Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Jeffrey M. Peterson / This study focused on the economic efficiency of Kansas farms. The goal was to investigate factors and how they might affect farms and their economic and production performance. Kansas was selected as the region of study for its large agricultural production and distinctive type of multiple-operation farms. Farms in the sample could produce three outputs, crops, livestock and custom work. Inputs for the farms included measures of capital, labor, land and purchased inputs. Production outputs were measured in bushels and tons; input quantities were computed from input expenditures applying an input price index taken from the US Department of Agriculture in real US dollars. The dataset consisted of a 10-year (1998-2007) panel of 456 multi-output farms belonging to the Kansas Farm Management Association (KFMA). Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques were used to construct a non-parametric efficiency frontier and calculate technical efficiency (TE), allocative efficiency (AE), scale efficiency (SE), and overall or economic efficiency (OE) for each farm and each year. A discretionary input oriented DEA technique was used to assess the effect of capital availability as a farm input and its impact on farms' efficiencies. Efficiency scores in this problem were compared to the farms' scores when the level of debt was accounted for as a farm input. Panel data Tobit analysis was applied to the farms' inefficiency scores to investigate the causality of selected farm characteristics on technical, allocative, scale and overall inefficiencies. For the sampled farms and period, results confirmed that larger farms were more efficient than smaller ones. Farms specializing in livestock products, such as dairy and beef, were reported to be slightly more overall efficient than crop or mixed farms. Some economies of scope were found between custom work operations and crops. Financial structure of the farms was measured using the ratio of total debt to total assets for each farm. According to the results, larger leverage ratios increased all farm efficiencies. The positive effect of debt or capital availability in Kansas farms efficiencies was confirmed. The results of the technical efficiency discretionary DEA model agreed with this finding.

Dans le cadre de la crise de la dette publique débutant en 2010, plusieurs pays ont dû revoir la gestion de leurs dépenses publiques. En ce sens, nous cherchons à déterminer si certains gouvernements pourraient améliorer la situation économique et sociale de leur pays avec une même quantité de dépenses publiques. Plus précisément, l’objectif de ce mémoire est de déterminer l’efficience des dépenses publiques des pays de l’OCDE entre 1991 et 2010 et de déterminer l’impact de cette efficience sur les taux d’intérêt à travers la prime de risque. En fait, nous cherchons à savoir si la confiance des investisseurs envers les obligations gouvernementales est influencée par l’inefficience dans l’utilisation des dépenses publiques. Cette recherche apporte une vision différente de l’efficience en ce sens qu’elle en évalue les conséquences sur les taux d’intérêt et la confiance des investisseurs. En premier lieu, l’efficience est calculée à l’aide de la méthode d’analyse par enveloppement des données (DEA) bootstrap. Afin de déterminer si les pays sont efficients en termes de bien-être quatre outputs différents sont testés: le taux de croissance du PIB, l’indice de développement humain (IDH), l’indicateur vivre mieux et l’indicateur vivre mieux modifié. L’utilisation de l’indicateur vivre mieux est également un apport intéressant à la recherche puisque cet indicateur permet de mesurer l’efficience des gouvernements en ce qui a trait au bien-être des citoyens. À l’aide des mesures d’efficience, nous concluons que le taux de croissance du PIB est inadéquat comme mesure de bien-être. Pour les trois autres indicateurs, l’inefficience moyenne est respectivement de 8 %, 22 %, et 31 %. En second lieu, nous nous attardons aux conséquences de l’inefficience sur les taux d’intérêt à travers la prime de risque. Après analyse, il est difficile d’obtenir une conclusion claire quant à l’impact de l’inefficience sur les taux d’intérêt. L’inefficience semble avoir un impact sur la cote de crédit et doit donc être considéré dans le risque évalué. Notre conclusion comporte cependant quelques bémols.

