| 1. |
- Althin, Rikard, et al.
(författare)
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Swedish employment offices: A new model for evaluating effectiveness
- 2010
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Ingår i: European Journal of Operational Research. - : Elsevier. - 0377-2217 .- 1872-6860. ; 207:3, s. 1535-1544
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We measure how well Swedish employment offices perform in delivering the services required of them by the Swedish government. In contrast to earlier studies we use a dynamic efficiency framework, which allows us to better model the intertemporal nature of these services, explicitly allowing for placements of intermediate nature across periods. Rather than using second stage analysis to assess the effects of varying local labor market conditions and differences in client characteristics on performance, we include a measure of the office’s expected work load directly in the model. This measure, derived from duration analysis, is designed to capture the variation across offices in resources needed before an average individual can obtain employment. It is estimated from the characteristics of all unemployed individual and local labor market conditions.The empirical results demonstrate an increase in the office’s expected work loads over time and point to substantial differences in performance across offices. The results also point toward more than optimal placements in intermediate outputs such as non-matching jobs, training, and continued unemployment.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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An Efficiency Analysis of Swedish Employment Offices
- 2004
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Ingår i: International review of applied economics. - Abingdon UK : Routledge. - 0269-2171 .- 1465-3486. ; 18:4, s. 471-482
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper the method–production frontier analysis is used to analyse differences in efficiency between different Swedish Employment Offices. Earlier empirical labour market policy evaluation studies have utilised various measures that, however, do not take into consideration differences between organisation units. The main result of this investigation is that employment offices show major differences in the efficiency with which they carry out their job matching services.
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| 4. |
- Behrenz, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Arbetsgivares perspektiv på subventionerade anställningar : en kartläggning
- 2015
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Trots en kraftig ökning av antalet subventionerade anställningar från mitten av 2000-talet är det ett stort antal arbetsgivare som inte använder sig av lönesubventioner. Denna rapport har försökt att kartlägga och analysera arbetsgivares perspektiv på lönekostnadssubventioner. När det gäller analyser som berör de arbetsgivare som använt sig av lönesubventioner är den viktigaste förklaringsfaktorn att man använt sig av subventioner tidigare. Våra intervjuer visar också att de arbetsgivare som använder sig av lönesubventioner ofta har ett socialt ansvarstagande. Ett av huvudresultaten med följande studie är att 95 procent av de som använder sig av subventioner är nöjda. Omfattningen i pengar och personens kvalifikationer var mest avgörande för anställningsbeslutet. Av de som inte använt sig av lönesubventioner är det 20 procent som inte känt till att möjligheten finns. Intervjuer med arbetsgivare utan erfarenhet av att anställa med lönesubventioner visar att de är skeptiska att hitta lämplig personal genom att anställa med lönesubventioner. När vi ställer en hypotetisk fråga till samtliga arbetsgivare om vad som skulle kunna få dem att anställa med en subvention framkommer möjligheten att få pröva aktuell person som den klart viktigaste faktorn. Utifrån våra resultat föreslår vi bl.a. att Arbetsförmedlingen, i ett försöksupplägg, ska ges möjlighet att agera bemanningsföretag och vi föreslår också att man ska genomföra en omfattande informationskampanj till arbetsgivare.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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Efficiency and productivity of employment offices: : evidence from Sweden
- 2005
-
Ingår i: International journal of manpower. - Bradford UK : Emerald. - 0143-7720 .- 1758-6577. ; 26:2, s. 196-206
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – This paper aims to measure the efficiency and productivity of Swedish employment offices. Design/methodology/approach – Using four inputs, five outputs, and two quality attributes the efficiency and productivity of 253 Swedish employment offices are evaluated using models of relative technical efficiency and Malmquist productivity indices. The results are computed as solutions to linear programming problems for the 1992-1995 periods. Findings – Results of the study find that the mean efficiency across offices varies between 74 and 78 percent. The mean productivity change demonstrates a decrease of 11 percent during the 1992-1993 period, and an increase of 7 and 13 percents during 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 respectively. Research limitations/implications – Different background characteristics of job seekers could possibly bias the result for some of the offices. Further research could use a dynamic model where different job seeker characteristics are taken into consideration. Practical implications – The paper provides an opportunity for inefficient/low productivity offices to study how offices identified as more efficient are producing their services. Originality/value – This paper demonstrates how efficiency and productivity could be measured in a multi-input, multi-output employment office service sector setting where quality aspects are allowed to play a part.
