Efficiency of Large-scale Manufacturing in Pakistan: A Production Frontier Approach

The large scale manufacturing sector in Pakistan has gained increasing prominence over the years with its share in output rising to about 13 percent in 2005-06 from 5.67 percent in 1959-60.1 The sector has operated amid varying policy environments ranging from outright import substitution in the early years to a more deregulated and liberal environment in the recent years driven largely by concerns to improve the efficiency of the industrial sector which is critical for attaining greater competitiveness. While industrial and trade policy reforms in recent years have exposed domestic enterprises to greater internal and external competition, most of these enterprises continue to seek state patronage and have yet to reposition themselves to compete effectively in the global market place. Furthermore, the trade policy still has an import substitution bias for certain critical sectors whose imports are subject to tariff peaks and this raises concerns on their efficiency. This study aims to assess the efficiency of large scale manufacturing sector in Pakistan using the production frontier approach. Section 2 reviews the literature while Section 3 sets out the methodology and discusses data employed in the study. Section 4 analyses empirical findings, and Section 5 concludes the discussion.