Technical Efficiency of High-Technology Industries in the Crisis: Evidence from Russia

The aim of the paper is to study the statics and dynamics of the technical efficiency of enterprises, in the context of high-technology industries and with further detailing by territory of location of enterprises (regions-agglomeration centers; other regions) and the size of enterprises (large, medium, and small). We considered the case of Russia a large country with a transition economy. We applied the following methods: the Data Envelopment Analysis for calculating technical efficiency, the methods for calculating the Malmquist productivity index and its components, ANOVA, and Tobit regression models. The sample consisted of 1150 companies. The study period is 2013–2017. We found that the most high-technology industries are characterized by the negative impact of the crisis on technical efficiency. We also found that enterprises located in regions-agglomeration centers are characterized by higher TE values in three of the four studied sectors (except for pharmaceutical industry). Tobit regression showed that large enterprises, enterprises located in agglomeration centers, and enterprises using borrowed capital receive benefits in terms of technical efficiency. By adding moderators to the Tobit model, we revealed that the positive impact of leverage on technical efficiency is enhanced for large businesses and businesses located in the agglomeration centers. We also found less positive influence of financial leverage on technical efficiency in the period of crisis.