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| 11. |
- Behrenz, Lars
(författare)
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Essays on the Employment Service and Employers' Recruitment Behaviour
- 1998
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis results from four research projects. The issues addressed in the projects are different types of labour market information problems. The purpose of the first article is to contribute to a better empirical under- standning of how an increase of staff at the Public Employment Service affects job seekers. In 1987, the Swedish Government decided to grant the Labour Market Administration extra funds to be used for an increase of personnel by 250 placement officers and counsellors. The article gives an account of an assessment of the impact on job placement which was based on a comparison between three employment offices where the staff increase was substantial and three offices where staff was either unchanged or was increased only slightly. The research design can be described as a quasi-experiment with nonrandom controls. The main results of the study are the following: 1) there are no effects on unemployment duration regarding jobs on the open market, 2) there are positive effects regarding register times at the employment office, i.e. unemployed who were registered at the programme offices were faster cancelled from the register. The second article presents the results of a study of the impact of the personnel increase on vacancy durations. Also in this case the research design was quasi- experimental. The main results of the study are: 1) the increase of employment office staff reduced vacancy durations by approximately two days on average, and 2) this effect is too small to result in a net increase in the value of goods and services produced, but it is large enogh for a "break-even" outcome in the cash-accounts of the public sector. In the third article "production frontier analysis" is used to elucidate differences in efficiency between Swedish employment offices. This study shows a new way of evaluating the operations of labour market policy organisations. The main result of this investigation is that employment offices exhibit major differences in the efficiency with which the carry out their job matching services. The fourth article gives a picture of the recruitment behaviour of Swedish employers. The study is based on about 800 telephone interviews with employers regarding their latest filled vacancy. Summary of findings: employers mainly recruit personnel in order to expand a certain activity of their firm; on average the total recruitment process takes about a month. Among a group of job seekers some are eliminated in a first round, mainly depending on the fact that these job seekers lack experience and/or education. Also being over 45 years of age leads, in one fifth of the cases, to direct elimination. During the job interview, which the employers, together with personal contacts of all kinds, regards as the most important source of information in the recruitment process, the employer searches for a person with professional knowledge, personal engagement in the job and social competence.
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-
(författare)
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Idrottens ekonomiska samhällsnytta
- 2012. - 1
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Ingår i: Är idrott nyttigt?. - Stockholm : SISU Idrottsböcker. - 9789186323424 ; , s. 226-257
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 14. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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Is starting a business a sustainable way out of unemployment? : treatment effects of the Swedish start-up subsidy
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Labor Research. - : Springer. - 0195-3613 .- 1936-4768. ; 37:4, s. 389-411
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, we evaluate the Swedish self-employment start-up program based on a matching approach using data from administrative records. In addition to information of labor market history, traditional human capital and socio-economic variables, the data at hand also include information on the self-employment history of participants and nonparticipants as well as that of their parents. Our results indicate that the start-up subsidy program for unemployed persons is a successful program regarding the integration of the unemployed into the mainstream of the labor market. We find that, relative to members of control groups, participants, on average, have an increased probability of unsubsidized employment. Our analysis of different educational backgrounds presents the strongest employment effects for the low educated unemployed.
