Measuring and explaining the efficiencies of the United Arab Emirates banking system

Using newly collected data from a survey distributed to all banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this article measures economic efficiency in the banking industry, namely allocative, technical, pure technical and scale efficiency. Employing a nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach, the study estimates the efficiency for a cross section of the UAE banks in 2004. The results indicate that the dominant source of inefficiency in the UAE banking is stemming from allocative inefficiency rather than technical inefficiency. Furthermore, the main source of the relatively small size, technical inefficiency in the UAE banking industry is not the scale inefficiency but rather pure technical inefficiency. The results further indicate that the UAE banks are able to use their input resources more efficiently when they have more branches, and that newer banks are performing better than older banks on average. Moreover, the results also show that short experiences of employees affect efficiencies negatively and government ownership tends to reduce efficiency (as the government shares increase in the bank, the efficiency scores get lower). Finally, the most interesting results have to do with finding higher average efficiencies in banks that employ more women, more managers and less national citizens of the UAE.     

Assessing the impact of cost optimization based on infrastructure modelling on CO2 emissions

Traditionally, logistics design is driven by a need to reduce costs and improve customer service. Recently, the environmental concerns from transport have been increasingly discussed. The traffic levels and associated energy consumption are influenced by supply chain structure, modal split and vehicle utilization. This paper aims to assess the impact of the traditional cost optimization approach to strategic modelling on overall logistics costs and CO₂ emissions by taking into account the supply chain structure (number of depots) and different freight vehicle utilization ratios (90%, 75% and 60%). The simulation model, based on a European case study from the automotive industry, considers strategic and operational level decisions simultaneously. The analysis shows that the optimum design based on costs does not necessary equate to an optimum solution for CO₂ emissions, therefore there is a need to address economical and environmental objectives explicitly as part of the logistics design.     

An enhanced approach for Trend Impact Analysis

Decision makers in governments, corporations and institutions all need to forecast the future. Usually, traditional quantitative forecasting techniques are applied for this purpose. But the limitation of such methods is well known since all quantitative methods that are built solely on historical data (whether time-series or causal methods) produce forecasts by extrapolating such data into the future ignoring the effects of unprecedented future events that could cause deviation from the original surprise-free forecast if they were to occur. In the meanwhile, pure qualitative methods that don't utilize historical data miss its sound foundation. In the field of future studies, attempts are often made to combine quantitative and qualitative approaches using various hybrid methods such as Trend Impact Analysis. This paper introduces an advanced algorithm to enhance Trend Impact Analysis that adds another level of sophistication to the current algorithm. This advanced algorithm takes into account not only the impact of unprecedented future events' occurrences on the future trend, but also the different severity degrees with which the event might occur. This idea of severity degrees is novel, and its implementation is the main contribution of this paper.     

The legal framework and initiatives for promoting safety in the United Arab Emirates

Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is a rapidly developing country with fast economic growth, demographical and environmental changes that are associated with new hazards emerging at a similar pace. The UAE as a federal entity has federal and local systems responsible for safety policy, regulations and enforcement. To set priorities for safety promotion and injury prevention, it is necessary to have data on the most frequent external causes of injury and the main individual, equipment and environmental risk factors that contribute to injury. However good quality data for injury prevention are scarce. The aim of this paper is to describe the scale of injury as a public health problem in the UAE, and the development of safety policies, regulations and promotion efforts with special emphasis on traffic, occupational and child safety.     

Effects of Export Duty Structure on the Performance of the Malaysian Palm Oil Industry

This study examines the impact of the abatement of the export duty on the Malaysian palm oil industry performance. The simulation results show that the impact of reductions in the export duty rates and the impact of increases in the threshold prices on the Malaysian palm oil industry have the same impact but with different magnitudes. Even the simulated results indicate that the policy of further reductions in the Malaysian export duty will promote its positive effects on the local palm oil industry; however, the impact is shown to not be significant. The further reduction of the export tax is very constrained and believed to no longer be the most effective policy in enhancing the competitiveness of local palm oil industry in the future. Hence, policymakers have to be aware of the possibility that the reduction of the export tax may no longer be an effective sustainable approach in facilitating the development of Malaysian palm oil industry.