Assessment of OECD Better Life Index by incorporating public opinion

Well-being has a multidimensional nature as it depends on multifaceted factors such as material conditions and quality of life. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed the Better Life Index (BLI) as part of the OECD Better Life initiative to facilitate the better understanding of what drives well-being of people. The BLI is a three-level hierarchical composite indicator that covers several socio-economic aspects. In this paper, considering the entire hierarchical structure of the index, we introduce a bottom-up procedure for the aggregation of the components at each level. We formulate the assessment of BLI as a multiple objective programming (MOP) problem that facilitates the implementation of different concepts to derive different aggregation schemes. We incorporate the data from previous years into the normalization process of the indicators, to take into account the discrepancy on their observed values and smooth their deviations across the years. Also, we consider the public opinion about well-being that is captured from the worldwide responses in the web platform of OECD BLI. We incorporate the public opinion into the assessment models in the form of weight restrictions. In this way, we reduce the effect of compensation that might be imposed by the adopted modelling approach. We apply our methodology to the data of 38 countries (35 OECD and 3 non-OECD economies) for the year 2017. Our findings illustrate that the public opinion in the form of weight restrictions can effectively drive the optimization process and depict the collective preferences to the BLI scores.     

Modeling the lockdown relaxation protocols of the Philippine government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: An intuitionistic fuzzy DEMATEL analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic, which started at Wuhan, has shut down world economies, prompting governments to impose drastic lockdown measures of the economy and the society. As these measures are exhausted, non-COVID-19 related issues such as those associated with the mental and physical well-being of people under lockdowns became an emerging concern. As these issues are evident, not to mention the economic downturn, governments are currently looking at designing lockdown relaxation efforts by simultaneously considering both public health and economic restart. Without documented experiences to rely on, governments are resorting to trial-and-error approach in creating a lockdown exit strategy while preventing succeeding waves of cases that may overwhelm healthcare facilities. Thus, this work pioneers the use of the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method with intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) sets along with the domain of public health and the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. The DEMATEL handles the intertwined causal relationships among guideline protocols for the relaxation strategy. The intuitionistic fuzzy set theory addresses the vagueness and uncertainty of human judgments in the context of the DEMATEL. A case study of the Philippine government response for the lockdown exit is presented to evaluate the applicability of the proposed method. Findings reveal that compliance of minimum public health standards, limited movement of persons, suspension of physical classes, the prohibition of mass gatherings, non-operation of category IV industries, and non-operation of hotels or similar establishments are the most crucial protocols for such strategy. These findings offer practical insights for the government to allocate resources and impose measures to ensure their implementation, as well as for developing mitigation efforts to cushion their socio-economic impacts. Policy insights and avenues for future works are also discussed.     

Dynamic efficiency evaluation of Italian judicial system using DEA based Malmquist productivity indexes

The aim of this study is the empirical analysis of the Italian judicial system, measuring its efficiency and productivity. For this purpose, in details, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist indexes were used, since they are recognized by the current literature as successful techniques to evaluate the performance of decision making units, namely the courts of law in our field of application.The statistical data on the administration of justice in Italy, as reported in Dossier n. 11 May 2013, Senate Research Services, Research Office on Institutional Issues, Justice and Culture, XVII legislature, shows that the efficiency crisis of justice in Italy began in the 1970s of the last century, aggravating during the ‘80s, and reaching its most critical moment during the 1990s. Several studies emphasize the relevance of the effects of inefficiency upon the judicial system on the credit and financial markets.The present analysis, using data that covers a wide time span and is disaggregated at district level, has set the goal of measuring the efficiency of the individual Italian judicial offices while assessing the progress of productivity in its components, by the means of technological progress and scale efficiency. The efficiency analysis that was carried out transcends the aspect of judicial taxation, considering how the passage of time has impacted on judicial efficiency.Considering the judges and judicial administration employed, in the new, pending and finished cases during the years ranging from 2011 to 2016, the results highlighted a distinct heterogeneity among courts, depending on their geographical location. The five-year period that was considered, included the years in which the judicial geographical distribution reform entered into force, so to better comprehend how this complex reform influenced the recovery of efficiency of the judicial offices. Furthermore, by breaking down the index into change in efficiency and change in technology, this work offers a further glimpse into judiciary organization. The application of combined DEA method and Malmquist indexes for evaluating court efficiency in a large time frame showed very interesting and useful results, relevant for judicial administration.     

