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The life insurance industry in China has developed rapidly at nearly average 30% annual growth rate in premium, since the reform in 1980. The enterprise property, the industry organization and the market size have significantly changed in the last two decades, which can be observed through the four representative categories of companies constituted in different period, including the state-owned enterprises, the large domestic enterprises, the medium domestic enterprises and the joint ventures. How to evaluate the efficiency that the companies make use of the resource and contribute to the economy? How to make possible adjustment for each type of companies to improve the efficiency? In this paper we estimate and compare the efficiency of these four categories, according to the two main roles of the life insurance, (1) risk pooling, risk sharing and risk allocation (2) premium collecting, reinvesting for the high rate of return. We use the DEA method, a popular method for analyzing efficiency in management science, to solve the problem. The method replicates the input and output of the unit company by all the other companies in the industry to establish the ideal efficiency frontier, and ranks the real efficiency of each unit company according to the ideal efficiency frontier. In the empirical test, we attain the evaluation of efficiency for each category of companies. We can make appropriate input & output adjustment to them by the ranking of the efficiency. Based on the theoretical results, we provide some practical approaches, including the scale, expense and investment improvement, to promote efficiency of the life insurance industry in China. / text

El objetivo en esta Memoría ha sido el análisis de eficiencia de un determinado sector empresarial, teniendo en cuenta dos problemas casi siempre presentes, y de naturaleza muy diferente, por una parte, que los datos que se manejan pueden ser imprecisos y, por tanto, afectar al resultado de cualquier estudio de eficiencia y, por otra parte, el deseo de ordenar las empresas (Unidades De Toma de Decisión) atendiendo a la medición de su eficiencia. Para la medición de la eficiencia se ha recurrido a la metodología no paramétrica del Análisis Envolvente de datos (DEA) aplicandola a empresas del sector textil muy cercanas a nosotros. Ahora bien, dado que consideramos que siempre existe alguna incertidumbre o un posible error en la medición de algunos datos (inputs y outputs), introducimos la limitación de la certeza con el tratamiento fuzzy de los datos, métodos que no requieren conocer ni aplicar hipótesis sobre distribuciones de probabilidad de esos datos, que dicho sea de paso, podría no ser fáctible bajo determinados supuestos de incertidumbre. Pero además de la medir la eficiencia pretendemos proporcionar más información que la mera separación dicotómica entre empresas eficientes o no eficientes. Para ello desarrollamos y aplicamos los modelos de super-efficiencyfuzzy y cross-efficiency-fuzzy, que nos permiten establecer una ordenación bajo incertidumbre. Con este trabajo hemos realizado un estudio amplio de la eficiencia bajo incertidumbre. Se observa que los resultados obtenidos aplicando los distintos métodos son similares. Además, estos métodos proporcionan más información sobre las unidades estudiadas que las que proporciona un solo índice de eficiencia. Estos métodos pueden ser aplicables a otros tipos de empresas, aportando nueva información que puede ayudar u orientar en la toma de decisiones de sus gestores / Pla Ferrando, ML. (2013). Modelos flexibles para la valoración de la eficiencia [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/31521 / TESIS

This Bachelor of Science thesis consists of an efficiency evaluation and creation of atheoretical model for an Atlas Copcos epicyclic gearbox. The thesis starts with atheoretical chapter containing the fundamentals of epicyclic gearing and the build of thespecific gearbox investigated. The following chapter contains former testing and theoryof power losses in a gearbox. After the theory is explained the next chapter containstesting, compromises and assumptions during testing and also results from the testing.The next chapter explains the Matlab calculation program based on the theory andmeasurements. Finally the model is validated against reference a reference model andagainst real gearbox measurements followed by some closing conclusions. The finalmodel calculates the efficiency rather well and has a linear difference. The difference isstatic since some losses have been left out, it can be fixed with an empirical correctionfactor which corrects the values and predicts an acceptable efficiency. The correctionfactor for the surface roughness also decreases the difference.

abstract: The Chinese capital market is characterized by high segmentation due to governmental regulations. In this thesis I investigate both the causes and consequences of this market segmentations. Specifically, I address the following questions: (1) to which degree this capital market segmentation is caused by the fragmented regulations in China, (2) what are the key characteristics of this market segmentation, and (3) what are the impacts of this market segmentation on capital costs and resources allocations. Answers to these questions can have important implications for Chinese policy makers to improve capital market regulatory coordination and efficiency. I organize this thesis as follows. First, I define the concepts of capital market segmentation and fragmented regulation based on literature reviews and theoretical analysis. Next, on the basis of existing theories and methods in finance and economics, I select a number of indicators to systematically measure the degree of regulatory segmentation in China’s capital market. I then develop an econometric model of capital market frontier efficiency analysis to calculate and analyze China’s capital market segmentation and regulatory fragmentation. Lastly, I use the production function analysis technique and the even study method to examine the impacts of fragmented regulatory segmentation on the connections and price distortions in the equity, debt, and insurance markets. Findings of this thesis enhance the understanding of how institutional forces such as governmental regulations influence the function and efficiency of the capital markets. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2015

The thesis theme is research and analysis of training program in HSBC Bank which took place during September 2007. The thesis is divided in to five chapters. The first chapter is devoted to theory of andragogics, corporate training and efficiency analysis. The second chapter is devoted to empirical research also problem and its solution is introduced there. The third chapter introduces HSBC Bank and HSBC Bank training program. This training program was created for newly hired employees. The fourth chapter consist of three surveys of participators of this training. The first -questionary- is focused on trainees. The second survey is evaluated by trainers of the company, this survey was executed via internet. The last survey was realized through series of interview with trainees. Based on the results of the investigation the fourth chapter is concluded with SWOT analysis of training, evaluation of efficiency of Kirkpatrick`s schneme. The last chapter contains proposals to streamline the training process. This proposals will be submitted to the management of the company for possible use in further training.

