Package: metafrontier 0.3.0

Erik Enstad

metafrontier: Analysis of Metafrontier Models for Efficiency and Productivity

Implements metafrontier production function models for estimating technical efficiencies and technology gaps for groups of firms that face different restrictions of a common underlying metatechnology (group-specific technologies in the sense of Battese, Rao, and O'Donnell, 2004). Supports both stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) based metafrontiers. Includes the deterministic metafrontier of Battese, Rao, and O'Donnell (2004) <doi:10.1023/B:PROD.0000012454.06094.29>, the stochastic metafrontier of Huang, Huang, and Liu (2014) <doi:10.1007/s11123-014-0402-2>, and the metafrontier Malmquist productivity index of O'Donnell, Rao, and Battese (2008) <doi:10.1007/s00181-007-0119-4>. The deterministic metafrontier can be identified by either the minimum sum of absolute deviations (LP) or the minimum sum of squared deviations (QP) criterion. Additional features include panel SFA with time-varying inefficiency, bootstrap confidence intervals for technology gap ratios, a DEA poolability permutation test, latent class metafrontier estimation via the EM algorithm, Murphy-Topel corrected standard errors, convergence diagnostics, import of pre-fitted models from external estimation engines ('sfaR', 'frontier', 'Benchmarking'), and 'ggplot2' visualisation methods.

Authors:Erik Enstad [aut, cre]

metafrontier_0.3.0.tar.gz
metafrontier_0.3.0.zip(r-4.7)metafrontier_0.3.0.zip(r-4.6)metafrontier_0.3.0.zip(r-4.5)
metafrontier_0.3.0.tgz(r-4.6-any)metafrontier_0.3.0.tgz(r-4.5-any)
metafrontier_0.3.0.tar.gz(r-4.7-any)metafrontier_0.3.0.tar.gz(r-4.6-any)
metafrontier_0.3.0.tgz(r-4.6-emscripten)
manual.pdf |manual.html
DESCRIPTION |NEWS
card.svg |card.png
metafrontier/json (API)

# Install 'metafrontier' in R:
install.packages('metafrontier', repos = c('https://iik1.r-universe.dev', 'https://cloud.r-project.org'))

Bug tracker:https://github.com/iik1/metafrontier/issues

On CRAN:

Conda:

4.65 score 367 downloads 13 exports 3 dependencies

Last updated from:8e8d0b750d. Checks:9 OK. Indexed: yes.

TargetResultTimeFilesSyslog
linux-devel-x86_64OK194
source / vignettesOK218
linux-release-x86_64OK197
macos-release-arm64OK122
macos-oldrel-arm64OK162
windows-develOK227
windows-releaseOK150
windows-oldrelOK162
wasm-releaseOK120

Exports:as_metafrontier_modelboot_tgrcheck_convergenceefficiencieslatent_class_metafrontiermalmquist_metametafrontierpoolability_testselect_n_classessimulate_metafrontiersimulate_panel_metafrontiertechnology_gap_ratiotgr_summary

Dependencies:FormulalpSolveAPInumDeriv

Introduction to metafrontier
What is a metafrontier? | Quick start | Simulate data | Estimate the metafrontier | Deterministic SFA metafrontier (Battese, Rao, and O'Donnell, 2004) | Stochastic metafrontier (Huang, Huang, and Liu, 2014) | DEA-based metafrontier | Extracting results | Efficiency scores | Technology gap ratio | Coefficients | Model information | Visualisation | TGR distributions | Efficiency scatter | Efficiency decomposition | Hypothesis testing | Poolability test | Convergence diagnostics | Inefficiency distributions | Comparing true and estimated values | Panel SFA Metafrontier | Bootstrap Confidence Intervals for TGR | Murphy-Topel Variance Correction | Latent Class Metafrontier | Directional Distance Functions (DDF) | References

Last update: 2026-07-15
Started: 2026-04-10

Metafrontier Malmquist Productivity Index
Motivation | The three-way decomposition | Simulating panel data | Computing the index | Detailed results | Interpreting the decomposition | Within-group vs metafrontier Malmquist | Technology gap dynamics | Returns to scale assumptions | Using real-world panel data | Caveats | Interpretation of the index | Cross-period infeasibility | Firm matching | SFA-based index | References

Last update: 2026-07-15
Started: 2026-04-11

Metafrontier Methods: Theory and Computation
1. The metafrontier framework | 1.1 Group-specific stochastic frontiers | 1.2 The metafrontier | 1.3 The efficiency decomposition | 2. Deterministic metafrontier (Battese, Rao, and O'Donnell, 2004) | 2.1 Estimation | 2.2 Properties | 2.3 Example | 3. Stochastic metafrontier (Huang, Huang, and Liu, 2014) | 3.1 Estimation | 3.2 Advantages over the deterministic approach | 3.3 Caveat: the generated-regressor problem | 3.4 Example | 3.5 A note on TGR values | 4. DEA-based metafrontier | 4.1 Approach | 4.2 Returns to scale | 5. Comparing methods | 6. Choosing a method: practical guidance | 7. Testing for technology heterogeneity | 8. Simulation for Monte Carlo studies | References

Last update: 2026-07-15
Started: 2026-04-10