Regional Firm Performance: The Case of Greece

Manufacturing plays a significant role in all economies and are the key generators of employment and income and the drivers of innovation and growth. The scope of the present study is to analyze the performance of the Greek manufacturing firms by sectors (NACE 2 digit sector classification) and by region, based on firm level data. We investigate the effect of certain factors, such as size, age and exports on the efficiency of all manufacturing sectors in Greece. The research is based on financial data of a large sample of 3600 Greek industrial firms, for a time span of 9 years (2003-2011). The empirical research with the use of DEA analysis attempts to rate the 13 Greek regions based on their firm efficiency and explain the reasons behind the differentiation in performance. Further, econometric modeling is used to investigate the effect of age, size and exports on firm level efficiency, for each region. We find that there is a negative effect of exports on efficiency scores, while a positive relation between size and efficiency scores is reported.