PONE-D-23-38796Analysis of Total Factor Productivity in the Real Estate Industry of 35 Cities in China Based on the Malmquist IndexPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Meng,

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Ahmad Hassan Ahmad

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This study analyzed the total factor productivity in the real estate industry of 35 Cities in China using the Malmquist index.

Generally, I think this paper did not reach the publication level due the theoretical contribution nor the academic writing. My comments are as follows:

1. The literature review should be focused on the similar study in how to analyze the total factor productivity in different countries, regions, industries. However, no work on this area.

2. Regarding the methods, I think the authors should focus on the why the DEA Malmquist index model suits this study, rather than show what is the DEA Malmquist index model by 3-4 pages.

3. Data source is the base of this study. However, how to obtain the relevant data is not clarified.

Reviewer #2: 1. The DEA Malmquist index model measures production efficiency. The selection of input factors is very important. How to select and decide?

2. The real estate industry is greatly affected by overall economic and policy factors. How does this model deal with these two factors?

3. Generally speaking, the larger the R square, the better the fit between the model and the data. The R square in Table 5 is only between 10.8% and 12.9%, indicating that the model fit in this article is low and needs to be re-examined.

4. What impact does the result of this article have on the existing "purchase restriction orders" in first-tier cities and the "destocking" policies in third- and fourth-tier cities?

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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PONE-D-23-38796R1An   Analysis of Production Efficiency in China's Real Estate Industry Based on a Two-Stage DEA ModelPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Meng,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Sep 20 2024 11:59PM If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Ahmad Hassan Ahmad

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments:

Based on the comments, the paper is given minor revisions. This is an opportunity for you to revise the paper addressing all the comments raised carefully and satisfactorily.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #3: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #3: This paper uses a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to calculate the production efficiency of China's real estate industry across 31 regions in 2014-2022. It uses a panel Tobit model to identify factors (the leverage ratio of companies, per capita GDP and regulatory policies) that significantly impact efficiency.

In Eq. 2, the methodology uses Tobit regression to explain efficiency. There are other regression methods such as truncated regression, robust-OLS regression or Papke-Wooldridge which are probably more suited method for these purposes. Adding a short discussion of these alternative ways for this type of analysis will be helpful (see Simar and Wilson 2008, Banker and Natarajan 2007 for discussion).

Banker R.D and Natarajan R. (2008) Evaluating Contextual Variables Affecting Productivity Using Data Envelopment Analysis, Operations Research, Vol. 56, No. 1, January–February 2008, pp. 48–58

Papke L.E. and Wooldridge J.M., (1996) Econometric methods for fractional response variables with an application to 401(k) plan participation rates, Journal of Applied Econometrics, 11 (6) (1996), pp. 619–632

Simar L, Wilson PW. (2008) Statistical inference in non-parametric frontier models: recent developments and perspectives. In Fried HO, Knox-Lovell CA, Schmidt S, The measurement of productive efficiency and productivity growth. 2008; Oxford University Press, Oxford.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #3: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

An   Analysis of Production Efficiency in China's Real Estate Industry Based on a Two-Stage DEA Model

PONE-D-23-38796R2

Dear Dr. Meng,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Ahmad Hassan Ahmad

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

As you have adequately addressed the concerns raised by the reviewer, I am happy to accept the paper for publication. However, you need to follow the journal's specific instructions.

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