Dimitri Margaritis

Comparing teaching and non-teaching hospitals: A frontier approach (Teaching vs. Non-teaching hospitals)

This paper compares teaching and non-teaching hospitals in terms of their provision of patient services. We proceed by comparing the frontiers of the teaching and non-teaching hospitals using a data envelopment (DEA) type approach, which we apply to a sample of 236 teaching hospitals and 556 non-teaching hospitals operating in the US in 1994. Our results suggest that only about 10% of the teaching hospitals can effectively “compete” with non-teaching hospitals based on the provision of patient services.

Developing a Research Culture in a University Faculty

Abstract This paper offers ideas for those seeking to improve research and publications performance in university faculties, and may be especially relevant for younger faculties that have been recently upgraded to university status. A case study of the School of Management Studies at the University of Waikato is used to identify the important managerial decisions made to transform a faculty from being undergraduate teaching dominated in the late 1980s to one with a strong research profile by the mid‐1990s. The paper draws on management theory to show the links between changes in beliefs, attitudes and values in bringing about a change in the organisational culture. The case study identifies the decentralised university management structure and strong leadership at the dean level as critical elements in developing the research culture.

The effects of teaching on hospital productivity

Abstract In addition to providing direct patient care, some hospitals are also used as training sources for residents. Because of these additional responsibilities, total costs are typically higher in teaching hospitals than in their non-teaching counterparts. In this paper, we use a data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology to assess the relative technical efficiency of the 213 teaching hospitals in our sample. Because of DEAs flexibility, we were able to specify multiple inputs and outputs in determining the ‘best practice frontier’. Using this frontier as a benchmark, we determined the excess resources employed by technically inefficient hospitals. Expanding the use of a DEA, we were also able to determine how much of the inefficiency was due to excess use of residents, i.e., ‘congestion’. Systematic differences in terms of hospital ownership, teaching dedication, and teaching intensity were included in the analysis. We found an average inefficiency score of 0.80, indicating that these hospitals could have reduced inputs by 20% while maintaining output levels. Inefficiency attributed to the congestion of residents amounted to 20% of the total inefficiency score.

Productivity Trends in Australian and New Zealand Manufacturing

The purpose of this article is to study relative trends in total factor productivity (TFP) between the Australian and New Zealand manufacturing sectors from 1986 to 1996. Since 1984 both economies have undergone major structural changes with varying degrees of speed and intensity. We use the Malmquist index to measure TFP growth and decompose it into an efficiency change and a technical change component. This decomposition provides extra insight on assessing relative productivity trends during a period of economic reform. The results indicate the Australian manufacturing sector exhibits better rates of individual factor productivity performance while multifactor productivity is estimated to be higher in New Zealand manufacturing. TFP growth in New Zealand is driven by technical rather than efficiency change. In fact, the New Zealand manufacturing average rate of efficiency change is estimated to be negative over the sample period.

Public sector reform and indigenous entrepreneurship

This paper considers the implications of the liberalization of the New Zealand economy for entrepreneurial development by indigenous New Zealand Maori tribal organizations. Since 1984 the economic objective of the State has been to create a modern market economy free of price distortions, bureaucratic management and government protectionism. One of the State’s responses to enabling tribal organizations to provide for increased self‐determination and to lessen Maori State dependency was to seriously address the issue of compensation to Maori of resources that had been expropriated or confiscated during the past 150 years. While there have been difficulties in reaching agreement on appropriate or adequate allocations of Crown‐owned resources or compensation, the transferal of resources to private (but collective) Maori ownership is now providing a substantial economic base to build corporate and other entrepreneurial activities. It is argued that such willingness and commitment to transfer resources from the State back to the original owners was a manifest outcome of government’s adoption of liberal economic policies.

APEC and the Asian Economic Crisis: Early Signals from Productivity Trends

This paper provides empirical estimates of total factor productivity (TFP) trends in a sample of 17 APEC countries over the period 1975 to 1996. TFP growth is an important measure of an economys performance and if measured correctly it can provide valuable guidance on issues related to the assessment of sustainable growth trends. We use the Malmquist index to measure TFP growth and decompose it into an efficiency change and a technical change component. This decomposition provides extra insight on assessing sustainable growth trends. The measurement technique itself is regarded as a significant improvement over previous conventional measures of TFP growth. The results are very interesting. Japan, Thailand and primarily Indonesia and Malaysia are identified as countries exhibiting on average negative TFP growth rates in the 1975-1990 period. In all these countries as well as in South Korea and Taiwan the main cause of low TFP growth is a poor (negative) efficiency record. The average TFP growth rate for Japan and Malaysia is positive in the 1975-1996 period but the efficiency change component remains negative. In all these countries the main contributor to labour productivity growth is capital accumulation. Unlike previous studies we find no evidence of a poor TFP growth performance for Singapore. Furthermore, we estimate that most of Singapores labour productivity growth is driven by efficiency change. Estimates of rates of convergence towards the frontier economy that is estimated (not assumed as in other studies) to be the US, are also reported.

Productivity growth in New Zealand: 1978-1998

This paper addresses aspects of New Zealands economic performance by first analysing the countrys relative international position against a comparative group of five OECD countries. Cointegration test results fail to confirm prima facie evidence that New Zealands per capita output is on a clear divergence path from the rest of the group. A detailed analysis of New Zealand productivity trends at the sectoral level is carried out next. The results indicate that removal of government protectionist measures has in general been associated with enhanced productivity performance. This may have contributed to keeping the output gap from other OECD countries from widening.

Nurse productivity and wages

In this paper we analyse the hospital market for nursing services. We address two issues: (1) whether the hospital market for nursing services is monopsonistic, and (2) whether registered nurses are “overemployed” relative to licensed practical nurses. Our empirical technique is based on the estimation of a Shephard type distance function requiring only data on input and (multiple) output quantities. Following Fare and Grosskopf (forthcoming) we apply a dual Shephards lemma to the estimated distance function to retrieve shadow prices of nursing services for a sample of nonprofit hospital operating in California in 1983. Comparison of observed wages to our estimated shadow prices suggests that there is some evidence of monopsony power with respect to registered nurses and some evidence of relative overemployment of registered to license practical nurses.

International transmission effects on New Zealand monetary policy

This paper aims to assess empirically the degree to which New Zealand monetary policy has responded to U.S. money growth or exchange rate volatility after the countrys transition to a floating exchange rate regime in March 1985. Our results indicate that international monetary shocks represent a source of short‐lag persistence in New Zealand monetary policy. There is no evidence of long‐run international transmission effects.