RAM: A Range Adjusted Measure of Inefficiency for Use with Additive Models,and Relations to Other Models and Measures in DEA

Generalized Efficiency Measures (GEMS) for use in DEA are developed and analyzed in a context of differing models where they might be employed. The additive model of DEA is accorded a central role and developed in association with a new measure of efficiency referred to as RAM (Range Adjusted Measure). The need for separately treating input oriented and output oriented approaches to efficient measurement is eliminated because additive models effect their evaluations by maximizing distance from the efficient frontier (in ₁, or weighted ₁, measure) and thereby simultaneously maximize outputs and minimize inputs. Contacts with other models and approaches are maintained with theorems and accompanying proofs to ensure the validity of the thus identified relations. New criteria are supplied, both managerial and mathematical, for evaluating proposed measures. The concept of approximating models is used to further extend these possibilities. The focus of the paper is on the physical aspects of performance involved in technical and mix inefficiencies. However, an Appendix shows how overall, allocative and technical inefficiencies may be incorporated in additive models.     

Some brief notes on the “unfinished business” of qualitative inquiry

The paper argues that there are a variety of implicit issues in qualitative inquiry that need to be addressed if the area is to develop in some normal science sense. This unfinished business is concerned with a deeper investigation of basic terms that are now simply taken for granted, such as theme and pattern. It also includes the need to develop rules which will assist in making and justifying how qualitative interpretations are made from the implicit processes of inference. Specific suggestions are made for accomplishing these issues.     

Eine Verallgemeinerung des „Gesetzes seltener Ereignisse”

Zusammenfassung Beim bekannten Gesetz seltener Ereignisse betrachtet mane große Zahl unabhängiger Ereignisse, die jeweils mit der gleichen kleinen Wahrscheinlichkeit eintreten können. Unter geeigneten Annahmen ist die Zahl der eingetretenen Ereignisse näherungsweise poissonverteilt. [Vgl. z.B. Morgenstern, p. 39, 1968;Waerden, p. 47, 1957].Ein oft angegebenes Beispiel hierfür ist die Häufigkeitsverteilung von Unfällen, die jeweils nur eine Person oder ein Fahrzeug betreffen. In dieser Arbeit gehen wir von Unfällen mit zwei Beteiligten aus. Auf diese Weise erhält man eine Verallgemeinerung des Gesetzes seltener Ereignisse auf gewisse abhängige Ereignisse.Außerdem wird ein neuer Beweis für die allgemeine Formel der Momente der Poissonverteilung gegeben.Damit ist ein Grenzwertsatz für eine spezielle Folge schwach abhängiger Zufallsgrößen bewiesen.

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Summary The well-known law of rare events deals with a large number of independent events, each of which can occur with the same probability. Under suitable assumptions the number of events which occur has approximately a Poisson distribution. [CompareMorgenstern, p. 39, 1968;Waerden, p. 47, 1957].An example which is often used for illustration is the frequency distribution of accidents, in which only one car or one person is involved. In this paper we refer to accidents in which two parties are involved. This leads to a generalization of the law of rare events where cases of dependent events are concerned.In addition a new proof of the general formula as to the moments of Poisson distribution is given.This proves a limit theorem of weakly dependent random variables of a certain sequence.

     

Who consults investment analysts?

This paper shows that the questions: Who consults investment analysts? and Who goes to the El Farol bar in Santa Fe? are similar. Thus, investors use a mixed optimal strategy. The demand for consulting services is also characterized.Received: 25 September 2002, Accepted: 26 May 2003, JEL Classification: D81, C70Jacob Paroush: The author is grateful to Yaw Nyarko, Yigal Milchtaich and an anonymous referee for helpful comments and suggestions.     

An Efficiency Comparison of European Banking Systems Operating under Different Environmental Conditions

The paper investigates the operating efficiency differences of a sample of commercial banks across 10 European countries. First, the paper analyzes the technical efficiency of each country sample following the basic Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model incorporating only banking variables. Then, a complete DEA model is introduced, incorporating environmental factors together with the banking variables of the basic model. The comparison between the two models shows that country-specific environmental conditions exercise a strong influence over the behavior of each country's banking industry.     

On estimating the variance of a finite population

Summary Observing that the estimator for a finite population variance as recommended byLiu [1974a, b] can sometimes become negative, we suggest a few non-negative alternative estimators and note some of their properties. UnlikeLiu we follow the conventional Bayesian approach to get another estimator with an optimal property of uniform admissibility.This paper, however, was prepared when the author worked in the Department of Economic Statistics, University of Sydney.     

