Politická ekonomie 2014, 62(3):303-322 | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.953

Efektivita evropských firem

Jan Hanousek, Evžen Kočenda, Anastasiya Shamshur
1 CERGE-EI, Univerzita Karlova a AV ČR, Praha; The William Davidson Institute, Michigan; CEPR, Londýn.
2 CERGE-EI, Univerzita Karlova a AV ČR, Praha; CESifo, Mnichov; IOS, Řezno; The William Davidson Institute, Michigan.
3 Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia; CERGE-EI, Univerzita Karlova a AV ČR, Praha.

Efficiency of European Firms

This paper analyzes the technological efficiency of companies in the European Union (EU). Our extensive database covers more than 4 million firm/year observations from many EU countries including both manufacturing and service sectors in 2001-2007. Methodologically we apply a model of a stochastic production productivity frontier. We show that: the economic signifikance of company age is negligible, the higher the debt the greater the efficiency, bigger companies are less efficient, and a medium-level concentration of the market benefits companies. Majority ownership, in contrast, does not lead to higher efficiency, but a combination of majority and minority ownership has a positive disciplinary influence leading to higher efficiency. As to the origins of ownership, it does not seem that foreign-(co-)owned companies imply greater efficiency in old European countries, whereas foreign ownership is a significant driver of efficiency in new EU members through FDI.

Keywords: efficiency, foreign direct investment, panel data, ownership structure, stochastic productivity frontier
JEL classification: C33, D24, G32, L60, L80, M21

Published: June 1, 2014  Show citation

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Hanousek, J., Kočenda, E., & Shamshur, A. (2014). Efficiency of European Firms. Politická ekonomie62(3), 303-322. doi: 10.18267/j.polek.953
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