本文使用Network DEA模型，將台灣銀行業的生產過程分解成營運階段以及財務階段來討論，並將所有樣本銀行分成金控下子銀行V.S.非金控下子銀行，民營銀行V.S.泛公股銀行，商業銀行V.S.其他專業銀行以及新銀行V.S.舊銀行進行比較，希望藉此使各銀行經理人更了解自己經營銀行在各方面的優劣點，並且更容易從中檢討出無效率的來源，進而改善之。另外，各銀行的風險管理愈來愈受主管機關以及社會大眾的重視，本文特別將風險變數以及資本適足率限制納入模型中，以期能更忠實反映各銀行的經營績效。 結果發現，泛公股銀行的財務效率有顯著優於民營銀行的傾向、舊銀行在營運效率以及財務效率也有顯著優於新銀行的傾向；顯示民營銀行以及新銀行在成本控管能力上的績效表現明顯較差，需要透過適當的管理制度改善等以有效提升經營績效。 / This paper examines the performance of the banking industry in Taiwan via Network DEA model, which decomposes the production process into operational, and financial ones. Furthermore, as more and more attention is aroused by the public in the topic of the risk management, we incorporate risk variables and the restriction of the BIS ratio in order to have efficiency scores more faithfully. We divide the banks into groups and compare the efficiency results, and it turns out that the banks in public ownership exhibit superior performance on financial efficiency than the privately owned banks; The banks established before 1990s perform better operational and financial efficiency than that of the banks established after 1990s.

This thesis examines banking efficiency and the productivity of thirteen transition Central and Eastern European banking systems during 1998-2003 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). It proposes a non-parametric methodology for non-radial Russell output efficiency measure of banking firms, incorporating risk as an undesirable output. In addition, the proposed efficiency measure handles unrestricted data, i. e. both positive and negative. The Luenberger productivity index is suggested, which is applicable to technology where the desirable and undesirable outputs are jointly produced, and are possibly negative. Furthermore, the thesis addresses the main issue in the literature on banking performance measurement, which concerns the lack of consistency in the conceptual and theoretical considerations in describing the banking production process. Consequently, a metaanalysis tool, to examine the choice of inputs and outputs definitions in the banking efficiency literature, is suggested. In addition, the performance measures are estimated using three alternative definitions of the banking production process focusing on the risk and environmental dimensions of bank efficiency and productivity, with further comparative analysis using bootstrapping and kernel density techniques. Overall, the empirical results suggest that in Central and Eastern Europe Czech, Hungarian and Polish banks were the most technical efficient banks and the banking risk was mainly affected by external environmental factors during the analyzed period. Productivity analysis implies that the main driver of productivity change in the Central and Eastern European banks is the technological improvement. As meta-analysis revealed, the choice of particular approach of describing the banking production process is determined not by the availability of particular input or output variable information but the concepts of researcher's theoretical considerations. Statistical tests and density analysis indicate that efficiency scores, returns parameters and productivity indexes are sensitive to the choice of particular approaches.