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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Making the business case for Public Employment Services : Cost-benefit analysis and productive efficiency analysis
- 2013
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The PES EU2020 working group points in a briefing note (PES EU2020 no date A) to change processes in EU PESs called for by social evolutions. The note emphasises that public employment services’ operations will be massively and profoundly influenced by changes on both the supply and the demand side of the labour market and by such structural impediments as, for example, mismatch between labour demand and supply and low participation rates among vulnerable disadvantaged groups. Rapid and targeted mediation is considered to remain essential for PESs but it has to be combined with attention to provide transitions for individuals facing redundancy and career building. PESs should help job seekers adopt long-term career perspectives, stimulate them to enhance their competencies, give career guidance, give workers support to make smooth career transitions, as well as working with employers to ensure they meet their requirements and encourage and support them to provide career opportunities to more disadvantaged individuals.PESs have to develop their organisation and methods to efficiently and effectively respond to the changing needs in society and the labour market. Far-reaching changes in the tasks, organisational structures, and methods in PESs present corporate governance with great challenges—exacerbated by reduced budgetary resources. The pathway of change that has to be managed will be dotted with demands on decision-makers to choose between alternative courses of action. One of the main thrusts of this paper is to describe cost-benefit analysis, CBA, as a tool to assist decision-makers in choosing. CBA is a tool that judges alternatives in terms of their efficiency as regards the realisation of social objectives, which means that CBA allows policy makers to judge alternatives by their allocative efficiency. This requires taking into account the costs and benefits of the alternatives under consideration. The other main subject of the paper is about measuring productive efficiency which occurs when at a given cost the highest possible output of one service is produced, given the production level of other services. Such measurements make it possible to compare the productive efficiency of individual employment offices or to make comparisons in that respect between PESs in different countries. Therefore, measurements of productive efficiency can be the basis of actions to improve production and managerial processes. Examples of cost-benefit analyses of PES projects and productive efficiency analyses of PESs are given in the paper.
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
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| 19. |
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| 20. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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Start-up Subsidies in Sweden : Treatment, Deadweight and Direct Displacement Effects.
- 2012
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this paper, we evaluate the Swedish self-employment program using data from administrative records about matched groups of program participants and nonparticipants. We find that participating in the program reduces the duration of unemployment and the risk for re-unemployment. The self-employment scheme is not found to result in a significant reduction of jobs elsewhere in the economy whereas the study estimates displacement effects in the order of 35 percent from the compound of other Swedish labor market programs. According to previous Swedish survey investigations self-reported deadweight in the self-employment scheme varies across studies from about 30 to about 45 percent.
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| 21. |
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| 22. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-
(författare)
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The Economic Value of Elite Sports : The Case of Sweden
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Sports: Economic, Management, Marketing & Social Aspects AbstractsThirteenth Annual International Conference on Sports: Economic, Management, Marketing & Social Aspects8-11 July 2013, Athens, Greece Edited by Gregory T. Papanikos. - : Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). - 9786185065072 ; , s. 11-11
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study is about elite sports in Sweden. There are a lot of ways of studying the economic value of elite sports. In this article we use information from population data, club accounting and a questionnaire to get a picture of the economic values of elite sports. Our knowledge from earlier research concerning the economic value of elite sports is mainly based on US data. The Scandinavian model for sport is different from sports in the USA since the clubs are not owned by businesses and the goals are more or less “sport for all”. This paper tries to present a picture of the process of elite sports in countries there elite sports traditionally has been a mixture between professional and amateur. The results from willingness to pay analysis for the presence of elite sports in the actual county indicate values of 350 SEK (about 35 EURO) per year and person in Sweden. Another way of calculating the value of the elite teams is by estimating how many working hours people are prepared to devote to helping the club. If these hours are translated into economic values, it runs into between 3000 to 5000 SEK (about 300 to 500 EURO) per year and person, depending on location in Sweden.
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| 23. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-
(författare)
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The Employment Service and Vacancy Durations
- 2002
-
Ingår i: Evaluation review. - University of California USA : SAGE publications. - 0193-841X .- 1552-3926. ; 26:6, s. 602-617
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the literature, there are few examples of studies analyzing the impact of labor market programs on vacancies. This article presents the results of a study of the impact of personnel increase at Swedish employment offices on vacancy durations. The evaluation method in the study is quasi-experimental. The main results of the study are as follows: (a) The increase of employment office staff members reduced their vacancy durations by approximately 2 days, and the probability that a vacancy is cancelled from the register is 1.17 times higher for the program offices; and (b) this effect is too small for the increase of staff members to represent a socially efficient use of resources and for a positive outcome in a public finance context.
