Evaluation of Manufacturing Competitiveness of Hubei Province Based on Stochastic Frontier Analysis

The manufacturing level directly manifests the comprehensive strength of a country or region. Production efficiency provides an important metric of the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry. Based on the data of China’s industrial enterprises of 1999–2011, this paper estimates the production efficiency of manufacturing in Central China’s Hubei Province through stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and thus characterizes the differences between prefectures of Hubei in manufacturing competitiveness. The results show that, on the prefecture level, Xianning and Wuhan saw a decline in manufacturing competitiveness, while Xiangfan and Xiaogan witnessed an increase in manufacturing competitiveness. To enhance local manufacturing competitiveness and make Hubei the forerunner and cornerstone of Central China, different prefectures should adopt different industrial promotion policies, pay attention to cultivating the technological innovation capabilities of enterprises, and strengthen the integration of production, education, and research.