Earnings, Schooling and Social Capital of Cooperative Managers

Abstract ** : This paper estimates a human capital model for co‐operative managers and compares the results with the social capital model, based on a questionnaire distributed in Portugal in 2003. The study disentangles the relative contributions of the two competing theories of earnings: the human capital and social capital theories, as applied to co‐operative managers. We conclude that co‐operative managers' earnings are a function of both theories. Policy implications are derived .     

Productivity growth and biased technological change in Japanese airports

In this paper, the productivities of Japanese airports over the period of 1987–2005 are analyzed using the Malmquist index, and technological bias is investigated. During this period, airports on average became less efficient and experienced technological regress. Our results indicate that the traditional growth accounting method, which assumes Hicks neutral technological change, is not appropriate for analyzing changes in productivity for Japanese airports.     

Productivity changes in Portuguese bus companies

This paper proposes a framework for benchmarking Portuguese bus companies and the rationalisation of their operational activities, using the Luenberger productivity indicator. A key advantage of this method is that it allows for both input contraction and output expansion in determining relative efficiencies and productivity changes. For comparative purposes, a Malmquist index is also estimated. The Malmquist index overvalues the Luenberger productivity indicator. Results indicate that public bus companies have similar efficiency to private bus companies. Several interesting and useful managerial insights and policy implications arise from the study.     

Performance of French destinations: Tourism attraction perspectives

In this paper, we assess and compare the performance of French tourism destinations, using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) two-stage procedure, where in the first stage the efficiency score are calculated, and then followed in the second stage by a bootstrapped truncated regression model. In the context of France such analysis takes an additional importance, especially as the country is expected to face a decrease in its tourism competitiveness. A discussion in terms of D-attraction and E-attraction is also proposed and policy recommendations are derived.     

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY,REGULATION AND HETEROGENEITY IN JAPANESE AIRPORTS

In this paper, the random stochastic frontier model is used to estimate the technical efficiency of Japanese airports, with regulation and heterogeneity included in the variables. The airports are ranked according to their productivity for the period 1987–2005 and homogeneous and heterogeneous variables in the cost function are disentangled. Policy implications are derived.     

Performance evaluation of the English Premier Football League with data envelopment analysis

This paper uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the performance of English Premier League football clubs from 1998/99 to 2002/03 combining sport and financial variables. The paper evaluates how close the clubs are relative to the frontier of best practices, analysing how they manage sport as well as financial results. Managerial implications of the research are devised.     

The macroeconomy of Angola: breaks and persistence in Angolan macro data

Using long-range dependence techniques we examine the order of integration of Angola’s macro variables from a fractional viewpoint. Based on a small open economy model, the series examined are money reserves, credit, money supply, lending rate, exchange rates, CPI, GDP, oil revenues and government expenditure, for the period of January 2000 to December 2013. The results suggest that the variables are nonstationary with orders of integration equal to or higher than 1 suggesting nonmean-reverting behaviour. Structural breaks reveal that the series reflect the IMF intervention in Angola in 2003 to control inflation. Policy implications are derived.     

Freedom of services and competition in insurance markets: A note

We study entry in markets which are characterized by adverse selection. The analysis is motivated by the introduction of freedom of services in insurance markets at the European Community (EC) level. We assume that entrants in each domestic market (large multinational firms) are more efficient due to scale/scope economies but suffer an informational disadvantage. Incumbent firms, on the other hand, have perfect information about risks but incur higher production costs. We show there may exist competitive equilibria in which both types of firms coexist. The idea is that each technology trades-off production costs with information costs.     

Effects of international shocks and domestic macroeconomic policies upon Brazilian agriculture

An identified vector-autoregressive model is used to analyze the transmission of external commodity shocks to the Brazilian economy. The effects of the interaction between domestic macroeconomic (monetary and exchange rate) policies and external shocks to agricultural commodity (raw material and food) prices and crude oil price upon domestic (agriculture/industry) terms of trade are estimated.     

A Bayesian Efficiency Analysis of Angolan Banks

This article studied the technical efficiency of Angolan banks from 2005 to 2012 using a Bayesian stochastic frontier model. The intermediation approach to banking was adopted. The results revealed that Angolan banks were very efficient and that efficiency varies little among the banks analysed. Furthermore, the differences in efficiency between foreign banks, public banks, large‐sized banks and banks that belong to a local conglomerate were examined. It was concluded that the greatest efficiency was to be found in the case of foreign banks. Since size and conglomerate membership do not seem to lead to greater bank efficiency, it was proposed that Angolan policymakers should promote competition in the banking sector.