Models of static and dynamic technical efficiency of municipal libraries in the Czech Republic

This article deals with the modelling of the static and dynamic technical efficiency under conditions of municipal libraries of municipalities with 1000–5000 inhabitants. The aim of this article is to determine the level of the technical efficiency and the factors that influence the results of modelling of the static and dynamic technical efficiency of 34 selected municipal libraries for the years of 2011 and 2015. The first model tests the technical efficiency of conventional services of public libraries. The second model tests the technical efficiency of municipal libraries’ operation. The third model tests the technical efficiency of the key revenues and expenditures. The results in the static models estimate the average technical efficiency of municipal libraries in the interval (0.691–0.759) for the input-oriented models, and in the interval (1.413–2.005) for the output-oriented models. In the dynamic models, the majority of municipal libraries in 2015 showed lower technical efficiency and productivity in comparison with the year of 2011. The factors influencing the level of efficiency and its course include the inputs and the outputs, and their combinations within individual models.     

Measuring destocking performance of the Chinese real estate industry: A DEA-Malmquist approach

This paper aims to measure the evolution of destocking performance of the Chinese Real Estate Industry based on a DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis)-Malmquist approach, which is seldom used in this industry in existing literature. In 2016, the Chinese government introduced a unified national destocking policy to reduce real estate inventory to save the downturn in the real estate market, but the effect was less than expected and led to soaring house prices in first-tier cities. By analysing the destocking performance over the period from 2005 to 2015, we find the following: (1) It is impossible to use a unified policy to effectively address the national destocking issue because of the difference of DMUs' destocking efficiency, input redundancy and total factor productivity score changes. (2) With the current destocking performance and investment status, the government is still ignoring the existing commercial real estate problems. (3) The redundancy of firm assets and staff indicates that zombie firms may exist and risk future unemployment in the real estate industry. (4) Despite the recently repeated government interventions in this industry, destocking performance remains falling since 2008, and problems in other regions is more severe than in central cities. (5) The financial crisis triggered by the US subprime mortgage crisis has had a great impact on China's real estate industry. The destocking performance dropped sharply in 2008, forcing the Chinese government to introduce policies to stimulate the real estate market. Policy recommendations are also put forward based on the findings.     

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.     

长江经济带农业绿色生产效率及其时空分异特征研究

［目的］从静态分析和动态分析两个方面，阐释长江经济带农业绿色生产效率和农业绿色全要素生产率的时空分异特征以及生产率增长来源，以期为提高长江经济带农业绿色发展质量提供科学决策依据。［方法］文章基于资源环境约束的角度，利用MinDS模型和Global Malmquist Luenberger指数相结合的方法，测算长江经济带农业绿色生产效率和农业绿色全要素生产率，并将农业全要素生产率变化分解为纯技术效率变化（PEC）、纯技术变化（PTC）、规模效率变化（SEEC）和规模技术变化（SETC）4个部分。［结果］（1）长江经济带农业绿色生产效率水平较高，且呈不断增长趋势，下游地区的农业绿色生产效率高于中、上游，且中、上游与下游地区的差距不断拉大； （2）长江经济带农业绿色全要素生产率增长较快，以3年为1个周期，呈现波动式上升趋势，其增长主要源于纯技术进步和规模技术提高； （3）长江经济带下游农业绿色全要素生产率增长率最高，上游次之，中游最低，其中，下游农业绿色全要素生产率增长主要源于纯技术进步，中游是纯技术效率改进、纯技术进步和规模技术提高共同作用的结果，上游则源于纯技术效率改进、纯技术进步和规模效率提高。［结论］长江经济带上、中、下游三大区域的农业绿色发展水平和发展能力存在较大差异，需制定差异化政策，以调整农业增长模式，促进农业转型升级，实现高质量发展。     

丝绸之路经济带物流业效率及其影响因素

物流业发展对丝绸之路经济带建设具有十分重要的意义,而效率是物流业发展的主要方面。近年来,我国物流业发展很快,但由于起步晚,与发达国家和地区相比仍然存在较大差距,尚未走出高成本、低效率的状态,提高物流业效率已经成为当务之急。以2004-2012年面板数据为基础,实证分析我国丝绸之路经济带物流业效率及其影响因素发现,丝绸之路经济带物流业全要素生产率受技术进步的影响呈波动趋势,年均下降2.1%,主要源于技术进步与规模效率的下降;各地区物流业全要素生产率均值为0.979,地区技术进步效率不高,其中宁夏物流业效率最高,云南物流业效率降幅最大;物流业专业化程度与物流业资源利用率对丝绸之路经济带物流业效率具有显著的正向影响;城镇化水平与开放程度有助于提升丝绸之路经济带物流业效率,但统计上并不显著。这在一定程度上表明,当前经济实力、产业结构、人力资本水平三个因素对提升丝绸之路经济带物流业效率尚不存在积极影响。为更好地提升丝绸之路经济带物流业效率,应进一步促进物流业技术进步及其推广应用;进一步加强一体化规划,提高物流业规模效率与资源利用率;进一步培育物流业集群与龙头企业,提高物流业专业化程度;进一步改善物流业发展的"软环境",提升物流业效率。     

