Research On The Service Efficiency And Total Factor Productivity Evaluation Of Public Libraries In China And The United States

As one of the key components of public cultural service system,public libraries service plays an important role in satisfying the rise in demands for intellectual and cultural values of the people.In recent years,with an increasing financial investment in public libraries,the service level of public libraries has been enhanced in China.However,the decreased service performance poses a significant dilemma for the public libraries since they have not obtained the predicted achievement,which can be largely attribute to a range of long-standing problems such as narrow service content and low management efficiency.Given the fact that providing efficient public libraries service has strategic significance for improving national cultural capability and building socialist cultural power,improving service efficiency and total factor productivity(TFP)is an effective way to facilitate the development of public libraries in China.Comparatively,the United States has a well-established public libraries service system,which provides sufficient guarantee of service resources for promoting the development of public libraries and achieves substantial results.Despite the great significancy China has also attached to the construction and development of public libraries,in accordance with the relevant statistical data,there is still a clear gap between China and the United States.Therefore,in order to improve the capability of resource allocation and sustainable development of public libraries in China,conducting a comparative analysis of the service efficiency and TFP of public libraries in these two distinctive service systems is of great importance.Based on the prior research,despite numerous studies have been done on the service efficiency and TFP of public libraries,most of them tend to regard the public libraries service system as a “black box” and largely neglect the impact of intermediate products on the whole service system.Thus,it is difficult to provide a comprehensive and impartial evaluation toward the service process of public libraries,which also impairs the reliability and accuracy of the evaluation results of service efficiency and TFP.In addition,the comparative study on the service efficiency and TFP of public libraries between China and the United States remains limited.Through the deconstruction of the “black box” of public libraries services,this paper uses the network DEA model to evaluate the service efficiency and TFP of public libraries in China and the United States.Based on the data of public libraries in 81 regions of China and the United States from 2006 to 2017,this paper divides the service process of public libraries into two related stages,namely service generation and service utilization.Meanwhile,considering the impact of intermediate products on the whole service process,this paper measures the service efficiency and TFP of public libraries in China and the United States by examining the types and characteristics of service efficiency,testing the convergence of service efficiency,analyzing the influencing factors of TFP of public libraries,and putting forward corresponding policy suggestions.The main content of this paper is organized as follows:The first chapter is an introduction of the research background to clarify the practical and theoretical value of the research,which includes research ideas,basic structure arrangement,applied research methods and innovative points of this paper.The second chapter presents the basic concepts and a literature review.This section defines the concepts of public libraries service efficiency and TFP,systematically discusses the research objects,evaluation methods,and influencing factors of public libraries service efficiency and TFP both at home and abroad.The third chapter discusses the development process and current situation of public libraries service in China and the United States.Based on the changes of policy support system of public libraries service of the two governments,this chapter analyzes the development process of public libraries in China and the United States.Specifically,the current situations of public libraries service development in the two countries are described on four dimensions,including organizational setting,financial investment and personnel guarantee,service operation,and service effect.The fourth chapter proposes the deconstruction of “black box” and the construction of evaluation index.This chapter first opens the “black box” of public libraries service,and then defines the principles of constructing the evaluation index.Combined with the division of public libraries service process,the appropriate evaluation index is selected.The fifth chapter is the evaluation of the service efficiency of public libraries in China and the United States.In this chapter,two-stage network DEA is used to measure the service efficiency of public libraries in these two countries.Further,this paper compares the overall service efficiency,sub stage service efficiency and two-stage service coordination degree of public libraries in China and the United States.This chapter also discusses the types of service efficiency of public libraries and tests its convergence.Moreover,the current paper uses the kernel density function to reveal the dynamic distribution and evolution of the service efficiency of public libraries in China and the United States.The sixth chapter is about the evaluation of TFP of public libraries service in China and the United States.Drawing from the two-stage network DEA model,this paper constructs the network Malmquist index to analyze the changes of the TFP and its decomposition index,which can thereby illustrate the main contributing factors of the TFP of public libraries in China and the United States.Meanwhile,the quantitative regression model is used to analyze the influencing factors of TFP of public libraries.The last chapter includes the conclusion,policy recommendations and prospects.This chapter summarizes the research findings of the current paper.Meanwhile,several policy suggestions aiming at enhance the service efficiency and TFP of public libraries in China have been put forward.Finally,it points out the possible