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) represents one of the core research streams in the field of operations research (OR). Altough numerous sound MCDM methods for various kind of applications exist, the application of such methods in the practical field is found rarely. The reason for this gap between scientific development and practical acceptance can be found in two distinct points: On the one hand, MCDM methods naturally tend to build on rather complex mathematical foundations. Decision makers (DMs) in practice are mostly experts in their area of expertise but do not necessarily have solid education or experience with high-level mathematical methods. Thus, in order to not alienate DMs in practice, academic research has to translate mathematically challenging models into easy-to-use, self-explaining tools that can effectively support real-life decision scenarios. On the other hand, academic research in MCDM often ends in the proposal of a theoretical model, that may be sound and promising, but never leaves the field of academics due to its theoretical nature. Therefore, the underlying dissertation investigates on the usage of MCDM methods for integration in a decision support system (DSS), implemented as a sofware that is easy to distribute and applicable to decision problems in practice. This study tries to mitigate the lack of MCDM acceptance by analysing MCDM methods according to their applicability, pointing out possible improvements and validating proposed advancements. (author's abstract)

In the first chapter I investigate the change in operating performance, efficiency and value addition of US bank merger and acquisition after GLBA. I extend the previous research by combining all the previous methodology used in merger literature and added a new methodology namely Expected EVA improvement. I will test whether these performance metrics have similar results or the performance of merger vary depending on the measurements. I will also examine the factors that have significant impact on the change in the banks’ performance. My results show that industry-adjusted operating performance of merged banks increases significantly after a merger.I also find that the acquirer expected EVA improvement increase significantly after the merger. Revenue enhancement opportunity appears to be more profitable if there exist more opportunity for cost cutting such as geographic focus and diversified merger. Product diversification merger increase the industry adjusted performance more than product focused merger. The efficiency or profitability of targets has either positive or no effect change in acquirer performance. In the second chapter I examine how diversifying away from traditional lending activity into noninterest income has affected banks efficiency and value. Does this activity or product diversification affect the bank’s production efficiency and excess value? How does this efficiency translate into excess value for the firm or how excess value increase is related to diversification and efficiency? I find that diversifications significantly reduce the value of banks measured in excess value and vice versa regardless of which measures diversification or excess value I use. Both revenue and asset diversification also significantly reduce all measures of efficiency scores. But the impact of efficiency on diversification is mixed. Only efficiency scores computed based on variable return to scale have negative on revenue diversification and other efficiency scores have no impact on diversifications. I also find that increasing efficiency will increase the excess value of the banks significantly and vice versa. So increasing diversification will reduce the excess value and hence will lower the excess value or BHC with lower diversification will have lower excess value and are more efficient.

Since the 21st century, with the further development of globalization, innovation resources came into an open innovation era. Innovation resources can flow freely in a global scale. In the process of flow, innovation resources agglomeration in some cities, makes these cities become the global science and technology innovation center. Innovation has become the most important source of competitive advantage, and building innovative capacity can provide a strong impetus for the comprehensive competitiveness and economic prosperity (Porter & Stern, 2001). Innovation resources agglomeration makes innovation happen continuously, thus makes the global science and technology innovation center becomes the new engine and important support of national comprehensive strength. After two major industrial structure shift, the traditional development advantages are vanishing. The current economic growth of Shanghai is below the national average; the traditional development advantage is gradually weakening. At the same time, China's economy is faced with an L-shaped recession (Lei, 2016). Therefore, to become the global science and technology innovation center is not only necessary for Shanghai’s own transformation and development, but also accordance with the national development strategy. The aim of the Chinese government is to preliminarily finishes the work of develop Shanghai into the global science and technology innovation center during the period of 13th Five-Year Development Plan1 (from 2016 to 2020). Improve the innovation resources agglomeration capacity of Shanghai, and maximum accumulate innovation resources is the key to success. The existing studies have shown that innovation resources agglomeration has the characteristic of self-organizing, and there is the Matthew effect in this process: the better the innovation foundation, the more obvious the agglomeration effect, and vice versa. This research will from the perspective of the innovation system theory, using DEA method to study the R&D resources utilization efficiency of Shanghai’s industrial enterprises above designated size, demonstrates the deficiencies of Shanghai’s innovation resources agglomeration foundation, and put forward suggestions for improvement.