中国经济发展方式转型的绩效及其动力分解——基于DEA-Malmquist指数1978-2013年的实证研究

基于DEA-Malmquist指数1978-2013年间的实证分析表明:改革开放以来,我国经济发展方式转型绩效在逐步提高,经济增长的质量和效益在不断提升。特别是入世以来,技术进步已经成为推动我国经济发展方式转型的主导因素,经济转型的绩效呈不断加速的发展态势。其中,沿海地区,经济转型绩效提升最快,而且增长势头十分强劲,中部地区以及其他地区经济发展方式转型绩效较低,与沿海地区的差距有进一步扩大的趋势。所以,要进一步改革开放,破除妨碍我国经济科学发展的体制和机制障碍,进一步推动经济发展方式转型。     

Evaluating the efficiency and productivity change within government subsidy recipients of a national technology innovation research and development program

This study analyzes the efficiency and productivity change within government subsidy recipients of a national technology innovation research and development (R&D) program. We examine 6,990 government‐sponsored, completed R&D projects during the last three performance follow‐up survey years from 2010 to 2012, and present a design of the sample of panel data to cope with the typical R&D performance time lag using a set of massive observations associated with completed R&D projects for the past 7 years from 2005 to 2011. In particular, data envelopment analysis is adopted to measure the efficiency and productivity change, which is measured in the Malmquist index. Parametric and nonparametric statistical tests are carried out to check for statistically significant differences among the characteristics regarding the types of government subsidy recipients. This study's major findings are as follows. First, during the entire period analyzed (2010–2012), there was a similar yearly pattern of statistically significant differences in the government subsidy means among the recipient types. In contrast, there were no obviously equivalent differences in the efficiency and productivity change. Second, the productivity had increased year on year, but the increments were reduced from year to year. Third, the productivity change was induced mainly by the Frontier‐shift, which indicates overall technology innovation progress, compared with the Catch‐up, which only indicates a simple increase in the efficiency. In particular, in this empirical analysis, the recipient types of ‘national laboratory’ and ‘large company’ had relatively larger sizes of government subsidies per project. However, the efficiency and productivity change of these types was not better than the others. This implies, therefore, that the government should control the ratio of the subsidy to the total R&D budget with an appropriate upper limit.

• I empirically evaluate the productivity change within a national technology innovation R&D program.
• I design a sample of panel data to cope with the typical R&D performance time lag using massive observations.
• There is no obvious relationship between the government subsidy size and R&D productivity change.
• Some particular types of government subsidy recipient are inferior in terms of R&D productivity change.
• It practically implies that the government should control the ratio of the subsidy to the total R&D budget.

     

基于数据包络(DEA)分析的京津冀地区环境绩效评估研究

提高资源环境绩效是区域生态环境治理的核心与关键。在构建环境绩效评估指标体系的基础上，运用数据包络分析模型（DEA）测度并分析2005-2015年京津冀地区静态环境绩效水平。利用Malmquist指数动态分析法将环境绩效分解为技术效率变化指数和技术进步指数，并探讨分解指标对环境绩效的相对贡献。结果显示：京津冀地区环境治理投入与产出水平均呈现逐年上升趋势；北京和天津的总体环境绩效水平要远高于河北，2005-2011年京津冀地区的环境绩效水平排序为北京、天津、河北,2012-2015年京津冀地区的环境绩效水平排序为天津、北京、河北（2013年除外）。河北省环境绩效水平较低的主要制约因素是技术进步缓慢与全要素生产率偏低。Malmquist指数呈现出一定的波性，这主要是由技术变化指标波动所致。最后，就如何提升京津冀地区环境绩效水平，提出相关对策建议。     

Spatial determinants of productivity growth on agri‐food Spanish firms: a comparison between cooperatives and investor‐owned firms

This study analyses the effect of the spatial factor, location, and interaction effects among peer companies, on the productivity growth of agri‐food companies in Spain. With this aim, we build a productivity growth index and apply a multiequational Seemingly Unrelated Regression on a sample of 344 Spanish cooperatives and investor‐owned firms for the period 2010–2012. Our findings show that agri‐food firms are influenced by spatial factors finding interesting differences between cooperatives and investor‐owned firms. With regard to the geographical location, cooperatives in the western of Spain show higher productivity growth rates, whereas investor‐owned firms in the northeast of Spain present better results. The interaction effect among closer peer companies is also a relevant factor to determine the productivity growth in agri‐food companies. This factor is more relevant for cooperatives than for investor‐owned firms.     

Productivity efficiency analysis of the airlines in China after deregulation

Using data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity index, this paper studies productivity efficiency of various airlines in China after the Chinese government deregulated the aviation industry in 2005. The results show that the productivity efficiency of non-state-owned airlines improves rapidly and eventually exceeds state-owned airlines after the deregulation policy. Among the state-owned airlines, the productivity of the local airlines and their technical changes are better than those of the central airlines.