The Impact of Respondent and Interviewer Characteristics on the Number of “No Opinion” Answers

In this article we analyse the number of no opinion answers to attitude items. We argue that that number can be considered as a count variable that should be analysed using Poisson regression or negative binomial regression. Since we're interested in the effect of both respondent and interviewer characteristics on the number of no opinion's we use multilevel analysis that takes into account the hierarchical structure of the data. As a consequence multilevel Poisson regression and multilevel negative binomial regression are applied. Our analysis shows that answering no opinion is related to some sociodemographic respondent characteristics. In addition we find a significant interviewer effect, but we are not able to explain that effect in terms of interviewer variables.     

Effective participative decision making: A joint responsibility for success

Much of the current research on participative decision making focuses on the increasing need for broad-based decision-making systems, on the different outcomes associated with different forms of participation, or on the problems associated with poorly managed participative decision-making systems. This article considers the responsibilities of employees who participate in organizational decision making and the responsibilities of employers who expect to share decision-making tasks. A Bill of Responsibilities for Employees and a Bill of Responsibilities for Employers are presented. Pitfalls associated with neglecting these responsibilities are discussed.     

Sexual harassment in organizations

Sexual harassment is now recognized as a potential problem for most organizations. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the various aspects of sexual harassment as a problem: its definition (including both the economic injury and hostile environment types of harassment), its characteristics, and a discussion of how to deal with such problems in the workplace. Organizations are encouraged to act affirmatively by (1) establishing a policy prohibiting sexual harassment in the organization; (2) establishing and making employees aware of a grievance procedure for sexual harassment complaints; and (3) educating employees about the problem of sexual harassment through a combination of awareness and experiential training techniques.     

Das maximale signifikanzniveau des Tests: “LehneH o ab,wennk untern gegebenen tests zur ablehnung führen”

Summary On one sample space there aren tests with critical regionsK ₁ and levels of significance _i ,i=1, ...,n (resp.n eventsK _i in a probability space with probabilities not greater than _i ,i=1, ...,n). In this paper we calculate the smallest upper bound of the level of significance of the test reject the hypothesis, if at leastk among the,n tests do so (resp. of the probability of the event at leastk among then events are realized). By the way, we will show, that this smallest upper bound does not change, if we replace at leastk by exactlyk.     

Eine Invarianzeigenschaft für Startverteilungen einer Klasse stochastischer Prozesse

Summary This paper discusses some concepts of mixing for stochastic processes with discrete time. The idea of mixing, which is defined with respect to a starting distribution , means that the tranjectories of the process get out of any set with -measure zero with probability one. Such -mixing processes satisfy an invariance property; an asymptotic event has probability zero under any starting distribution, provided that it has probability zero under the starting distribution . Concerring stationary Markov chains these results imply a weak zero-one-law the relation of which with well-known stronger versions especially for aperiodic Harris chains and with the notions of weak ergodicity and a.s. triviality is studied.     

Estimation problems for rectangular distributions (or the taxi problem revisited)

The problem of estimating the unknown upper bound on the basis of a sample of sizen from a uniform or rectangular distribution on [0, ] has considerable interest. This or the analogous discrete version is variously known as the Taxi-problem or the German bomb (or Tank) problem and has a long history. The emphasis here is on estimation of through the lengths of the observed gaps or spacings which seem natural for this problem.     

Una luce nuova su una vecchia storia: La “scindibilitá” di Cantelli-insolera e la struttura a termine dei tassi d'interesse

Si mostra come la moderna teoria della struttura a termine dei tassi d'interesse consenta di definire diversi esempi (più o meno naturali) di leggi di capitalizzazione a tre variabili, e dunque sostanzialmente del tipo di quelle considerate da Insolera. La relativa condizione di scindibilità, già oggetto di polemica con Cantelli, appare formulabile in più di una versione, una delle quali equivale alla odierna ipotesi di equilibrio del mercato finanziario.

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Summary The modern theory of term structure of interest rates leads one, in a natural way, to consider several models of accumulation factors which depend on three variables, and can therefore be counted among those considered in this time by the Italian finance mathematician F. Insolera. The question of how to formulate the principle of consistency for such factors has been the subject of an animated debate between Insolera and F.P. Cantelli. The present paper shows that it admits more than one solution; one of the possible versions rendering the principle equivalent to the market equilibrium condition.

     

Asymptotic considerations for selecting the best component of a multivariate normal population

Summary Several two-stage and sequential procedures have been developed for selecting the best component in a multivariate normal population through the classical indifference zone approach ofBechhofer. The works inMukhopadhyay/Chou will constitute to be very basic in this regard. A number of first-order and second-order asymptotic analysis of these procedures has also been reported. In the case of a bivariate population, the normality assumption has been dropped, and the rate of convergence of the probability of correct selection is studied.     

