Eficiencia técnica y convergencia en la industria manufacturera de la Unión Europea

The goal of this paper is to study the evolution of technical efficiency in the main sectors of European manufacturing industry for the period 1987-1996. To that end, we apply Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with information drawn from the BACH database of 1996. Our results show that the average level of technical efficiency decreases along this period. Furthermore, we do not find clear empirical evidence to support efficiency convergence among European firms. However, our analysis reveals a close relationship between the business cycle and both the efficiency levels and their dispersion.