Economic Performance and Institutions: Measuring Technical Efficiency Using SPF Approach

This paper was created on August 2009 - it was during my MSc study. This paper proposed to employ the SPF approach (stochastic production frontier) to measure the technical efficiency of the country level for best economic performance, as the measure of growth is the essential practice to comprehend the roots of economic growth. It is evident from the results, that there is an essential difference in the perception of the technical efficiency cross-country and the total factor productivity traditional growth measurement. The SPF Model as well allows us to search for technical efficiency sources. The sources of Technical inefficiency cross-country are demonstrated by institutional arrangements. We find amongst all the different measures of institutions the role of openness to international trade, the State and political institutions are important factors of the global economic performance divergence.

本论文完成于2009年8月，撰写期间正值我攻读理学硕士（Master of Science, MSc）学位阶段。本文提出采用随机前沿生产（Stochastic Production Frontier, SPF）方法，测算国家层面的技术效率以实现最优经济表现；而增长测算是理解经济增长根源的核心实践路径。研究结果显示，跨国技术效率的测算结果与传统全要素生产率（Total Factor Productivity, TFP）增长测算方式之间存在本质差异。此外，随机前沿生产模型还可用于探究技术效率的影响来源。跨国层面的技术无效率来源可通过制度安排予以阐明。研究发现，在各类制度衡量指标中，国际贸易开放度、国家治理与政治制度是导致全球经济表现出现分化的关键因素。