Abay, C., Miran, B., & Günden, C. (2004). An Analysis of Input Use Efficiency in Tobacco Production with Respect to Sustainability: The Case Study of Turkey. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 24(3), 123–143.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of input use in tobacco production in Turkey with respect to sustainability. In the construction of cross sectional data, the provinces in the Aegean, Northwestern, Eastern-Southeastern Anatolian and Black Sea regions were considered. Face to face interviews were carried out with 300 farmers from the provinces which together produce at least 75% of regional tobacco output. Efficiency measures of tobacco farms in each region were calculated by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Efficiency measures obtained from constant return to scale DEA were then decomposed into pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency. Total tobacco production (in kg) was used as the output indicator, and land (ha), labor (hours), tractor use (hours), nitrogen (kg), phosphorus (kg) and pesticide (kg) were considered as the main inputs. Econometric models were developed in order to determine the factors that affect the efficiency of regional tobacco production. The average technical efficiency score for all regions was found to be 0.456, implying that the same level of production per plots can be obtained even if the inputs used for tobacco production are decreased by 54.4%. Although none of the regions is completely efficient in tobacco production, the Eastern-Southeastern Region, which obtained the highest pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency scores, turned out to be relatively more successful in input use. Considering all regions together, the inefficiency did not seem to result from non-optimal production, but instead from the failure to produce a given level of output with the minimum amount of inputs possible. The results also indicated a strong positive relationship between the efficiency of input use and the sustainability of agriculture.
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Abbott, M. (2006). The productivity and efficiency of the Australian electricity supply industry. Energy Economics, 28(4), 444–454.
Abstract: Australia’s electricity supply industry has been through a period of reform over the last 10 years. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the changes that have occurred to the Australian electricity supply industry over the past 30 years, in order to evaluate to what degree these reforms have improved the productivity and efficiency performance of the industry.
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Abbott, M., & Cohen, B. (2009). Productivity and efficiency in the water industry. Utilities Policy, 17(3-4), 233–244.
Abstract: Over the past twenty years there has been increasing interest in the productivity and efficiency of, and the optimal structures for, the water supply and wastewater industries. In part this interest has manifested itself in the increased use of numerous statistical techniques to determine the productivity and efficiency of the water sector in a variety of countries. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First it briefly reviews the various measures that have been used to gauge the levels of productivity and efficiency in the water sector, with particular reference to input and output data requirements of these measures. Second it summarises the key structural findings that have been determined from this research, particularly with respect to economies of scale and scope, public versus private ownership and the impact of regulation. Third, it considers potential areas for potential future research, such as the effect of environmental management activities (including water conservation) and regulation on productivity and efficiency, the role of wastewater as a potential source of potable or [‘]fit-for-purpose’ water and the relationship between water supply and urban planning.
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Abbott, M., & Doucouliagos, C. (2001). Total factor productivity and efficiency in Australian colleges of advanced education. Journal of Educational Administration, 39(4), 384–393.
Abstract: The former colleges of advanced education were an important component of the higher education sector in Australia. Uses the Malmquist total factor productivity index to investigate the efficiency and productivity of Australian colleges of advanced education during the 1980s. The results from this analysis indicate that these colleges recorded modest growth in technical change and total factor productivity, but did not fare all that well in terms of growth in technical and scale efficiency during the 1980s. As a group, however, the former colleges of advanced education had attained high levels of technical and scale efficiency.
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Abbott, M., & Doucouliagos, C. (2003). The efficiency of Australian universities: a data envelopment analysis. Economics of Education Review, 22(1), 89–97.
Abstract: With participation in higher education amongst young people rising, governments around the world have been faced with increasing pressure on their finances, giving rise to the need to operate universities with a higher degree of efficiency. In this paper, non-parametric techniques are used to estimate technical and scale efficiency of individual Australian universities. Various measures of output and inputs are used. The results show that regardless of the output-input mix, Australian universities as a whole recorded high levels of efficiency relative to each other.
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Abrar, S., & Morrissey, O. (2006). Supply response in Ethiopia: Accounting for technical inefficiency. Agricultural Economics, 35(3), 303–317.
