Efficiency in the provision of social care for older people. A three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis using self-reported quality of life

Using a three-stage data envelopment analysis approach, this paper explores efficiency in the provision of social care for older people in 148 English Councils in 2009/10. Departing from D'Amico and Fernández (2012) [31] our measure of efficiency is inscribed within the production of welfare framework and based on self-reported quality of life of recipients of the services. Our results indicate a high level of efficiency, but once we control for the effects of a number of environmental variables, we found that more stringent eligibility criteria and higher assessment costs are negatively associated with the efficiency in the provision of social services.     

Barriers to the investment in the Concentrated Solar Power sector in Morocco: A foresight approach using the Cross Impact Analysis for a large number of events

The Scenario Analysis methods have often been used by policy makers as an instrument to manage uncertainty and to support the shaping of long-term economy policies. In this research, we apply Scenario Analysis in order to identify the barriers affecting the decision to invest in the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) sector in Morocco. Our results aim at facilitating the process of defining different paths in strategic political and policy actions. Using data from a survey on a panel of experts, the Cross Impact Analysis (CIA) and the Cross Impact Matrix System (SMIC) techniques are applied. The advantage of these techniques is that they allow including in the analysis the interlinkages between the events that will define the future scenarios. However, their limitation is that the number of events analyzed cannot be too high since the information collected from the experts increases exponentially according to the number of events introduced. We thus expand our analysis with a new methodological approach, combining the use of prospective and statistics techniques. This approach allows addressing the mentioned limitation and applying these techniques, initially restricted to 6 events in its common application, to a large number of events. The results show that uncertainty and informality would be key factors in promoting the arrival of companies in this sector. Additionally, regarding companies that already have a presence in Morocco’s renewable energy sector, an increase in activity would be achieved through improvements in the easing of financial and legal barriers.     

上市公司“MD&A”信息质量评价模型——基于政府监管的视角

管理层讨论与分析(Management’s Discussion and Analysis,MDA)作为财务报表的有益补充,因其能够有助于增强信息披露的针对性和有效性而越来越受到信息使用者的关注。针对我国MDA信息质量不高的现状和评价体系不尽完善的情况,总结和吸收前人的研究成果,合理界定MDA信息质量特征。在此基础上,充分考虑MDA信息的生成机制和外部评价结果,采用层次分析法,构建适合我国上市公司MDA信息质量评价模型。     

电力生产、跨省交易与能源环境效率

将电力生产作为先行于其他社会生产的生产环节,在考虑规模越来越大的电力跨省交易和非期望产出(二氧化碳排放、工业废气总排放量、工业废水总排放量等)的基础上,使用非参数网络数据包络分析模型测算了2000—2012年中国省域能源环境效率。结果表明:与考虑电力生产和跨省交易的网络DEA模型相比,利用传统DEA方法会高估电力输入省的能源环境效率、低估电力输出省的能源环境效率。指出调整电力生产布局和跨省输送网络可以有效提高地区的能源环境效率。     

基于AHP与DEA方法的创新效率研究

企业的技术创新能力是现代经济社会进步与发展的重要标志。在企业创新效率评价中,数据包络分析法(DEA)具有无需对输入和输出指标的计量单位或量纲进行统一,也不需要事先确定属性之间的相对权重等优势,已经被大量应用于创新效率的评价。但DEA方法只凭借客观数据,并未考虑决策的主观因素,在传统应用时有所限制。为了解决DEA方法在实际应用中的局限,使效率评价更加贴合实际要求,本文将AHP和DEA相结合,以重庆市八类企业为研究对象,通过首先引入AHP方法对相关指标进行筛选,确立符合地区现状的评价体系,再利用DEA评价其创新能力的技术效率、纯技术效率、规模效率情况,最后为当地政府的相关政策制定提供建议。     

DETERMINANTS OF SOVEREIGN BONDS RATINGS: A ROBUSTNESS ANALYSIS

Several studies have attempted to deduce the determinants of sovereign bond ratings. In this study, Extreme Bounds Analysis is applied to approximately 30 factors proposed by the literature in order to assess their robustness with a focus on the relative importance that economic and political variables receive in the shaping of the ratings. We find that policies that constrain the public sector are among the most robust. Variables such as rule of law, openness to economic flows, central bank independence, and market friendly policies are found to be more robustly correlated with the ratings than foreign reserves, fiscal deficit, sovereign bond yields, and economic growth.     

Evaluating Board Roles Performance in Adopting Corporate Social Responsibility （CSR） Practices

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the board roles that make a board effective in the performance of adopting corporate social responsibility （CSR） practices. This paper examines directors＇ perceptions of the three main roles： monitoring, service, and strategic, which provide tools for critically understanding how the board adds the value in moving the organization towards more CSR practices. The stakeholder theory is used to distinguish the influence of the three main roles on the adoption of CSR practices. Primary data were collected for this research by conducting structured questionnaires with a sample of 461 directors from Saudi listed companies for study purpose. The results show that an appropriate mix of directors＇ roles and the development of sound board monitoring and service roles are the most crucial determinants of CSR adoption in Saudi listed companies. As the extant corporate governance and CSR literatures do not provide a clear perspective with contradictory outcomes about board roles in influencing CSR practices, the originality of this research is its contribution by evaluating the directors＇ perceptions of developing a direct relationship between the board roles and the adoption of CSR practices. Furthermore, the use of the stakeholder theory provides additional insights into identifying the most influential board role factors enhancing stakeholders＇ expectations of CSR practices.     

Health and cosmetics: Investigating consumers’ values for buying organic personal care products

In investigating consumers’ intentions to re-purchase organic personal care products (PCP), this study extends the theory of planned behaviour by including perceived value dimensions as the antecedents of attitude in the model. The findings revealed that most of the hypothesised relationships linking the consumer perceived value constructs (namely, health, safety, hedonic and environmental) with attitude towards the rebuying of organic PCP, were supported. Also, better product knowledge about organic PCP would lead to more positive attitudes towards re-purchasing the product. In contrast, social value was not important in predicting attitude. Similarly, the influence of subjective norm on rebuying intention was not supported. In terms of ranking of importance with regards to prediction of re-purchasing intention, attitude was the most important predictor followed by perceived behavioural control, product knowledge, hedonic value, environmental value and safety value.     

我国行政审批制度改革的力场分析与突破策略

行政审批是政府对市场和社会资源进行配置的前置性管理手段。为了与社会主义市场经济体制相匹配,我国在行政审批改革中设立了减少审批项目、规范审批行为、实现制度创新和推进依法行政的改革目标。但根据力场分析理论,在行政审批制度改革过程中由于对相关主体利益的重新分配造成改革力场中存在驱动力和制约力。通过研究改革中决策者、执行者、受规制者和消费者的利益取向,可以获知驱动力和制约力的强弱,并推算出制度变迁的方向。为了使行政审批制度改革能够顺利推行,还需进一步分析制约力存在的方式并寻求相应的突破策略。