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| 24. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
-
The Public Employment Service : A Survey of Cost-Benefit Analysis and Productive Efficiency Analysis Studies
- 2013
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Public employment services’ operations will be massively and profoundly influenced by changes on both the supply and the demand side of the labour market and by such structural impediments as, for example, mismatch between labour demand and supply and low participation rates among vulnerable disadvantaged groups. Rapid and targeted mediation is considered to remain essential for PESs but it has to be combined with attention to provide transitions for individuals facing redundancy and career building. PESs should help job seekers adopt long-term career perspectives, stimulate them to enhance their competencies, give career guidance, give workers support to make smooth career transitions, as well as working with employers to ensure they meet their requirements and encourage and support them to provide career opportunities to more disadvantaged individuals. PESs have to develop their organisation and methods to efficiently and effectively respond to the changing needs in society and the labour market. Far-reaching changes in the tasks, organisational structures, and methods in PESs present corporate governance with great challenges—exacerbated by reduced budgetary resources. The pathway of change that has to be managed will be dotted with demands on decision-makers to choose between alternative courses of action. One of the main thrusts of this paper is to describe cost-benefit analysis, CBA, as a tool to assist decision-makers in choosing. CBA is a tool that judges alternatives in terms of their efficiency as regards the realisation of social objectives, which means that CBA allows policy makers to judge alternatives by their allocative efficiency. This requires taking into account the costs and benefits of the alternatives under consideration. The other main subject of the paper is about measuring productive efficiency which occurs when at a given cost the highest possible output of one service is produced, given the production level of other services. Such measurements make it possible to compare the productive efficiency of individual employment offices or to make comparisons in that respect between PESs in different countries. Therefore, measurements of productive efficiency can be the basis of actions to improve production and managerial processes. Examples of cost-benefit analyses of PES projects and productive efficiency analyses of PESs are given in the paper. The remainder of this paper is organised as follows: Section 1 opens with a brief sketch of changes in the governance in EU PESs during the last decades. This is followed by an accounting framework addressing both efficiency and distributional aspects of employment services. Section 2 begins with a condensed description of basic principles of cost-benefit analysis which is followed by a review of a number of economic analyses concerning employment services that have been carried out in EU countries. Section 3 is devoted to methods to measure the productive efficiency of individual employment offices and of the PES in one country in relation to productive efficiency of PESs in other countries. It starts with brief overviews of the theory of production and of methods to measure efficiency. Then it presents a review of previous studies and a description of the production of employment offices. This section concludes with the development of a benchmarking model for European employment offices. Section 4 provides concluding remarks.
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| 25. |
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| 26. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-
(författare)
-
The value of elite sports : The case of Sweden
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study is about elite sports in Sweden. There are a lot of ways of studying the economic value of elite sports. In this article we use information from population data, club accounting and a questionnaire to get a picture of the economic values of elite sports. Our knowledge from earlier research concerning the economic value of elite sports is mainly based on US data. The Scandinavian model for sport is different from sports in the USA since the clubs are not owned by businesses and the goals are more or less “sport for all”. This paper tries to present a picture of the process of elite sports in countries there elite sports traditionally has been a mixture between professional and amateur. The results from willingness to pay analysis for the presence of elite sports in the actual county indicate values of 350 SEK (about 35 EURO) per year and person in Sweden. Another way of calculating the value of the elite teams is by estimating how many working hours people are prepared to devote to helping the club. If these hours are translated into economic values, it runs into between 3000 to 5000 SEK (about 300 to 500 EURO) per year and person, depending on location in Sweden
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| 27. |
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| 28. |
- Behrenz, Lars, et al.
