Network concentration and airport congestion in a post de-regulation context: A case study of Brazil 2000–2010

This paper empirically investigates the main drivers of airline network concentration in an air transport market subject to rapid growth. We consider the Brazilian air transport industry of the 2000s, in which network concentration rapidly increased and was followed by a period of massive flight delays and cancelations, which resulted in the “big blackout” of 2006–2007. We develop an econometric model of network concentration, accounting for demand, cost and competition variables that may affect the propensity of carriers to concentrate flights and passenger connections on a few airports of a network. The main focus of the paper is on the relation between networks leading to the problems of the blackout episode. We investigate the dynamic pattern of the evolution of concentration before and after the abnormal period of operations and find that concentration began to rise at least six quarters before, and persisted at a high level until two quarters after the blackout – and then plunged steeply toward the end of the decade. We believe that our analysis contributes to an improved understanding of the behavior of air transport systems subject to network concentration and congestion. With respect to methodology, we suggest and employ the use of alternative measures of network concentration to check the robustness and validity of our results.     

Comparing efficiency of holding business model and individual management model of airports

This research compares the efficiency of holding business model to individual management model of airports, employing some robust non-parametric partial frontier-based methods to compare the statistical distributions of efficiency, under different scenarios, to find out which group of airports yields better global performance. The comparison between groups will follow a Malmquist index decomposition, which seems to be the most appropriate tool for within- and inter-group performance comparison. For this purpose, a sample of 145 airports from three continents is utilized. The results provide evidence that European airports are the most productive ones, and within this cluster, the individual management model presented a significant frontier shift with respect the holding cluster frontier, meaning that the former is much more productive than the latter.     

Efficiency and productivity changes in Greek airports during the crisis years 2010–2014

The aim of this study is to evaluate the operating efficiency and productivity changes of the Greek airports, during the first years of the severe economic crisis in Greece (2010–2014), by using two methods: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist Productivity index (MPI). Findings have shown that, despite the dramatic effects of the economic crisis on the socio-economic life of the country, overall airport efficiency and productivity improved, mainly due to exogenous factors such as international tourism growth. The MPI reveals that over the period of the study, airports have experienced an annual average increase in total factor productivity (TFP) of 0.9% (an increase of 3.6% over the examined period). On examining the components of this productivity change, it becomes evident that this is due to the combination of both positive (a slight progress) annual average technology change (0.5%) and technical efficiency change (0.4%). The results also indicate that 65.8% of airports have an increase in average TFP during the period 2010–2014, ranging between 0.4% and 20%. However, as Greek airports operate at poor levels of efficiency, there is still considerable space for improvements in most of the airports.     

The medical tourism index: Scale development and validation

Medical tourism is an estimated $100 billion dollar industry. Despite the increasing number of people, companies and countries involved in medical tourism, we know very little about the key drivers and how countries are perceived as medical tourism destinations. The purpose of this paper is to present the Medical Tourism Index, a new type of country-based performance measure to assess the attractiveness of a country as a medical tourist destination. We followed a rigorous multi-steps scale development procedure by using four empirical studies based on 4995 respondents. The MTI is a multidimensional construct with 4 dimensions (country, tourism, medical costs, medical facility and services) with 34 underlying items. Our results show the MTI allows to measure meaningful differences between countries, not only on an aggregated level but also on each sub-indexes. It provides a useful tool for the various stakeholders to measure and manage their medical tourism destination brand.     

Do Transition Economies and Developing Countries Have Similar Destinies?

This paper evaluates the potential of transition economies for achieving sustainable improvements in living standards vis-à-vis developing countries based on their productivity performance. The comparison is made using a bootstrapped Malmquist productivity index and its technological and efficiency change components. The results of estimation indicate that transition economies enjoy significantly higher increases in technical efficiency than developing countries with comparable rates of real GDP growth. Therefore, these results suggest that the former group of countries may have better growth prospects than the latter group, giving empirical support to Stern and Fries’ (Foreign Policy 111:164–165, 1998) optimism that transition economies are the “tiger” economies of tomorrow.