Abstract: Few empirical studies of supply response using the profit function have accounted for technical inefficiency. Using farm-level panel data from Ethiopia, this study examines the effect of incorporating technical inefficiency in estimating the supply response of peasant farmers. Two systems of output supply and input demand equations are estimated and compared: the conventional model in which technical efficiency is assumed and another in which technical inefficiency is explicitly incorporated. The model with technical inefficiency is preferred on grounds of theoretical consistency and improved estimates, although model comparison tests are not conclusive. Incorporation of inefficiency generally increases the magnitudes and the statistical significance of own price elasticities, substantially so in the case of fertilizer and fertilizer-intensive crops, and alters the priority attached to nonprice factors. An important result is that only the specification with inefficiency reveals a significant effect of access to extension services on output. Only this specification finds that output increases with household size, which one expects as the farms in the sample are largely subsistence and producing for own consumption. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that farmers’ response to incentives is considerably restricted by inefficiency, suggesting that the traditional model would overstate response by excluding the efficiency variable.
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Abrate, G., & Erbetta, F. (2010). Efficiency and patterns of service mix in airport companies: An input distance function approach. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 46(5), 693–708.
Abstract: In this paper an input distance function approach is used to evaluate efficiency and technological characteristics of Italian airport companies for the period 2000-2005. This approach is robust to deviations from neoclassical paradigm in terms of cost-minimizing behavior. Duality relationship between the input distance function and the shadow cost function is exploited to derive cost complementarities among outputs. Empirical findings are used to discuss the economic implications connected to changes in airport organization, involving in particular outsourcing of handling operations and development of commercial activities.
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Adang, E. M. M., & Wensing, M. (2008). Economic barriers to implementation of innovations in health care: Is the long run-short run efficiency discrepancy a paradox? Health Policy, 88(2), 236–242.
Abstract: Favourable cost-effectiveness of innovative technologies is more and more a necessary condition for implementation in clinical practice. But proven cost-effectiveness itself does not guarantee successful implementation. The reason for this is a potential discrepancy between long run efficiency, on which cost-effectiveness is based, and short run efficiency. Long run and short run efficiency is dependent upon economies of scale. This paper addresses the potential discrepancy between long run and short run efficiency of innovative technologies in healthcare, explores diseconomies of scale in Dutch hospitals and suggests what strategies might help to overcome hurdles to implement innovations due to that discrepancy.
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Adler, N., & Raveh, A. (2008). Presenting DEA graphically. Omega, 36(5), 715–729.
Abstract: This paper introduces a methodology that permits presentation of the results of data envelopment analysis (DEA) graphically. A specialized form of multi-dimensional scaling, Co-Plot, enables presentation of the DEA results in a two-dimensional space, hence in a clear, understandable manner. When plotting ratios rather than original data, DEA efficient units can be visualized clearly, as well as their connections to specific variables and/or ratios. Furthermore, Co-Plot can be used in an exploratory data analysis to identify outliers, whose data require additional scrutiny, and potentially inconsequential variables that could be aggregated or removed from the analysis with little effect on the subsequent DEA results. The Co-Plot diagram of ratios presents super-efficient observations on an outer ring or sector of the plot and all reasonably efficient units on a slightly inner ring/sector, surrounding the remaining inefficient decision-making units. First, the well-known 35 Chinese Cities dataset is provided as an illustration. Second, a simulation study tests the applicability of Co-Plot to present the results of DEA.
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Adler, N., Friedman, L., & Sinuany-Stern, Z. (2002). Review of ranking methods in the data envelopment analysis context. European Journal of Operational Research, 140(2), 249–265.
Abstract: Within data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a sub-group of papers in which many researchers have sought to improve the differential capabilities of DEA and to fully rank both efficient, as well as inefficient, decision-making units. The ranking methods have been divided in this paper into six, somewhat overlapping, areas. The first area involves the evaluation of a cross-efficiency matrix, in which the units are self and peer evaluated. The second idea, generally known as the super-efficiency method, ranks through the exclusion of the unit being scored from the dual linear program and an analysis of the change in the Pareto Frontier. The third grouping is based on benchmarking, in which a unit is highly ranked if it is chosen as a useful target for many other units. The fourth group utilizes multivariate statistical techniques, which are generally applied after the DEA dichotomic classification. The fifth research area ranks inefficient units through proportional measures of inefficiency. The last approach requires the collection of additional, preferential information from relevant decision-makers and combines multiple-criteria decision methodologies with the DEA approach. However, whilst each technique is useful in a specialist area, no one methodology can be prescribed here as the complete solution to the question of ranking.
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