(författare)
-
Utvärdering av Almis företagsrådgivning : Utvärdering av rådgivningsverksamhet till etablerade företag
- 2014
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Detta PM är en effektutvärdering av de rådgivningsinsatser som utfördes av Almis regionala bolag till etablerade företag under perioden 2005–2010. I detta PM används flera metoder för att skatta effekter och två olika mått på vad som anses vara rådgivning.UppdragetDetta uppdrag är en effektutvärdering av rådgivningsinsatser i Almis regionala bolag under perioden 2005–2010. Syftet med studierna är att avgöra om etablerade företag som fått rådgivning via Almi har utvecklats bättre än företag som inte fått sådan rådgivning i termer av tillväxt i produktionsvärde, sysselsättning och överlevnad. Studien är en av flera underlagsrapporter i Tillväxtanalys pågående uppdrag att utvärdera den statligt finansierade företagsrådgivningen.Resultat och slutsatserRådgivning definieras i rapporten på två olika sätt. I den första antas ett företag fått rådgivning av Almi om företaget gjort minst ett rådgivningsbesök. Det går att finna effekter på produktionsvärde respektive sysselsättning för enstaka år och för enstaka utfallsvariabler. För övriga år är effekterna lägre och inte statistiskt säkerställda. Storleken på de signifikanta effekterna ligger väl i linje med resultaten från tidigare utvärderingar. Företag som fått rådgivning via Almi har knappt två procents högre sannolikhet att överleva två år efter rådgivningen jämfört med företag som inte erhållit rådgivning.Den andra definitionen av rådgivning utgår ifrån att ett företag antas ha fått rådgivning om företaget gjort minst två rådgivningsbesök hos Almi. Den förändrade definitionen påverkar inte resultatet i någon större utsträckning. Inga effekter på någon av målvariablerna kan statistiskt säkerställas. När rådgivning definieras som minst två rådgivningsbesök finns inte heller någon statistiskt säkerhetsställd effekt på företags överlevnad.Sammantaget drar vi slutsatsen att det inte går att statistiskt säkerställda några effekter av Almis företagsrådgivning på tillväxt, lönsamhet eller överlevnad.Framtida undersökningar/Fortsatt lärandeDet finns således betydande svagheter i det datamaterial Tillväxtanalys har getts tillgång till och som ligger till grund för effektutvärderingen. Inte minst finns ett stort bortfall avseende vilka företag som deltagit i företagsrådgivning. Innan man gör ett nytt försök att effektutvärdera verksamheten är det viktigt att förbättra uppföljningen, så att det i större utsträckning är möjligt att identifiera vilka företag som tagit del av rådgivning.
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| 29. |
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| 30. |
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| 31. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-
(författare)
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Who Gets the Job and Why? : An Explorative Study of Employers´Recruitment Behaviour
- 2001
-
Ingår i: Journal of Applied Economics. - Buenos Aires. - 1514-0326. ; IV:2, s. 255-278
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the literature of labor economics we find many examples of studies analyzing job seekers search behavior, but few examples of the corresponding analysis of the recruitment behavior of employers. This paper gives a picture of the recruitment behavior of Swedish employers. The analysis is based on about 800 telephone interviews with employers regarding the last person they had hired. This paper relates the lemon’s problem in Akerlof with the Spence signaling model, and then it proceeds to relate indices and signals to the hiring behavior of employers. Employers mainly recruit personnel in order to expand a certain activity of their firm. On an average the total recruitment process takes about a month. In first round employers mainly look for job seekers with good education and experience. During the job interview the employer search for persons with professional knowledge, personal engagement and social competence.
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| 32. |
- Behrenz, Lars, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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Why don't employers hire long-term unemployed entitled to a wage subsidy? : The employer's perspective on subsidised employment
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Economic and Industrial Democracy. - : Sage Publications. - 0143-831X .- 1461-7099. ; 44:1, s. 161-183
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite a generous system with high wage subsidies for the long-term unemployed and newly arrived immigrants, many Swedish employers do not make use of this opportunity. This study seeks to increase knowledge of why some employers use the opportunity and others do not. Both register and survey data and combined register and survey data are used. One finding is that employers lack information about the subsidy programmes, although employers that had previously employed subsidised workers were much more likely to employ them in the future. Thus, a key policy question is how to present these subsidies to employers to reduce this barrier. The study also found that some employers hired people from these groups from altruistic motives. However, some employers responded that they would not employ a person entitled to a subsidy, regardless of the content of the subsidy scheme.
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| 33. |
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| 34. |
- Hjeds Löfmark, Monika, 1967-
(författare)
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Essays on transition
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Transition Economics focuses on the transformation of a socialist economic system to market economy, which is of interest both because of its policy relevance and its importance to economic theory. As transition was one of the most important economic events of the last century, the study of Transition Economy may help us to understand the difficulties, surprises, and obstacles when a society undergoes profound change. Moreover, it may develop our knowledge of the capitalist economic system and its institutions.The dissertation consists of two different topics within Transition Economics. The first three papers, based on three different data sets, focus on various aspects of the Russian labour market. Theses papers include analyses about the ways people search for work, how unemployment duration is affected by different characteristics, but also how people divide the time outside the paid labour market. This may provide new insights on the Russian labour market, and hopefully also deepen our understanding of labour markets in general.The fourth paper, based on a fourth data set, takes a macro perspective and is concerned with transition and terrorism. It has been claimed that with new democracies, an increased risk of terrorism follows. Therefore, in the final paper, the potential connection between terrorism and transitional progress is analysed.
