基于DEA和灰色关联模型的跨境物流通道竞争力研究

在构建跨境物流通道竞争力评价指标体系的基础上,采用DEA和灰色关联模型对中国西部地区与中南半岛之间的5条典型跨境物流通道进行了实证研究。结果表明:铁海联运通道具有较强的竞争力,而其余通道在便利性、经济性或及时性方面有待增强,其中便利性对通道竞争力影响最大。基于研究结论,提出了推进通关便利化、发挥运营枢纽带动作用、适当降低运输价格及减少环境污染等对策建议,以期为中国与周边国家物流通道建设提供参考。     

Potential efficiency effects of merging the Swedish district courts

The Swedish district courts have undergone a substantial restructuring process in which the main reform has been to merge. As a result, the number of district courts has declined from 95 in 2000 to only 48 in 2009. All main arguments that support merging concern enhancements of efficiency. However, it has not yet been explicitly examined whether the mergers have the potential to increase efficiency ex ante. Thus, the expectation concerning higher efficiency was built on a subjective view. This paper investigates whether the mergers can be rationalized from a production economic point of view. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to compute a production frontier where the conducted mergers are incorporated to identify the potential ex ante gains. Furthermore, the overall potential is decomposed into learning, scale, and harmony to investigate the source of the potential gain, e.g., an effect of adjusting to best practice or a pure merging effect such as scale. The results show diverse potentials, i.e., a number of mergers did not have the potential to gain in efficiency while others could gain substantially. A conclusion based on the analysis is that the potential production economic effects should be investigated before merger decisions are made in the future. This is also likely to be true beyond the Swedish district courts.     

Evaluation of the Italian transport infrastructures: A technical and economic efficiency analysis

By applying a DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) framework and Tobit analysis, this paper aims to measure 32 Italian airports’ technical efficiency and investigate how several characteristics impact on their productivity and sustainability. Our findings show that some Italian hubs are technically efficient, although smaller airports that are dominated by low-cost carriers prove to be not least productive. Another conclusion of this paper is that efficiency and environmental impact is independent of an airport’s size, although the size matters in determining an airport’s superior performance. This article highlights how the Italian public shareholder’s system became decisive to increase efficiency in small airports due to the lack of private financing.     

基于DEA分析法的港口物流效率测评研究

港口物流效率测评对于研究港口经营活动具有重要的意义,是衡量港口竞争能力以及经济效应的重要指标。文章将从宏观层面以及微观层面,并运用非参数化方法中的DEA方法对港口的物流效率进行测评。在宏观层面上运用DEA方法分析港口腹地产业与交通体系的投入量对港口吞吐量产生的影响;在微观层面采用DEA方法分析港口相关生产投入与产出指标来判定港口生产技术与规模的有效性。文章的研究价值在于,通过分析港口各种要素投入与产出的有效性可以测评出港口物流效率的实际水平状况,为港口未来的建设和发展提供决策依据,避免资源的重复建设和盲目投入。     

Short and long-run cost efficiency in Indian public bus companies using Data Envelopment Analysis

State Transport Undertakings (STUs) are key players in providing mass road transport in India. Given that they operate under high levels of government imposed regulatory constraints, it is imperative to study their efficiency levels. Given that capital is a relatively scarce resource in developing countries like India, it is important to obtain efficiency in the short-run where some inputs are fixed as well as over the long run, where all inputs are variable. The technique used for capturing efficiency is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). A key possible limitation of DEA models based on physical inputs and outputs is that for an inefficient firm, reduction in some or all inputs may be recommended. It may often be desirable for an inefficient firm to increase some less expensive inputs while reducing the use of relatively expensive ones. Hence, when market price data is available, it is advisable to use the cost variant of DEA. Also, it is possible to determine variable cost efficiency in the short run when some inputs cannot be varied. Such inputs are referred to as “quasi-fixed” inputs. In this paper, we examine short and long term efficiencies of select bus companies in India known as State Transport Undertakings (STUs) over a period of 10 years. Fleet strength has been used as the quasi-fixed input. It is possible to ascertain, through a comparison of shadow price of the quasi-fixed input, vis-à-vis its market price, as to whether the quantity of this input is sub-optimally small or large. It is found that by adopting efficiency enhancing practices, STUs can cumulatively reduce their operating costs to the extent of 9123.35 million dollars. Also the tendency to minimize costs is found to be declining over time. In the short run some STUs are found to operate with a sub optimally low fleet size.     

