Dynamic Efficiency and Productivity Measurement

A systematic treatment of dynamic decision making and performance measurement

Modern business environments are dynamic. Yet, the models used to make decisions and quantify success within them are stuck in the past. In a world where demands, resources, and technology are interconnected and evolving, measures of efficiency need to reflect that environment.

In Dynamic Efficiency and Productivity Measurement, Elvira Silva, Spiro E. Stefanou, and Alfons Oude Lansink look at the business process from a dynamic perspective. Their systematic study covers dynamic production environments where current production decisions impact future production possibilities. By considering practical factors like adjustments over time, this book offers an important lens for contemporary microeconomic analysis. Silva, Stefanou, and Lansink develop the analytical foundations of dynamic production technology in both primal and dual representations, with an emphasis on directional distance functions. They cover concepts measuring the production structure (economies of scale, economies of scope, capacity utilization) and performance (allocative, scale and technical inefficiency, productivity) in a methodological and comprehensive way.

Through a unified approach, Dynamic Efficiency and Productivity Measurement offers a guide to how firms maximize potential in changing environments and an invaluable contribution to applied microeconomics.

Elvira Silva is an Associate Professor in Economics at the Faculdade de Economia do Porto, University of Porto, and a member of the research group of the Center in Economics and Finance at the University of Porto (CEF.UP). She serves as the director of the PhD program in Economics at the Faculdade de Economia do Porto. Her research interests include efficiency and productivity measurement and nonparametric modeling.

Spiro E. Stefanou is Professor of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Florida. He is internationally recognized for research focusing on productivity, innovation, and efficiency in the agricultural and food manufacturing sectors in the U.S. and Europe. He holds a part-time appointment as Professor in the Business Economics Group at Wageningen University (Netherlands).

Alfons Oude Lansink is Professor and Head of the Business Economics Group at Wageningen University (Netherlands), Director of the Wageningen School of Social Sciences, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida. His research focuses on economic modeling of firm behavior and analysis of technical, economic and environmental performance of farms and agribusiness firms.