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| 35. |
- Karlsson, Peter S., et al.
(författare)
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Performances of model selection criteria when variables are ill conditioned
- 2019
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Ingår i: Computational Economics. - : Springer. - 0927-7099 .- 1572-9974. ; 54:1, s. 77-98
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Model selection criteria are often used to find a "proper" model for the data under investigation when building models in cases in which the dependent or explained variables are assumed to be functions of several independent or explanatory variables. For this purpose, researchers have suggested using a large number of such criteria. These criteria have been shown to act differently, under the same or different conditions, when trying to select the "correct" number of explanatory variables to be included in a given model; this, unfortunately, leads to severe problems and confusion for researchers. In this paper, using Monte Carlo methods, we investigate the properties of four of the most common criteria under a number of realistic situations. These criteria are the adjusted coefficient of determination (R2-adj), Akaike's information criterion (AIC), the Hannan–Quinn information criterion (HQC) and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). The results from this investigation indicate that the HQC outperforms the BIC, the AIC and the R2-adj under specific circumstances. None of them perform satisfactorily, however, when the degree of multicollinearity is high, the sample sizes are small or when the fit of the model is poor (i.e., there is a low R2) . In the presence of all these factors, the criteria perform very badly and are not very useful. In these cases, the criteria are often not able to select the true model.
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| 36. |
- Mattsson, Pontus, 1986-
(författare)
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Essays on Efficiency, Productivity, and Impact of Policy
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of five self-contained empirical essays centering on total factor productivity (TFP), efficiency, and impacts of policy.Essay I: “TFP Change and Its Components for Swedish Manufacturing Firms During the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis” (co-authored with Jonas Månsson and William H. Greene). A driving force of economic development is growth in total factor productivity (TFP). Manufactured goods are, to a large extent, exports, and represent an important part of the economy for many developed countries. Additionally, a slowdown in labour productivity has been observed in many OECD countries after the financial crisis 2008-2009. This study investigates TFP change and its components for the Swedish manufacturing industry, compared with the private service sector, during the years 1997-2013, centering on the financial crisis. Stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) is used to disentangle persistent and transient efficiency from firm heterogeneity and random noise, respectively. In addition, technical change (TC), returns to scale (RTS) and a scale change (SC) component are also identified. Along with the empirical analysis, an elaborative discussion regarding TC in SFA is provided. The persistent part for manufacturing (service) is 0.796 (0.754) and the transient part is 0.787 (0.762), indicating improvement potentials. Furthermore, TFP change is substantially lower between the years 2007-2013, compared to 1997-2007, driven by lower technological progress. Policy should, therefore, target interventions that enhance technology. However, care needs to be taken so that policies do not sustain low-productive firms that otherwise would exit the market. Essay II: “A bootstrapped Malmquist index applied to Swedish district courts” (co-authored with Jonas Månsson, Christian Andersson and Fredrik Bonander). This study measures the total factor productivity (TFP) of the Swedish district courts by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) of 48 Swedish district courts from 2012 to 2015. In contrast to the limited international literature on court productivity, this study uses a fully decomposed MPI. A bootstrapping approach is further applied to compute confidence intervals for each decomposed factor of TFP. The findings show a 1.7% average decline of TFP, annually. However, a substantial variation between years can be observed in the number of statistically significant courts below and above unity. The averages of the components show that the negative impact is mainly driven by negative technical change (TC). Large variations are also observed over time where the small courts have the largest volatility. Two recommendations are: (1) that district courts with negative TFP growth could learn from those with positive TFP growth; and (2) that the back-up labour force could be developed to enhance flexibility. Essay III: “Potential efficiency effects of merging the Swedish district courts” (co-authored with Claes Tidanå). The Swedish district courts have undergone a substantial restructuring process in which the main reform has been to merge. As a result, the number of district courts has declined from 95 in 2000 to only 48 in 2009. All main arguments that support merging concern enhancements of efficiency. However, it has not yet been explicitly examined whether the mergers have the potential to increase efficiency ex ante. Thus, the expectation concerning higher efficiency was built on a subjective view. This paper investigates whether the mergers can be rationalized from a production economic point of view. