Productive efficiency in the Middle East and North Africa

Productive efficiency and factors affecting it in 11 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region were evaluated over the period 1980 to 1999 using Fare's nonparametric approach. The results indicate that Oil-producing countries are more efficient in terms of production compared with non Oil-producing countries. Tobit analyses indicate that previous levels of efficiency, the degree of economic openness, consumption of domestically produced goods and the limited availability of credit have a positive impact on production efficiency. A sensitivity analysis using the bias corrected bootstrap technique shows that allocative efficiency and economic efficiency are more sensitive to the returns to scale assumption and sample size than pure technical efficiency.