Airport efficiency in the dawn of privatization: The case of Greece

Until recently, all airports in Greece were owned and managed by the state; however, the recent economic crisis led the Greek government to privatize 14 regional airports. This paper evaluates the performance of the 38 Greek airports open to civil aviation just before the privatization was concluded. It also aims to highlight that the majority of airports with high efficiency were selected to be privatized. The analysis was performed applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) using 2011 and 2015 operational and financial data. Results showed that, despite the economic crisis, overall efficiency improved between 2011 and 2015, mainly due to the spectacular increase in incoming international passenger traffic. Changes in efficiency can be attributed by and large to exogenous factors such as operations of low-cost carriers and charter operators along with the seasonal operations of established carriers at individual airports. Findings confirm that the majority of high efficiency airports were offered to private investors.     

中国大型连锁超市经营效率分析

电商对实体超市经营模式带来了巨大冲击，但作为大型连锁超市的发展速度却不降反升。同时，原有BCC模型分析面板数据的方法存在忽视技术进步的弱点。因此，为更准确地探究其在迅速发展的态势下的经营效率的状况，运用广义DEA方法测算2008-2015年中国15家大型连锁超市的经营效率状况。分析结果表明：这15家企业平均综合效率呈波动状态，纯技术效率逐年上升。最后，根据实证分析结果提出了针对大型连锁超市提高经营效率的合理建议。     

Efficiency Determinants and Capacity Issues in Angolan Insurance Companies

This paper describes a variety of approaches used to assess the efficiency of a sample of major insurance companies in Angola between 2003 and 2012. Starting out with the bootstrapping technique, several data envelopment analysis (DEA) estimates were generated, allowing the use of confidence intervals and bias correction in central estimates to test for significant differences in efficiency levels and input‐decreasing/output‐increasing potentials. Previous studies have focused on the measurement and explanation of the factors affecting the performance rather than the prediction. The use of neural networks combined with DEA results as part of an attempt to produce a model for insurance companies’ performance with effective predictive ability is investigated. The findings indicate that older insurance companies with Portuguese origin tend to be more efficient. Results also suggest that opportunities for accommodating future demand appear to be scarce.     

“教育论文”不能逾越的三条边界

论文的标准有很多,但至少要有完整的题录和文后参考文献,及正文的结构三条边界。中小学教师要掌握这三条边界。从辅导学生写论文的角度,更要掌握它们了。     

基于模因论的大学英语教学策略探讨

模因论为英语教学的研究提供了一个新的视角。基于模因论的英语教学策略认为,教师们在组织课堂教学时,应该根据语言模因传播的不同阶段,来组织教学内容。文章从模因传播的四个阶段——同化、记忆、表达和传播来探讨大学英语教学策略。     

基于因子分析和DEA模型的现代光伏农业技术经济性综合评价研究

发展现代光伏农业是推进现代农业可持续发展的重要途径，对现代光伏农业进行技术经济性综合评价有较强的现实意义，为此，建立了因子分析法和DEA相结合的现代光伏农业技术经济性综合评价模型。首先，利用因子分析法对评价指标进行了降维处理；然后，根据DEA模型需要对指标数据进行了标准化处理；最后，利用DEA模型完成了对50亩智能农业大棚各经营方案的评价，结果表明：将光伏发电和温室大棚种植相结合具有良好的技术经济效益。     

An estimation of returns to scale of airport airsides under multiple optimal solutions in DEA

The returns to scale (RTS) nature of 37 Chinese airport airsides are investigated in this paper. Multiple optimal solutions in DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) models may lead to error RTS estimation. To address this problem, we use the (Zhu and Shen, 1995) RTS method. The empirical study shows that all those airsides with two runways operate under decreasing RTS and those airsides with only one runway either operate in the area of increasing RTS or in the area of constant RTS.     

Dynamic DEA models with network structure: An application for Iranian airlines

Efficiency estimation of interdependent divisions within a company or assessing the interrelated processes in a production system provides insights for improving the operational performance. Recent developments in network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) models enable decision making units (DMUs) to be informed of inefficient processes within the system. The NDEA model assesses the processes of the system in a specific moment and ignores the dynamic effects within the production processes. Thus, without considering the temporal dimension of production processes, biased efficiency measurement will be obtained that provides misleading information to DMUs. For evaluating the performance of a DMU with interrelated processes during specified multiple periods, this paper proposes a relational dynamic NDEA (DNDEA) model which measures the efficiencies of the system and its internal processes over the time, simultaneously. To illustrate the capability of the proposed model, this study for the first time measures the efficiency of eight Iranian airlines in several periods connected to each other by carry over flows. The actual data is gathered in three periods from 2010 to 2012 and the results are compared with the dynamic DEA and network DEA models in the same time span.     

Efficiency and productivity changes in Greek airports during the crisis years 2010–2014

The aim of this study is to evaluate the operating efficiency and productivity changes of the Greek airports, during the first years of the severe economic crisis in Greece (2010–2014), by using two methods: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist Productivity index (MPI). Findings have shown that, despite the dramatic effects of the economic crisis on the socio-economic life of the country, overall airport efficiency and productivity improved, mainly due to exogenous factors such as international tourism growth. The MPI reveals that over the period of the study, airports have experienced an annual average increase in total factor productivity (TFP) of 0.9% (an increase of 3.6% over the examined period). On examining the components of this productivity change, it becomes evident that this is due to the combination of both positive (a slight progress) annual average technology change (0.5%) and technical efficiency change (0.4%). The results also indicate that 65.8% of airports have an increase in average TFP during the period 2010–2014, ranging between 0.4% and 20%. However, as Greek airports operate at poor levels of efficiency, there is still considerable space for improvements in most of the airports.     

Evaluating the multi-period efficiency of East Asia airport companies

The aim of this study is to analyze how internal operating sub-processes and annual operations of airport companies influence the overall efficiency. The multi-period Network Data Envelopment Analysis is used to evaluate the efficiencies and the efficiency changes for East Asia airport companies. The results indicate that the overall efficiencies of airport companies during a specified period of time are affected by the system efficiency and the sub-processes’ efficiencies in individual periods. Furthermore, the overall efficiency change is determined by the sub-processes’ efficiency changes. According to the operating decision analysis matrix, managers can discover the inefficient sub-processes and formulate the improvement countermeasures.