Description: Methods and perspectives to model and measure productivity and efficiency have made a number of important advances in the last decade. Using the standard and innovative formulations of the theory and practice of efficiency and productivity measurement, Robin C. Sickles and Valentin Zelenyuk provide a comprehensive approach to productivity and efficiency analysis, covering its theoretical underpinnings and its empirical implementation, paying particular attention to the implications of neoclassical economic theory. A distinct feature of the book is that it presents a wide array of theoretical and empirical methods utilized by researchers and practitioners who study productivity issues. An accompanying website includes methods, programming codes that can be used with widely available software like MATLAB(R) and R, and test data for many of the productivity and efficiency estimators discussed in the book. It will be valuable to upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals.
Brief description: Valentin Zelenyuk is the Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the School of Economics at the University of Queensland, where he served as Research Director and Director of the Centre for Efficiency and Productivity Analysis. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Productivity Analysis and the Data Envelopment Analysis Journal.
Review Quotes: 'Robin Sickles and Valentin Zelenyuk have written an outstanding book on a very important topic - the measurement of productivity and efficiency. The book provides a complete and thorough introduction to the economic theory of production and its many applications to national accounting and econometric modeling. An especially valuable feature of the book is the detailed treatment of productivity and growth in the world economy.' Dale Jorgenson, Samuel W. Morris University Professor, Harvard University