粤东西北与珠三角物流产业技术效率比较

运用DEA效率测度方法,通过对2013-2017年粤东西北与珠三角区域物流产业技术效率的对比研究,探索推动广东省区域物流协调发展的路径。结果显示:对比珠三角区域,粤东西北区域物流产业技术效率与珠三角区域存在较大差距,尤其是粤东与粤西地区,粤东区域物流产业技术效率值仅为0.4,粤西区域物流产业技术效率值为0.81,均远低于珠三角区域物流产业技术效率值0.94。纯技术效率低下是制约粤东西北地区物流产业技术效率提升的主要因素,应加强物流产业信息技术应用,推进物流技术装备现代化,提高技术创新能力水平。     

丝绸之路河西走廊物流业效率演化分析

构建了分析河西走廊物流业效率演化的指标体系,基于2009-2017年河西走廊物流业统计数据,运用DEA-Malmquist指数法测算了各市物流业效率和技术进步率,采用Tobit回归模型分析了该地区物流业效率的影响因素,并从省内、省域间、各经济区域间三个方面进行了对比分析。实证分析表明,相较于全国各省市地区,河西走廊物流业整体水平较低,物流业效率和技术进步率的强正相关性普遍存在,其物流业发展对政策偏向具有较强的依赖性;同时,技术进步率低下和基础设施匮乏也是制约物流业发展的重要因素。基于此,从政策照顾与资金投入、科技进步与管理水平和市场运营与体系建设三个方面,为河西走廊物流业发展提出了建议与改善措施。     

基于模糊评价模型的物流管理专业实践教学体系研究

考虑物流管理专业实践教学的特性,从实践环节、创新与创业、管理机制、教学团队等方面构建了实践教学指标体系,并运用模糊综合评价法进行评价分析。研究结论表明,毕业实习、毕业论文、学科竞赛、创新与创业项目对物流管理专业实践教学的影响较大。     

浅谈城市河道水环境综合整治

河道水环境对城市生态环境建设有着十分重大的意义。城市河道水环境综合整治正在不断壮大规模,现阶段正在朝着防洪固堤、水质提升、水环境改善方向发展,并且城市河道水环境的综合整治还要求对城市污水排放进行严格化管理,防止生活用水和工业污水对河道造成污染。论文主要对当前城市河道水环境存在的问题进行探讨,并对当前存在的问题提出一些具有针对性的解决措施。     

Foreign direct investment and economic growth: Is more financial development better?

We investigate the extent to which an increase in financial development affects the positive effect of foreign direct investment on economic growth. Although the financial sector is beneficial for economic growth, the effect of further financial development on growth is found to become insignificant. Using a dynamic panel threshold model on 62 middle- and high-income countries spanning the period 1987–2016, we re-examine the possible nonlinearity between finance, foreign direct investment, and growth. Consistent with the “vanishing effect” of financial development, we find significant evidence that foreign direct investment fosters growth in general, but the growth effect of foreign direct investment becomes negligible when the ratio of private sector credit to gross domestic product exceeds 95.6%. This finding is robust to different econometric methods, various subsamples and interaction analyses, and distinct financial development indicators.     

TFP growth in Chinese cities: The role of factor-intensity and industrial agglomeration

This article estimates agglomeration effects via calculating EG (Elilsion & Glaeser) and TFP growth (Total Factor Production) by considering the undesired output of the industrial enterprise database and the entropy weight method. Using panel data of 207 county-level cities in China and 28 two-digit manufacturing industries from 2003 to 2013 based on SIC codes, this paper analyzes the relationship between agglomeration and TFP growth through the smooth transition model under different regions and factor-intensity. The results are as follows. (1) A negative relationship appears in manufacturing productivity. The agglomeration effect changes to the crowded effect. Environmental pollution is also generated by transportation and inadequate pollution treatment technology. (2) The excessive agglomeration phenomenon of developed areas (eastern region) is less than the less developed areas (central and western regions). (3) Resource-intensity industries present two thresholds that indicate complex regional features. For various intensive industries in different regions, the relationship between GML and agglomeration is different. High agglomeration does not always promote TFP growth. (4) At different levels of urban industrial agglomeration, the influences of efficiency change and technical change on GML are different. Overall, moderate agglomeration in all regions helps promote economic development.     

省级区域规划实施评估方法和机制探究

省级区域规划是国家和地方发展和空间规划体系中的重要组成部分。在我国建立更加有效的区域协调发展新机制的实践中,探究我国省级区域规划实施评估中存在的问题,研究和建立更加有效的省级区域规划实施评估的内容、方法和机制,对于进一步落实好省级政府的责任和义务,更好全面、有效实施好省级区域规划具有重要推动作用。文章提出了我国省级区域规划实施评估存在的问题、评估的方法、评估的内容和指标体系,并提出了具体建立更加有效的省级区域规划实施评估机制的建议和设想。