Competitive conditions and sectors’ productive efficiency: A conditional non-parametric frontier analysis

The scope of this paper is to build an appropriate nonparametric frontier framework by using time-dependent conditional efficiency estimators to investigate how competition and time affect the process of technological change and technological catch-up. Our empirical analysis utilizes a sample of 462 U.S. 6-digit manufacturing sectors over the period 1958–2009. Contrary to the existing studies, we apply the probabilistic approach of efficiency...