Employee-initiated defamation lawsuits: Organizational responses and dilemmas

The fast-growing category of defamation lawsuits in the United States involves actions by employees against their employers. Over the last decade, the courts have increasingly ruled in favor of the employee plaintiffs, thus creating an employee's right to reputation. This article identifies a variety of responses undertaken by organizations to reduce their legal liability and lessen the likelihood of employee defamation lawsuits. We argue that while organizational actions to reduce their legal liability may appear rational, such responses may also be creating situations in which employers, employees, and the public may be the unintended victims of a law without justice. The article concludes with a discussion of balancing the freedom necessary for managers to communicate about employees and the fairness of that communication.     

Die asymptotische Verteilung des Prognosefehlers bei Prognosen mit Hilfe eines dynamischen ökonometrischen Modells höherer als erster Ordnung

Zusammenfassung In dieser Arbeit wird die asymptotische Verteilung des Prognosefehlers, wie er sich im Rahmen einer dynamischen Simulation eines allgemeinen autoregressiven ökonometrischen Modells der Ordnungp (einschließlich verzögerter exogener Variabler der Ordnungq) ergibt, abgeleitet. Daran anschließend werden einige Fragestellungen, die damit in unmittelbarem Zusammenhang stehen, diskutiert: Die Frage der relativen Effizienz der Prognoseschätzung, basierend auf der unrestricted- bzw. der derived reduced form, die Verwendung der asymptotischen Verteilung des Prognosefehlers für einen predictive test des Modells. Außerdem werden asymptotische simultane Prognoseintervalle abgeleitet.

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Summary The asymptotic distribution of the forecast error in the dynamic simulation of a higher than first order linear dynamic econometric model is derived and related topics are discussed.

     

Global dynamics in models of fluctuating growth Part II: Three dimensional systems

The dynamics of a model of fluctuating growth, where non-constant returns are allowed, is represented, under Goodwin's classical assumptions, by a non-autonomous two-dimensional system, which can be transformed into an autonomous three-dimensional one. We describe the global phase portrait of the latter, in the two cases of increasing and decreasing returns, proving, in particular, the absence of economically meaningful attractors. However the orbits exhibit different features in the two cases: namely they asymptotically converge to a singular point, where the economy dies, if the returns are decreasing, and diverge, spiralling around a certain line, if the returns are increasing.

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Riassunto Un modello non-lineare di crescita alla Goodwin, in cui i rendimenti possono essere non costanti, è rappresentato da un sistema dinamico piano non autonomo, che può essere trasformato in un sistema autonomo tridimensionale. Viene descritto il comportamento globale di quest'ultimo nei due casi di rendimenti crescenti o decrescenti. Si dimostra, in particolare, l'assenza di attrattori economicamente significativi ed il diverso carattere delle orbite: mentre, se i rendimenti sono crescenti, le traiettorie convergono asintoticamente ad un punto singolare dove l'economia muore, nel caso opposto le traiettorie sono illimitate e spiraleggiano intomo ad una retta che ha la direzione dell'assek (la variabile di stato che rappresenta lo stock di capitale).

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This paper relates to the activities of the M.P.I. Group Dinamiche Non-Lineari nelle Scienze Economiche e Sociali.     

Cascaded channels and the equivocation inequality

The variation of the equivocation and the average mutual information over cascaded channels is studied, using the generalized information measures (entropies of degree ) and Renyi information measures (entropies of order ). The equivocation inequality, which indicates that the equivocation can never decrease as we go further from the input on a sequence of cascaded channels, is shown to be satisfied by Renyi entropies (for 0<<1) for all channels and all probability distributions. The generalized entropies are shown to satisfy this inequality for binary symmetric channels for certain probability distributions The relations among the mutual information measures between the different terminals of the sequence of cascaded channels are studied, considering both the generalized and Renyi entropies. A necessary and sufficient condition for transmitting information without any loss across cascaded channels is obtained, when Renyi entropies are applied. The same condition is proved to be sufficient for achieving the equivocation equality (which indicates the case of no information loss across cascaded channels) over the class of binary symmetric channels, when the generalized entropies are applied.     

Hypocrisy pay

Emotional labor—putting on an act asrequired explicitly orimplicitly in work situations-is very often psychologically, emotionally, and mentally damaging to most employees. As for soldiers in wartime who receive combat pay, it is suggested that such employees be specially compensated for their emotional labor with hypocrisy pay. Another solution is to select only those who are immune to such stress for jobs involving emotional labor—an ideal that probably cannot be achieved in all cases. Another assessment is that such special compensation is unwarranted.     

In college: Teaching the wrong things?

Instead of stressing good job prospects, which often fail to materialize automatically and promptly after graduation, colleges should hue more closely to their liberal arts roots. Hard sell though it might be, given prevailing attitudes lately, stress to young people that learning per se, not immediate employment at a fabulous salary, is what true education is really all about. Done seriously, good results of such a holistic approach could be almost guaranteed. Frustration and disillusionment would be reduced. Morale and productivity would increase. Social responsibility could be argued more convincingly. As an institutional fringe benefit, the overall image of postsecondary education would improve.