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FIRM SIZE AND EFFICIENCY IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN MOTOR VEHICLE INDUSTRY *
Author(s) -
TRUETT LILA J.,
TRUETT DALE B.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
australian economic papers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.351
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1467-8454
pISSN - 0004-900X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8454.2009.00380.x
Subject(s) - inefficiency , incentive , economies of scale , unit (ring theory) , work (physics) , scale (ratio) , government (linguistics) , business , industrial organization , economics , labour economics , market economy , marketing , engineering , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics education , mathematics , physics , quantum mechanics
The South African motor vehicle industry has historically been considered a critical industry in the South African economy and the target of numerous government policies designed to protect it and/or increase its international competitiveness. This study examines the cost performance of firms in this industry according to their size, using data categorised by output level. The results are consistent with statistically significant economies of scale at the lowest output levels and a cost inefficiency averaging from about seven to nine per cent for all firms. The findings also suggest that all else equal, the smallest firms and the largest firms have lower unit costs than mid‐sized firms. While this work suggests that policies that would give incentives for the smallest firms to increase their scale of operations might help to reduce their unit costs, further investigation needs to be done with respect to why firms in the mid‐level size categories appear to be less efficient.