limitations of this paper and proposes future research directions.Based on the empirical analysis of the public libraries service efficiency and TFP,this paper concludes the following:(1)From 2006 to 2017,the service generation efficiency of Chinese public libraries is the highest,followed by the overall service efficiency,while the service utilization efficiency is the lowest.Meanwhile,the overall efficiency and the efficiency of the two sub stages show a downward trend.Comparatively,the overall service efficiency and service utilization efficiency of American public libraries show a downward trend,while the service generation efficiency of the United States shows an evolutionary trend with initial decline and subsequent rise.In addition,the overall service efficiency and service utilization efficiency of American public libraries are higher than those of China,while the service generation efficiency of China is higher than that of the United States.At the same time,the two-stage service coordination degree of American public libraries is higher than that of China.(2)The 81 regions in China and the United States can be divided into four types.The service efficiency of Chinese public libraries mainly indicates the characteristics of low service utilization efficiency,while that of the United States shows the characteristics of high service utilization efficiency.It can be concluded that the low level of service utilization efficiency is a compelling explanation for why the overall service efficiency of Chinese public libraries lags behind that of the United States.(3)There is no obvious s convergence trend in the service efficiency of public libraries in China.The overall service efficiency and service utilization efficiency of public libraries in the United States indicate tend to be divergent,while the service generation efficiency shows the change characteristics of “first convergence,then divergence,and then convergence”.In addition,there are absolute b convergence and conditional b convergence in the overall service efficiency and sub stage service efficiency of public libraries in China and the United States.(4)In China,the center of the kernel density function of service efficiency of public libraries is moving to the left,and the aggregation trend of service efficiency distribution is obvious.The regional gap of service generation efficiency is on the rise,and the polarization phenomenon of service utilization efficiency is prominent.Meanwhile,the polarization phenomenon of service generation efficiency has been controlled.In the United States,the center of the kernel density function of the overall service efficiency and service utilization efficiency is moving to the left,while the service generation efficiency has experienced a trend of moving from left to right,and its distribution is also strengthening.Meanwhile,the overall service efficiency and the two sub stages of service efficiency have appeared the phenomenon of polarization.(5)From 2007 to 2017,the overall TFP of China's public libraries exhibited a “M-shaped”.The overall TFP increases by 2.12% annually,the average annual reduction in technical efficiency is 3.34%,and the average annual increase in technological change is 5.65%.In the first stage,the TFP drops by 1.80% annually.The average annual growth of TFP in the second stage is 6.61%.From high to low,the overall TFP growth in the four regions is in the order of East,northeast,West and central.(6)The TFP of public libraries in the United States as overall and in its sub stages showed a “S-shaped” trend of “first decreasing,then increasing,and then decreasing”.The overall TFP decreases by 1.27% annually.In the first stage,the TFP increase is by 0.08% annually,and the average annual decrease of TFP in the second stage is 3.05%.From high to low,the growth level of overall TFP is in the order of South,West,Midwest,and Northeast.(7)The overall TFP and the second stage TFP of public libraries in China are higher than those in the United States,while the first stage in the United States is relatively high.(8)Population size,government attention,personnel structure,new collection purchase fee,electronic degree and other factors will collectively have an impact on the TFP of public libraries,and the significant effect of each stage is different.The innovative points of this paper are as follows:Firstly,this paper investigates the efficiency changes of public libraries service in China and the United States:(1)Given the operational characteristics of public libraries service,this paper divides the public libraries service into two related stages.On this basis,considering the impact of intermediate products on the whole service process of public libraries,the two-stage network DEA model is applied to measure the overall efficiency and two sub stages efficiency of public libraries service in China and the United States;(2)Based on the calculative results of the two sub stages of public libraries service efficiency,this paper proposes a comprehensive analysis of the distinctive types of public libraries service efficiency in China and the United States;(3)Based on the convergence analysis model,this paper conducts a convergence test and kernel density analysis of the service efficiency of public libraries in China and the United States as a whole and in each sub stage.Secondly,this paper examines the total factor productivity changes of public libraries service in China and the United States:(1)This paper uses network DEA function to establish a two-stage Network Malmquist index,and provides a decomposition expression of the index,which can indicate the overall total factor productivity changes and each sub stage total factor productivity changes.This index presents a more comprehensive evaluation of total factor productivity;(2)By considering the intermediate products of public libraries service,this article uses the index to study the total factor production of public libraries service in China and the United States,analyzing the changes of the two countries in various year,the changes in various regions,and the changes of each province(state);(3)Drawing on the econometric regression model,the influencing factors of the total factor productivity of public libraries service in China and the United States are discussed.