Revisiting Transformation and Directional Technology Distance Functions

Abstract

In the first part of the paper, we prove the equivalence of the unsymmetric transformation function and an efficient joint production function (JPF) under strong monotonicity conditions imposed on input and output correspondences. Monotonicity, continuity, and convexity properties sufficient for a symmetric transformation function to be an efficient JPF are also stated. In the second part, we show that the most frequently used functional form for the directional technology distance function (DTDF), the quadratic, does not satisfy homogeneity of degree $-1$ in the direction vector. This implies that the quadratic function is not the directional technology distance function. We provide derivation of the DTDF from a symmetric transformation function and show how this approach can be used to obtain functional forms that satisfy both translation property and homogeneity of degree $-1$ in the direction vector if the optimal solution of an underlying optimization problem can be expressed in closed form.