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:44:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ananda Carvalho Pimenta.pdf: 1215484 bytes, checksum: 3bc19708a070b8387e436d534c63d9bd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This dissertation aims to assess the possible contribution of methodologies indicators - CAMELS rating and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to performance and efficiency analyzis applied to Brazilian banks considering the loan portfolio indicators in the 2009- 2012 period. This study is based on an extensive literature review on the four cornerstone themes - financial institutions efficiency and performance, credit risk management, rating CAMELS and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) that support the methodology definition and the result analysis. The descriptive and dispersion analyzes enabled the data validation and provided the initial understanding of banks' credit portfolio for the banks selected sample. Thereafter i) the CAMELS management and asset quality indicators were calculated to respectively, indicate management s behavior regarding risk and banking management, and overdue loans share in the portfolio, and also ii) the DEA efficiency indicators were obtained to as a measurement of instituitions relative efficiency. Having been held in 2013 secnd semester, the study sampled a total of eight financial institutions and their data for the 2009- 2012 period. Aiming to validate the applicability of both methodologies to the Brazilian financial market, the sample was divided based on their market profile identified from its main equity volums and accounts. Then it was concluded that both indicators have applicability in assessing the efficiency in the Brazilian s financial institutions, including the indication to associate then, in order to have a more detailed analysis due their own specificities. The dissertation also presents insights for future studies on this relevant topic / Esta dissertação busca avaliar a possível contribuição das metodologias de indicadores rating CAMELS e Análise Envoltória de Dados (DEA) à análise de desempenho e eficiência aplicada às instituições financeiras brasileiras a partir dos indicadores da carteira de crédito, no período de 2009 a 2012. Este estudo está fundamentado em uma extensa revisão bibliográfica sobre os quatro temas-suporte da dissertação - desempenho e eficiência de instituições financeiras, gestão do risco de crédito, rating CAMELS e Análise Envoltória de Dados (DEA), com o objetivo de apoiar na aplicação da metodologia e análise dos resultados. As análises descritiva e de dispersão das variáveis estudadas, propiciaram a validação dos dados e forneceram o entendimento inicial acerca da carteira de crédito dos bancos da amostra selecionada. Foram então apurados i) os indicadores de qualidade gerencial e dos ativos do rating CAMELS que evidenciaram respectivamente, o comportamento dos gestores em relação à gestão de riscos e da organização; e a participação dos créditos vencidos na carteira, e ii) apurados os índices de eficiência do DEA que avaliaram as unidades de modo a comparar seus desempenhos fornecendo uma medida de eficiência relativa. Tendo sido realizado no segundo semestre de 2013, o estudo teve como amostra um total de oito instituições financeiras e seus respectivos dados para o período de 2009 a 2012. Visando validar a aplicabilidade das metodologias ao mercado financeiro brasileiro, a amostra de bancos foi segmentada com base em seu perfil de atuação, identificado a partir de suas principais contas patrimoniais. A partir desta segmentação concluiu-se que os indicadores apresentam aplicabilidade na avaliação da eficiência na gestão das instituições financeiras, inclusive com a sinalização de associação destes, em função das especificidades de análise propiciadas por cada um individualmente. A dissertação ainda aponta perspectivas para estudos futuros neste tema de evidência crescente

Este artigo analisa a eficiência do gasto público em educação nos municípios brasileiros para o ano de 2011. Utilizaram-se os resultados da Prova Brasil para as disciplinas de matemática e língua portuguesa como medida de produto e foi feita a construção de uma fronteira de eficiência através dos métodos DEA e FDH. Os resultados mostram que a distribuição da eficiência não é uniforme, sendo as regiões Norte e Nordeste menos eficientes que as demais, notadamente em relação ao Sul e ao Sudeste. Na análise dos determinantes da eficiência, os resultados indicam que número de professores com ensino superior e IDHM contribuem positivamente para maior eficiência, ao passo que o abandono escolar e a distorção idade-série impactam negativamente. Via regressão quantílica, evidencia-se que o efeito dessas variáveis é distinto em função dos quantis da distribuição da eficiência. Interpretações adicionais dos resultados são obtidos através do método de fronteira Order-α. O estudo sugere que, a partir de um determinado nível, não há evidência de que maior gasto público implique aumento da aprendizagem. Uma melhor aplicação dos recursos pode elevar a nota das provas sem aumento de gasto público. / This paper analyzes the e ciency of public spending on education in Brazilian municipalities for the year 2011. The results of the Prova Brazil for math and portuguese language were used as product measure and the construction of an e cient frontier was made through DEA and FDH methods. The results show that the distribution of e ciency is not uniform. The North and Northeast regions are more ine cient than others, especially with respect to South and Southeast. In the analysis of the determinants of e ciency, the results indicate that the number of teachers with higher education and IDHM contribute positively to greater e ciency, while school dropouts and age/grade distortion impact negatively. By quantile regression, it is evident that the effect of these variables is di erent depending on the quantile distribution e ciency. Additional interpretations of the results are obtained through the partial frontier approaches, with Order-α method. This study suggests that, from a certain level, there is no evidence that higher levels of public spending implies increased learning. A better use of resources can raise the test scores without increasing public spending.

