A Meta-analysis Regression on Efficient and Productivity Energy Research

This paper presents a meta-analysis regression of efficiency and productivity papers on energy. The objective is to know if there are differences in the value of technical efficiency (TE) by applying different estimation methods. In the energy sector, over the recent decades, many studies have been published that analyse firms’ performance, using as a measure of technical efficiency the estimated values from parametric and non-parametric methods. In the literature there is no study that addresses whether different estimation methods can influence the value obtained for TE. The analysis of these factors is an important instrument for performance evaluation, by enabling firms to adopt more precise lines and benchmarking techniques. The data consist of 162 models, reporting on 63 scientific articles which empirically analyze the level of efficiency and productivity in the energy sector, from 1979 to 2013. The meta-regression model enables an understanding of the effects that different specifications of the models may have on the estimated values for efficiency. The results identify positive and negative effects on efficiency, but the most important is that neither method is preferable to the other.