The impact of the economic crisis on the (in)efficiency of public Higher Education institutions in Southern Europe: The case of Spanish universities

The evaluation of university efficiency in Europe began timidly when the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) was created. However, this issue is currently becoming increasingly important in Southern European countries, where the limitation of public funding following the economic crisis in 2008 has put greater pressure on their public universities to achieve excellence and improve competitiveness. In this context, the goals of this paper are: first, to measure the relative technical (in)efficiency of Spanish public Higher Education Institutions in the period 2002–03 to 2012–13, comparing the situation before and during the last economic crisis; and, second, to analyze the determinants of university (in)efficiency and, especially, the direct impact of the crisis. After applying the two-stage double bootstrap DEA methodology, the results show that Spanish public universities have become more efficient during the crisis than before it. In fact, the regression analysis confirms that the “crisis” variable has had a statistically significant positive impact on university efficiency. We also find that age has favorably influenced how these institutions utilize their resources to produce teaching and research outputs, but technical specialization has had a negative effect. Moreover, the regional location of public universities has been also a crucial determinant of their efficiency level. Our findings are therefore relevant for political and academic decision-makers in order to know if public universities have been adequately managed in the crisis period and to identify factors that could improve their efficiency, and hence to help them to enhance their international competitiveness in the future.     

Expense based performance analysis and resource rationalization: Case of Indian Railways

With rapid economic growth in India, lot of emphasis has been given on railway infrastructure development in last few years. Indian Railways has been striving hard to bring down the costs and improve upon the operating ratio. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficiency performance of different railway zones and suggest cost saving strategies for its zones. The paper employs the Constant Return to Scale (CRS) and Variable Return to Scale (VRS) data-envelopment methods as well as performs sensitivity analysis with the set of variables to analyze the efficiency of sixteen railway zones over Indian Railways network. The study is based upon the data published by Ministry of Railways in Indian Railways Annual Statistical Statements. The results highlight the inefficiencies of different zones and suggest the changes that may be incorporated in inputs, by comparing the performance of underperforming units with that of best practice units. The study mainly suggests the importance of operating and working expenses as input parameters in benchmarking analysis while considering output in terms of passenger-kilometer and net ton-kilometers. Results obtained from Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-Malmquist Index show that technological innovation and staff management are important factors in cost reduction. The paper further highlights the important issues for consideration of different stakeholders in railway sector i.e. rail operators, policy makers, customers and infrastructure managers. The results give valuable insight on performance evaluation to Indian railway industry as well as comparable railway systems existing in other parts of globe.     

水行业上市公司股权融资效率及影响因素

通过超效率DEA视窗模型分析我国13家水行业上市公司2011—2015年股权融资效率,并根据Malmquist指数对其效率进行分解,最后使用灰色关联度分析法对股权融资效率影响因素进行分析。研究结果表明,各公司融资效率有差距,其中,企业规模和盈利能力对股权融资效率影响程度最大,总资产周转效率、资本结构和资本担保值产生的影响次之。     

财税政策对军民协同创新的影响——基于DEA-Tobit模型

军民协同创新是实现资源在国防和民用领域优化配置的重要途径。以财税政策与军民协同创新的关系为落脚点，从理论角度具体分析不同政策工具影响军民协同创新的作用机理，通过DEA分析方法，对军民协同创新效率进行测度，采用Tobit回归考量财税政策对创新效率的影响。研究表明，无论是财政补贴、税收直接减免还是税率优惠，都与创新效率呈现显著正向关系，即财税政策能够促进创新，但不同政策工具的促进效果因企业股权性质和军民融合方向有所差异。结合理论与实证研究结论，提出相应政策建议，以期更好地推动军民协同创新。     

基于DEA模型的我国轻工业经营效率研究

运用DEA模型对我国31个省区市轻工业的经营效率进行了实证研究和分析,结果表明,大部分省份轻工业的经营效率是非DEA有效的,尤其是沿海发达地区的轻工业大省。针对此现象进行了深入分析,并提出了相应的对策。