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to compute a production frontier where the conducted mergers are incorporated to identify the potential ex ante gains. Furthermore, the overall potential is decomposed into learning, scale, and harmony to investigate the source of the potential gain, e.g., an effect of adjusting to best practice or a pure merging effect such as scale. The results show diverse potentials, i.e., a number of mergers did not have the potential to gain in efficiency while others could gain substantially. A conclusion based on the analysis is that the potential production economic effects should be investigated before merger decisions are made in the future. This is also likely to be true beyond the Swedish district courts.Essay IV: “Impacts on efficiency of merging the Swedish district courts” (co-authored with Per J. Agrell and Jonas Månsson). Judicial courts form a stringent example of public services using partially sticky inputs and outputs with heterogeneous quality. Notwithstanding, governments internationally are striving to improve the efficiency of and diminish the budget spent on court systems. Frontier methods such as data envelopment analysis (DEA) are sometimes used in investigations of structural changes in the form of mergers. We review the methods used to evaluate the ex post efficiency of horizontal mergers. Identification of impacts is difficult. Therefore, we apply three analytical frameworks: 1) a technical efficiency comparison over time, 2) a metafrontier approach among mergers and non-mergers and 3) a conditional difference-in-differences (cDiD) approach where non-merged twins of the actual mergers are identified by matching. In addition, both time heterogeneity and sources of efficiency change are examined ex post. We apply our method to evaluate the impact on efficiency of merging the Swedish district courts from 95 to 48 between 2000 and 2009. Whereas the stated ambition for the mergers was to improve efficiency, no structured ex post analysis has been done. Swedish courts are shown to improve efficiency from merging. In addition to the particular application, our work may inform a more general discussion on public service efficiency measurement under structural changes, and their limits and potential.Essay V: “The impact of labour subsidies on total factor productivity and profits per employee.” Subsidizing targeted labour groups is a common intervention to prevent long-term unemployment. Lower expected productivity is the motivation for subsidizing labour, but all research, with one exception, focuses on other effects while some investigates the TFP effects of capital subsidies. This study combines methods that, to the best of my knowledge, have not previously been used together to determine the impacts of labour subsidies on total factor productivity (TFP). Further, the profit per employee is included as a second outcome. Coarsened exact matching (CEM) is performed on the key variables; difference-in-differences (DiD) is then applied to the matched data. It is found that firms employing workers with wage subsidies experience negative and significant effects on both TFP and profit per employee. Heterogeneity is, however, observed; the only sector to show a deficit in both TFP and profit per employee is wholesale. During the second year with a subsidy, a negative impact can be observed on the profit per employee but not on TFP. The policy conclusion from the analysis is that subsidizing individuals from particular groups is necessary to induce firms to hire workers from these groups. However, the time period for which a single firm is subsidized should be considered.
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- Mattsson, Pontus, 1986-
(författare)
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Essays on total factor productivity (TFP)
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of two self-contained empirical essays. Essay I investigates the impact of labor subsidies on TFP, and profit per employee is included as a second outcome. Coarsened exact matching (CEM) is performed on the key variables. After matching, a difference-in-difference (DID) model is applied. The study shows that firms employing workers with wage subsidies experience negative and significant effects on both TFP and profit per employee. Heterogeneity is, however, observed; the only sector to show a deficit in both TFP and profit per employee is wholesale. During the second year with a subsidy, a negative impact can be observed on the profit per employee but not on TFP. The policy conclusion from the analysis is that subsidizing individuals from particular groups is necessary to induce firms to hire workers from these groups. However, the time period for which a single firm is subsidized should be considered.Essay II (with Jonas Månsson from Linnaeus University and the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO), Christian Andersson from SNAO and Fredrik Bonander from SNAO) measures TFP of the Swedish district courts by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate the Malmquist productivity index for 48 Swedish district courts from 2012 to 2015. This study uses a fully decomposed Malmquist index. A bootstrapping approach is further applied to compute confidence intervals for each decomposed factor of TFP as well as for TFP. The study shows an average annual of TFP by 0.7%. However, a substantial variation between years is observed both with regards to the number of statistically significant courts below and above unity. The negative impact is mainly driven by pure technical regress. Large variations are also observed over time where the small courts have the largest volatility. The TFP change is positively correlated with the rate of change in the caseload. Two recommendations are: 1) that district courts with negative TFP growth could learn from those with positive TFP growth and 2) that a back-up force could be developed to enhance flexibility.
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