银行价格竞争、融资约束与企业研发投资——基于“中介效应”模型的实证研究

近年来我国利率市场化改革积极推进,实体经济发展积极向创新驱动转型,一个亟须研究厘清的关键问题是,银行业竞争如何驱动企业创新活动？本文关注银行价格竞争对企业创新的影响,以2013—2018年沪深两市的上市企业为样本,采用“中介效应”因果分析模型,实证检验了银行价格竞争对企业研发投资的影响,并识别出以融资约束为中介渠道的作用机制。研究发现,银行价格竞争不仅会提高银行的风险容忍度,直接增加R&D投资的信贷供给意愿,而且还会通过降低贷款价格和增加贷款可得性来缓解企业整体的融资约束,间接促进企业创新活动。这一机制在解除贷款利率管制之后以及在民营企业层面体现得更加明显。本文的研究结果对于深化金融市场化改革、改善金融服务实体经济效果以及实施经济创新驱动发展战略,具有明确的政策启示。     

从众行为机制下的动态噪声交易模型

考虑到在实际市场中市场结构（即基本面投资者与噪声交易者在市场中所占的比例）也会随时间变化,本文基于从众行为机制对市场结构的动态演化过程（即两类异质投资者的信念扩散过程）进行了深入的讨论,并对DSSW模型进行了动态扩展。首先,运用群体压力原理来刻画从众转移概率,考虑了从众机制的线性与非线性两种模式,并对这两种模式进行了综合的对比分析。其次,将市场结构的从众演化机制嵌入到DSSW模型之中,考虑了认知偏误方差的ARCH效应,并通过动态随机模拟讨论了在牛市情绪起初在市场上占优的背景下风险资产均衡价格的动态演化过程及特征,运用多种统计方法综合检验了资产价格投机泡沫发生的机率和强度。结果表明,在非线性从众模式下,资产价格投机泡沫发生的机率以及投机泡沫的强度要远远大于线性从众模式。     

低碳经济下中国区域全要素生产率的收敛性研究

发展低碳经济是中国应对日益严峻的能源紧张和气候变化的必然选择。考虑各区域在能源约束和碳排放下的全要素生产率显得日益重要。根据低碳经济的要求和特征应用Malmquist生产率指数法对我国29个省份及东中西三大地区低碳全要素生产率变动情况进行了实证分析。研究表明,考虑低碳因素后中国的全要素生产率增长率得到增加;低碳全要素生产率的变动由技术进步率的变化主导,低碳技术效率变化对低碳全要素生产率的影响有限;西部地区不存在绝对收敛,东部地区和中部地区存在较明显的“俱乐部收敛”,我国总体及东中西三大地区都存在明显的条件收敛趋势。     

资本市场促进技术创新的效率研究——以西部地区为例

在运用Malmquist指数的基础上,笔者测量了我国西部地区12个省市资本市场促进技术创新的全要素生产率(TPF)、技术效率变化指数(TECH)以及技术进步率指数(TPCH),比较和分析了西部地区各省市资本市场促进技术创新的效率水平。运用12个省市的专利和资本市场融资面板数据建立回归方程进行验证,发现各省市资本市场在促进当地创新效率方面还不均衡;资本市场发展较好以及技术创新潜力较大、需求较高的地区,资本市场融资投入对技术创新的全要素生产率也较高。     

后金融危机时代股票超额收益率影响因素的探索

运用判别分析法和决策树模型对上证180的成分股是否可以获得超额收益率及其影响因素进行了分析,并将两种方法的分析结果进行了对比。结果表明：两种方法都可以对上市公司是否可以获得超额收益进行分辨,并且可以找出影响因素。但是从两种模型的结果来看,决策树模型要明显优于判别分析法。从我们的分析样本来看,对企业是否可以获得超额收益率的影响因素主要有：市盈率、市净率、息税折旧摊销前利润/营业总收入等。在实际中,通过这两种方法,投资者可以寻找出那些具有超额收益率的股票进行投资,从而使得自身的投资结果优于大盘。