Assessing The Technical Efficiency Of Pulp And Paper Production In Vietnam: The Data Envelopment Analysis Approach.

The research aims to examine factors affecting the technical efficiency (TE) of 1,121 pulp and paper enterprises in Vietnam with the support of STATA software. By applying the Data Envelope Analysis (DEA), this study conducted a TE assessment and applied the Tobit model to examine the factors that influence technical performance. Factors affecting TE are calculated with a set of explanatory variables, including size, capital per labour, the cost to revenue ratio, financial leverage, liquidity ratio. The data used for this study is the survey data for 6 years from 2012 to 2017 by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (2018). Experimental results indicate that there is a significant difference in TE between enterprises of different sizes, ranking in order of decreasing efficiency from medium to large firms and after all, small and micro-businesses. The study results also show that there is a positive relationship between capital per labour, financial leverage and technical efficiency; and a significant negative relationship between cost to revenue ratio and technical efficiency. The liquidity ratio is the factor that does not affect technical efficiency. The research also provides evidence-based policy recommendations to improve the TE and competitiveness of pulp and paper enterprises in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]