection by the current editors, The Measurement of Productive Efficiency: Techniques and Applications (OUP, 1993). Over ten years of the most recent research in the changing field of efficiency and productivity analysis have been applied, and the result will guide readers from the basic models to the latest, cutting-edge extensions.
This work focuses on measuring and explaining producer performance. The authors view performance as a function of the state of technology and economic efficiency, with the former defining a frontier relation between inputs and outputs; the former incorporating waste and misallocation relative to this frontier. They show that insights can be gained by allowing for the possibility of a divergence between the economic objective and actual performance, and by associating this inefficiency with causal variables subject to managerial or policy influence. Derived from a series of lectures held on techniques and applications of the three approaches to the construction of production frontiers and measure of efficiency, this work will be an essential reference to scholars of a variety of disciplines who are involved with quantitative methods or policy.
State Power and Governance in Early Imperial China delves into the governance and capacity of the state by providing an empirical historical study of the collapse of China's Qin Empire. In contrast to the popular view that the Qin fell suddenly and dramatically, this book argues that the collapse was rooted in persistent structural problems of the empire, including the serious resource shortages experienced by local governments, inefficient communication between administrative units, and social tensions in the new territories. Rather than reducing Qin rulers to heartless villains who refused to adjust their policies and statecraft, this book focuses on the changes that the regime did make to meet these challenges. It reveals the various measures that Qin rulers devised to solve these problems, even if they were ultimately to no avail. The paradox of the Qin Empire seemed to be that, although the regime's policies and reforms could theoretically have strengthened the state's power and improved the governance of the empire, their ramifications simultaneously exacerbated the misfunction of local governments and triggered the military failures that eventually destroyed the empire.
3 While all of these explanations seem to have merit, there is one dominant reason why the percentage of GDP and employment dedicated to services has continued to increase: low productivity. According to Baumol's cost disease hypothesis (Baumol, Blackman, and Wolff 1991), the growth in services is actually an illusion. The fact is that service-sector productivity is improving slower than that of manufacturing and thus, it seems as if we are consuming more services in nominal terms. However, in real terms, we are consuming slightly less services. That is, the increase in the service sector is caused by low productivity relative to manufacturing. The implication of Baumol's cost disease is the...
The third in a series of annual volumes on the financial sector from the Brookings Institution and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania explores the ongoing process of globalization in the financial services industry. Leading financial experts from the corporate, government, and academic communities examine global trends in banking, in reinsurance industries, and in securities markets; the challenges these trends pose for national regulations; the evolution of global accounting standards; the alleged effects of global hedge funds on capital flows into and out of emerging markets; and the erosion of legal barriers to the establishment of foreign financial services firms around the world.Opening remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers present both national security and economic arguments for direct American support for increased global interdependence in trade in goods and services, including U.S. support for international financial institutions.
This work focuses on the measurement and explanation of producer performance. The contributors view performance as a function of the state of technology and economic efficiency. They explore ways to construct production frontiers and levels of efficiency.
Encompasses issues and practices in policy analysis and public management. Listed among the contributors are economists, public managers, and operations researchers. Featured regularly are book reviews and a department devoted to discussing ideas and issues of importance to practitioners, researchers, and academics.