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The purpose of this study was to examine the efficiency of Texas public school districts through Data Envelopment Analysis. The Data Envelopment Analysis estimation method calculated and assigned efficiency scores to each of the 931 school districts considered in the study. The efficiency scores were utilized in two phases. First, the school district efficiency scores were combined with school district student achievement to evaluate effectiveness with efficiency. A framework was constructed to graph the scores on an x-axis of student achievement scores and a y-axis of efficiency scores to further illustrate the data. The framework was evaluated with the full statewide sample and with school districts categorized into similar peer groups. Then, using variables selected from related scholarly literature, a regression analysis identified which factors impacted school district efficiency statewide. The non-discretionary variables included in the study were total student enrollment, the percentage of non-white students and the percentage of economically disadvantaged students. The discretionary variables selected included the teacher-to-student ratio, teachers’ average years of experience, the percentage of teachers with master’s degrees and the average teacher base salary. Amongst the seven factors selected for regression analysis, five statistically significant variables were identified as impacting statewide school district efficiency. All three non-discretionary variables were identified as statistically significant on efficiency and included total student enrollment, the percentage of non-white students and the percentage of economically disadvantaged students. Two discretionary factors showed statistically significant effects on efficiency which included teachers’ average years of experience and the percentage of teachers with master’s degrees. The teacher-to-student ratio and the average teacher base salary were ineffective in predicting efficiency. This study contributed to the understanding on educational efficiency. Data Envelopment Analysis has been employed mainly in the private sector to analyze efficiency in economics and business organizations. This study added to the educational research on selecting Data Envelopment Analysis as a primary estimation method for analyzing the efficiency of school systems.

Este trabalho aborda a problemática do transporte de carga frigorificada, sob a ótica da eficiência energética da unidade frigorífica. São propostas alternativas para conservação de alimentos, independentemente do frio. Embora incapazes de substituir totalmente o frio, podem ser uma alternativa em vários casos. É analisada a tecnologia de frigorificação atualmente empregada, enfocando custos do sistema, eficiência energética e efeitos da atual tecnologia sobre o meio ambiente. É desenvolvido o projeto preliminar de uma unidade de refrigeração por absorção, que é analisado comparativamente com as unidades por compressão a vapor. Este estudo mostra que o sistema de refrigeração por absorção pode ser viável em muitas aplicações onde não se dispõe de energia térmica ou mecânica. / This study analyses refrigerated freigth transportation, under the scope of refrigeration energy effeciency. There are several alternatives for food conservation, independently of refrigeration. These existing technologies are not capable of completely replacing refrigeration, but they could be utilized in many cases. The refrigeration techonology currently used is analysed, focusing on system costs, energy efficiency and environmental impacts. A preliminary design of an absoption system was done and an analysis was performed comparating it with the compression units. Conclusive analysis of the system will depend of the evaluation of the experimental unit. This study shows that refrigeration by absortion could be viable in various aplications where no electricity or mechanical energy are available.

A próxima década oferece ao mundo um verdadeiro desafio em relação à conservação de várias formas de energia. Para isso, torna-se necessário a cooperação de vários agentes envolvidos no desenvolvimento de um mercado de eficiência energética, tais como, o governo, a agência reguladora, as empresas geradoras de eletricidade, os vendedores de equipamentos, as empresas distribuidoras de eletricidade e os consumidores. O setor residencial da cidade de Cochabamba é responsável por 44% do consumo de energia elétrica, abrange 86.88% dos consumidores do sistema elétrico de Cochabamba e tem uma taxa média de crescimento da demanda de energia elétrica de 8.S% ao ano. Este setor é muito importante e apresenta um grande potencial de conservação de energia elétrica nos três usos finais que apresentam o maior consumo (79%) em Cochabamba: refrigeração, iluminação e aquecimento da água. No presente trabalho, realiza-se a caracterização da demanda de eletricidade por usos finais em um estudo-piloto, com uma metodologia desenvolvida a partir da realização de uma pesquisa de hábitos de consumo e posse de eletrodomésticos. São analisadas as oportunidades que apresentam-se atualmente na Bolívia para viabilizar o desenvolvimento do mercado de tecnologia ecientes em razão da recente restruturação do setor elétrico boliviano que oferece sinais econômicos de mercado para atingir a eficiência econômica no fornecimento elétrico a custo mínimo. Também são analisadas as barreiras que existem na Bolívia para a introdução de tecnologias eficientes no mercado e propõem-se diversas condições que devem estabelecer-se para desenvolver um mercado de eciência energética. Analisam-se as condições operacionais associando ações do agente regulador, dos vendedores de equipamentos das empresas de energia elétrica e dos consumidores para a aceleração da penetração de tecnologias eficientes de uso final disponíveis em outros mercados. / The next decade introduces a real challenge for energy conservation. This will require the cooperation of many actors involved in an energy efficiency market as the government, the regulatory body, the electric power generating companies, the equipment vendors, the electricity distribution companies and the consumers. In the city of Cochabamba, the residential sector uses 44 percent of the total electrical energy consumption and corresponds to 86,88 percent of the electricity users. As the average demand growth rate is 8.5 percent per year, the residential sector has a large potential for electricity conservation because the three most important end-uses (lighting, refrigeration and water heating) consume 79 percent of total electricity in Cochabamba. The present work assesses the electricity end-uses through a pilot study, applying a methodology using a survey on electrical appliances and consumption. The opportunities for development of an energy efficient tecnologies market in Bolivia are also analized as the recent electricy reform is providing economic signals to achieve economic efficiency at the least-cost electricity supply. The barriers to the introduction of energy efficient tecnologies in Bolivia are also considered with the required conditions for development of a market for energy efficiency. For that purpose, the operational conditions includes the role of the regulatory agency, the equipment vendors, the electricity companies and the consumers in order to accelerate the introduction of efficient tecnologies for end uses available in other markets.

This thesis applies innovative methods to the efficiency and productivity analysis of the Australian banking system. Key areas of investigation include the impact of regulatory reforms on bank performance, the impact of firm entry and exit on industry productivity and the changing nature of banking and the role of risk in measuring bank value-added. The latter leads to the construction of a new bank production model, emphasising risk management as part of a bank??s value-added. As such, the proposed bank output framework views risk as a productive service, rather than a bad output or externality, which is often assumed in the literature. Aided with this new framework, several refinements are suggested for the treatment and measurement of bank output by researchers and statistical agencies. A unified regulatory framework combined with a greater level of harmonisation in rules in the Australian banking sector, has meant that a pooled analysis of all deposit-taking institutions has become feasible for the first time. With an enlarged dataset new insights are gained into the relative performance of deposit-taking institutions in Australia. The results challenge commonly held views of bank efficiency and the relevance of scale, size and incumbency when measuring bank efficiency. The new definition of bank output is also applied across the sector using econometric and non-parametric techniques to gauge productivity. Problems with balanced data sets and aggregation of firm level productivity are examined. A new approach to decomposing aggregate industry level productivity is introduced based on strong axiomatic grounds and its ability to attribute productivity between continuing, exiting and entering firms. The technique is applied for the first time and uses the newly developed bank output production model. The analysis provides key information on the relative performance of firms in the Australian banking sector.