Nicolas Peypoch

On measuring tourism productivity.

This paper presents a productivity measure for the tourism industry. It demonstrates the value of the Luenberger productivity indicator, which is based on the directional distance function, for analyzing productivity between two periods. This indicator can be decomposed into two components: efficiency change and technological change. In order to illustrate this, productivity in the French tourism sector between 2000 and 2003 is analyzed. The study focuses on tourism receipts by looking at the number of bed-nights in hotels and campsites based on tourist nationality.

Aggregate Efficiency and Productivity Analysis in the Tourism Industry

This paper presents a new methodology for analysing efficiency and productivity in the tourism industry in an aggregate context. More precisely, by using the directional distance function, an aggregate Luenberger productivity indicator for a group of tourist firms is proposed. Moreover, the possibility of the reallocation of inputs and outputs between the individual tourist firms in the group is considered. Finally, this new performance measure is illustrated by considering a group of hotels.

The Luenberger indicator and productivity growth: a note on the European savings banks sector

We employ the Luenberger productivity indicator to estimate productivity growth and its decomposition into technical change and efficiency change components for savings banks sectors in 10 EU countries between 1996 and 2003. The Luenberger indicator requires less restrictive assumptions than standard nonparametric productivity indexes, and it allows the assumption of profit maximization to be made for sample firms. We estimate average productivity growth in the savings banks sector to be 2.78% per annum and driven almost entirely by technical change. Whilst the general results confirm earlier findings, this study is one of the earliest to identify cross-border differences in productivity growth in the savings banks sector.

A New Approach in Benchmarking Seaport Efficiency and Technological Change

Export-led strategies and the globalization of production, transport and distribution have intensified competition among ports, turning it into competition among global supply chains. Seaport efficiency and productivity have thus become issues of essence for most ports, particularly in the lucrative business of container handling. The paper uses the innovative Luenberger indicator to analyze seaport efficiency and productivity growth in a sample of 16 Middle East and East African seaports in the period 2005-2007. Measurements of both technical efficiency change (managerial efficacy) and technological change (investment) are presented. Although results are rather mixed among ports, the paper finds a general decline in port productivity, with a possible subsequent decline in skills and management efficiency. With a few notable exceptions, ports in the region demonstrate a worrying decline in technical efficiency, often in spite of positive developments in the adoption of new technology. Regional governments are advised to assign the requisite political priorities, and any necessary budgets, to the development of their port sectors in the clear understanding that ports constitute the most important component of global supply chains which, in their turn, are the sole facilitators of export led growth and integration of developing countries in the global economy.

A note on productivity change in European cooperative banks: the Luenberger indicator approach

The Luenberger productivity indicator is employed to estimate and decompose productivity change in a sample of cooperative banks operating in 10 EU member states. An average annualised productivity growth of 2.59% is reported between 1996 and 2003, though there is heterogeneity in growth rates across countries. Generally speaking, productivity growth is driven by technological change. However, cooperative banks in southern European banking markets benefit as much from efficiency growth or catching‐up with industry best practice. The results suggest that technology sharing arrangements and greater competition arising from deregulation are positive contributors towards productivity change.

Research Note: Technical Efficiency in the Tourism Industry

This note presents an efficiency measure for the tourism industry. It demonstrates the value of the proportional distance function, which simultaneously contracts inputs and expands outputs for analysing efficiency. It can be stated that if the tourism industry were to include this measure in the analysis of its technical efficiency, new possibilities would be opened up with regard to managerial recommendations.

Cost efficiency of French soccer league teams

This article evaluates the operational activities of French soccer clubs from 2003 to 2011 by using a finite mixture model that allows controlling for unobserved heterogeneity. In doing so, a stochastic frontier latent class model, which allows the existence of different technologies, is adopted to estimate cost frontiers. This procedure not only enables us to identify different groups of French soccer clubs but also permits to analyse their cost efficiency. The main result is that there are two groups among the French soccer clubs, both following completely different ‘technologies’ to obtain league points, suggesting that business strategies need to be adapted to the characteristics of the clubs. Some managerial implications are developed.

Productivity assessment of African seaports with biased technological change

Abstract This paper analyses the productivity of a representative sample of African seaports from 2002 to 2008. Productivity scores are decomposed, based on the Luenberger productivity indicator, and the nature of technological change is analysed. The paper finds that Nigerian seaports are the most efficient, followed by Angola and Mozambique. Discussions of the results as well as related policy implications are provided.

A framework to analyze productivity changes: theoretical aspects and application to the Portuguese travel agencies sector.

The Ponale Road features a spectacular panorama, consisting of one of the most beautiful mountain-top views of Lake Garda (northern Italy). In the past, it attracted large numbers of tourists from all over Europe, especially mountain bikers, due to its unique characteristics. However, it was closed at the end of the 1990s due to geological instability. In this study, we estimated the social benefit of the reopening of this scenic route using the contingent valuation method, focusing exclusively on its recreational use value. During 2002, we conducted face-to-face interviews with 675 randomly drawn potential users of the road and got a response rate of 96%. Our target population was all potential road users, both tourists and residents, because at the time the research was carried out the road was closed to any type of use. A hypothetical scenario proposed the reopening of the road conditional on users paying an access fee. We elicited willingness to pay (WTP) using a payment-card format. The Cameron and Huppert parametric interval regression method was used to analyze data. Benefits compared with annual cost of maintenance show the attractiveness of the project. The feasibility of a pricing policy was also evaluated.

How to quickly get a job? The transition from higher education to French labour market by a survival model

This article analyses how long former university students stay unemployed, when searching for a new job after the leaving of the French higher education. Cox duration models are used to account for the proportional hypothesis. The main result of this article is that the workers recruitment is based more on the choice of the faculty of initial training than the educational level attainment. Some policy implications are derived from our results to give some recommendations for individual job search and policy-makers in education.