Jitendra Parajuli

Shift-Share Analysis: Decomposition of Spatially Integrated Systems

Shift-share analysis is a decomposition technique that is commonly used to measure attributes of regional change. In this method, a large region is decomposed into its relevant functional and regional parts. By decomposing smaller regions embedded in a large region, it allows us to understand larger regions through a process of decomposition of its important components. This technique has been used to measure various economic dynamics, such as employment change, productivity, and international trade. This paper introduces traditional shift-share method and its extensions with examples.

Efficient and Super-Efficient Use of Broadband by U.S. States

In an earlier study, Parajuli and Haynes (2012) used multiple-input/multiple-output Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models. They found that a number of states in the U.S. assumed an efficiency score of one for broadband adoption and use. While this is not unusual, the commonly used DEA methods — the Charnes, Coopers, and Rhodes model and the Banker, Charnes, and Cooper extension — do not rank relative efficient decision making units (DMUs) across the efficient frontier set. The super-efficiency estimation overcomes this inherent limitation of the common DEA methods and allows for ranking the efficient DMUs. This paper uses super-efficiency methods to rank states that were efficient in broadband adoption and use in the U.S. from 2005 through 2007.

An Efficiency Analysis of the Internet Infrastructure in Nepal

Using the number of base stations of Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access service as the output and the demand determinants — population, per capita income, and mean years of schooling — at the inputs in a data envelopment analysis model and a stochastic frontier framework, this study finds that the Internet infrastructure is generally inefficiently allocated in Nepal. Such inefficiencies simply reflect that, without a favorable local environment, the investment on information and communications infrastructure will be wasteful. In order to reap the benefits of the global information revolution, the Government of Nepal needs to focus on two important policy issues. First, it should focus on creating income-generation and educational opportunities across the country. Second, it should foster a more competitive market environment to ensure that the incumbent operator is not always dominant.