Technical efficiency and convergence in the regional productive sectors.
The aim of this article is to analyse the evolution and degree of convergence in the technical efficiency of the regional productive sectors. We use the frontier approach of the Malmquist Index computed through the nonparametric programming method to compare the contribution of efficiency gains to productivity growth. Next we consider the existence of a technological catch-up effect and determine if infrastructure is a conditioning factor of this process. The results show differences in the behaviour of technical change and efficiency change amongst the productive sectors. We also confirm the existence of a catch-up effect, in that, the less efficient sectors have benefited from technological diffusion with this process occurring rapidly in the period studied.
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