Demand fluctuations will bias the measurement of productivity and efficiency. This dissertation described three ways to characterize the effect of demand fluctuations. First, a two-dimensional efficiency decomposition (2DED) of profitability is proposed for manufacturing, service, or hybrid production systems to account for the demand effect. The first dimension identifies four components of efficiency: capacity design, demand generation, operations, and demand consumption, using Network Data Envelopment Analysis (Network DEA). The second dimension decomposes the efficiency measures and integrates them into a profitability efficiency framework. Thus, each component's profitability change can be analyzed based on technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and allocative efficiency change. Second, this study proposes a proactive DEA model to account for demand fluctuations and proposes input or output adjustments to maximize effective production. Demand fluctuations lead to variations in the output levels affecting measures of technical efficiency. In the short-run, firms can adjust their variable resources to address the demand fluctuates and perform more efficiently. Proactive DEA is a short-run capacity planning method, proposed to provide decision support to a firm interested in improving the effectiveness of a production system under demand uncertainty using a stochastic programming DEA (SPDEA) approach. This method improves the decision making related to short-run capacity expansion and estimates the expected value of effectiveness given demand. In the third part of the dissertation, a Nash-Cournot equilibrium is identified for an oligopolistic market. The standard assumption in the efficiency literature that firms desire to produce on the production frontier may not hold in an oligopolistic market where the production decisions of all firms will determine the market price, i.e. an increase in a firm's output level leads to a lower market clearing price and potentially-lower profits. Models for both the production possibility set and the inverse demand function are used to identify a Nash-Cournot equilibrium and improvement targets which may not be on the strongly efficient production frontier. This behavior is referred to as rational inefficiency because the firm reduces its productivity levels in order to increase profits.

To date there is little evidence on the relationship between property-liability (P/L) insurer’s frontier efficiency measures and the market. The establishment of a connection is important since there are a number of difficulties associated with measuring P/L insurer efficiency—there is uncertainty regarding the firm’s primary objective, the main services produced, and the measurement of these services. The main goal of the dissertation is to assess the robustness of two approaches to measuring P/L insurer efficiency —the production approach (Cummins and Weiss, 2001) and the flow approach (Brockett, et al, 2004). A secondary objective is to evaluate the performance of two proxies for the production approach’s risk-bearing and “real” loss-services output to observe whether unexpected losses leads to a distortion of efficiency. A third purpose is to determine the sensitivity of the use of the policyholder supplied debt capital input in the production approach. A fourth aim is to evaluate the performance of the range adjusted measure (RAM) of efficiency compared to the traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. A final objective is to assess the connection of accounting-based efficiency to market performance measures. The empirical evidence suggests that unexpected losses do not appear to overly distort the efficiency analysis. The production approach is not extraordinarily sensitive to the inclusion (or exclusion) of the policyholder supplied debt capital input. Traditional DEA measures of efficiency, in comparison to RAM, are more accurate predictors of insolvency and are more highly related to traditional measures of firm performance. Overall, the flow approach is not consistent with the production approach. Firms identified as highly efficient by the production approach are found to be significantly less likely to fail, indicating that the production approach is consistent with the economic reality of P/L insurance market. In contrast, high flow efficient firms are often found to have a higher proclivity to fail. Production approach efficiency is also more highly correlated to traditional measures of firm performance than flow measures of efficiency. The accounting-based production approach is directly related to market measures of firm performance, while flow efficiency is inversely related or unrelated to these measures.

The thesis investigates the efficiency of depository institutions in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey between 2003 and 2006. Four of these countries switched from a planned to a market economy in the early 1980ies. These are contrasted with Austria. High coverage ratios are ensured by using data published by the relevant regulatory authorities. Data envelopment analysis yields higher efficiency scores in all but one country when deposits are treated as output. This implies that banks see deposits as products they offer to their customers and which they do not attempt to minimize. While in some countries improvements in efficiency can be detected against an inter-temporal single-country efficiency frontier, no overall efficiency improvement against a common regional frontier can be identified. Results of a Malmquist Index analysis are also inconclusive for the region as a whole, although technological improvement can be shown for Austria between 2004 and 2005. When data is grouped by country, Austria and Croatia emerge as most and Serbia and Bulgaria as least efficient markets. An interesting pattern emerges when DMUs are grouped by category (savings, cooperative and universal banks) and country. It can then be seen that savings and cooperative banks show comparably low efficiency in Austria but comparably high scores in Serbia and Croatia. For universal banks, this pattern is reversed. (author's abstract)

Master of Science / Agricultural Economics / Jason S. Bergtold / The use of elasticities of substitution between inputs has become the standard method for addressing the effect of a change in the mix of input used for production from a technological or cost standpoint. (Chambers 1988) A researcher that wants to estimate this elasticity, or some other comparative static, typically would do so using parametric production or cost function (e.g. translog or normalized quadratic) with panel data. For a study with only cross-sectional data, the construction of such a function may be problematic. Using a dual approach, a nonparametric alternative in such a situation may be the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Cooper et al. (2000) provided a methodology for estimating elasticities of substitution for the technical production problem using DEA. To our knowledge, this has not been extended to the cost efficiency problem, which would be equivalent to estimating Allen partial or Morishima elasticities of substitution between inputs using a cost function (or cost minimization framework). The purpose of this thesis is to show how elasticities of substitution can be derived and estimated for the technical production and cost (overall economic) efficiency DEA under variable returns to scale. In addition, an empirical example using Kansas Farm Management Association (KFMA) data is presented to illustrate the estimation of these elasticities. The results showed that input substitutability is relatively limited at the enterprise level