Existe atualmente uma tendência de maior utilização do sistema de saúde brasileiro, tal como de maior valorização dele, o que se justifica pelo modelo universalista do sistema de saúde nacional; envelhecimento da população nacional; aumentos dos gastos públicos com saúde; aumento da renda per capta dos brasileiros. Esse contexto traz consigo a demanda por práticas gerenciais capazes de auxiliar a área da saúde nos seus crescentes desafios. Um dos pontos relevantes de estudo nesse contexto é a avaliação de desempenho e eficiência organizacional das organizações de saúde, em especial, dos hospitais filantrópicos, utilizandose modelos específicos à sua realidade. Diante disso, o objetivo do presente estudo é desenvolver um modelo organizacional para avaliação de desempenho para os hospitais filantrópicos e, a partir dele, comparar a eficiência das organizações participantes da amostra. Por meio da revisão de literatura levantaram-se 31 variáveis, provenientes de seis perspectivas diferentes, que foram julgadas pelo autor como relevante para a avaliação de desempenho dos hospitais filantrópicos, das quais, 21 foram consideradas como as mais relevantes por 14 especialistas que as avaliaram por meio do método Delphi. Ademais, outras quatro variáveis foram apresentadas como relevantes pelos entrevistados e adicionadas à proposta de modelo para avaliação de desempenho de hospitais filantrópicos. A partir desses fatores, estabeleceram-se variáveis de inputs e outputs dos hospitais possíveis de serem utilizadas, das quais se elaborou um questionário enviado para mais de 1.600 hospitais, obtendo-se de retorno 70 respostas válidas. Com a análise envoltória de dados determinaram-se quais os hospitais mais eficientes e quais elementos críticos para a eficiência. Conclui-se ainda que é incomum encontrar bases de dados robustas nos hospitais brasileiros e que análises de eficiência podem ser feitas embasadas em medidas de desempenho organizacional para se chegar a resultados de análise de desempenho com técnicas de análise de eficiência. / Nowadays, there is a trend of higher Brazilian health system usage, as well as its higher appreciation, what is justified by the universal model of national health system; national population maturing; increase in public health spending; increase of Brazilians per capta income. This environment brings along the demand for managerial practices that are able to support healthcare area in its increasing challenges. One of the highlights of study in this context is the organizational performance and efficiency evaluation, specially for charitable hospitals, using specific models, according to their reality. Based on this, the objective of this study is to develop an organizational model for performance evaluation to charitable hospitals and, from it, compare sample participant organizations efficiency. Through literature review it was presented 31 variables, from six different perspectives, judged by the author as relevant for charitable hospitals performance evaluation, from which 21 were considered relevant by specialists in Delphi method round tables. Furthermore, another four variables were presented as relevant by the participants and added to model proposal to charitable hospitals performance evaluation. From these factors, it was established input and output variables that were able to be used, and a questionnaire was elaborated and sent to more than 1.600 hospitals, gaining back 70 valid questionnaires. With DEA analysis, it was determined which hospitals are more efficient and which elements are critical to efficiency. It was concluded that it is not common to find robust databases in charitable hospitals and that efficiency analysis can be done supported by organizational performance measures to reach also organizational performance results.