Benchmarking and productivity analyses with economic applications. Base Course (1 - 5 November, 2010)

Faculty
Professor Peter Bogetoft, Department of Economics, CBS, pb.eco@cbs.dk

Course Coordinator
Professor Peter Bogetoft, Department of Economics, CBS, pb.eco@cbs.dk

A basic knowledge of quantitative methods and statistics is desirable, but the course will refresh the participants’ prior knowledge as we go along. During the course, we will also train the use of free and powerful software like R, Frontier and EMS. Participants are encouraged to bring their own notebooks to facilitate subsequent usage.

The aim of this course is to introduce the participants to the theory and practice of performance evaluations and their usages in research, policy analyses, incentive schemes and regulation.

Specifically, the objectives are:

1. To provide a basic understanding of state-of-the-art benchmarking, efficiency and productivity analyses methods using Data Envelopment Analyses (DEA), Stochastic Frontier Analyses (SFA) and related methods.
2. To provide training in the actual usage of such methods and associated software on different applications
3. To discuss the usage of performance evaluations to evaluate economic systems and to design decision support, reallocation mechanisms and incentive systems.

Background: Productivity and efficiency analysis is a rapidly growing, interdisciplinary field of research in economics, management sciences, and statistics. In addition to the empirical research on the magnitude, direction, and sources of productivity growth, this literature has produced quantitative methods such as data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), which have diffused beyond their traditional confinement to production settings. These tools are used in many different application areas including environment, development studies, education, finance, health care studies, natural resource management, public economics, and sports studies, among other fields. The tools and approaches of productivity analysis are equally well suited for micro-level analyses of firms and other decision-making units as well as macro-level cross-country comparisons. Integration with incentive theory, mechanism design and decision support systems makes the tools relevant also in normative applications

Day 1 
* Welcome * Introduction and overview 
* Production and costs models 
* Firm behavior 
* Efficiency concepts * Exercises *Installation of software

Day 2 
* Data Envelopment Analyses (DEA) * Non-discretionary, environmental, quality etc variables * Dual models * Game interpretations * Exercises.

Day 3 
* Statistical inference in DEA * Bootstrapping * Two stage models * Stochastic Frontier Analyses (SFA) * Exercises

Day 4 
* Reallocation, market and merger analyses * Decision Support Systems * Network models * Exercises

Day 5 
* Efficiency and Incentives, * Contracts * Regulation * Yardstick competition, * Auctions * Exercises

A course certificate for the base course is granted based on attendance and active participating.

The base course (5 ETCS) stretches over five days. Each day will consist of lecturing in the morning and conceptual discussions and data exercises in the afternoon.

The course will draw of original literature (articles) supplemented by text-book treatments like in

The first of these books will be mailed to the participants no later than 1 month before the course free of charge.

Deadline: Oct. 1, 2010,. First to sign up get priority in case of overbooking.
Application form: By e-mail to bj.eco@cbs.dk with 5 lines on your background.