Although the German framework of incentive-based energy regulation appears to be well-defined because it draws from international experience and eliminates several present drawbacks existing with revenue-cap regulation doubts of industry and politicians concerning the application of benchmarking techniques and more importantly, the future industry structure, remain. The regulation scheme is based on experience with energy sector reforms in the US due to it being a precursor in this regard, e.g. by introducing incentive-based regulation as early as 1994 and publishing the relevant data in a very detailed way. This thesis therefore brings together the two issues of certain efficiency measurement problems and the industry restructuring in Germany and the US in order to contribute to the current discussion of robust benchmarking and to provide political implications related to the industry’s structure. Therefore, the application of DEA and SFA constitutes the heart of the whole study. These techniques are applied on German electricity DSOs as well as on data for US electricity DSOs and US gas TSOs. The application to US data can then be used to derive information about business strategies and their success in a sector that is being restructured. The US experience will lead to relevant German policy implications with respect to the future structure of the energy industry in Germany. / Der deutsche Regulierungsansatz erscheint im Allgemeinen als ausgewogen, da er zum einen internationale Erfahrungen mit einbezieht und zum anderen bestehenden Schwächen der Erlös-Obergrenzenregulierung berücksichtigt. Dennoch bestehen Zweifel seitens Industrie- und Politvertretern bezüglich der Anwendung von Benchmarking-Techniken und noch bedeutsamer der zukünftigen Industriestruktur. Der regulatorische Rahmen basiert auf Erfahrungen aus der Regulierung der Energiewirtschaft aus den USA, da diese eine Vorreiterrolle in dieser Hinsicht innehaben, beispielsweise aufgrund der frühen Einführung der Anreizregulierung in 1994 und der sehr detaillierten Veröffentlichung der relevanten Daten. Diese Arbeit verknüpft daher diese zwei Aspekte zum einen der Existenz gewisser Problemfelder bei der Effizienzmessung als auch der Umstrukturierung der deutschen Industriestruktur in der Energiewirtschaft. Damit trägt sie zu der aktuellen Diskussion mit Bezug auf robustes Benchmarking bei und liefert zudem politische Implikationen bezüglich der Industriestruktur. Zu diesem Zweck steht die Anwendung der für die deutsche Regulierung der Energienetze relevanten Benchmarking-Techniken (Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) und Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA)) im Zentrum der gesamten Studie. Die empirischen Analysen beziehen sich dabei auf deutsche Elektrizitätsverteilnetzbetreiber sowie auf Elektrizitätsverteilnetzbetreibern und Ferngasgesellschaften aus den USA. Die Analysen von US Daten können dann genutzt werden, um gehaltvolle Informationen über Unternehmensstrategien und deren Erfolg in einem restrukturierten Sektor zu gewinnen. Diese Erfahrungen münden dann in Schlussfolgerungen und Empfehlungen für die deutsche Regulierung und Industriestruktur der deutschen Energienetzwirtschaft.

This doctoral thesis is devoted to the study of the effects of late fertility on health of the newborn and to the implications of late fertility in the fertility decision process. Late fertility is defined as the reproduction process after 30 years old. The interest lies as well from the maternal age point of view as from the paternal age point of view. The first part is devoted to the study of the determinants of infant morbidity and mortality with a particular attention to the parental age, without neglecting the other determinants. The originality of this part is located from the methodological point of view. We construct a structural model of infant morbidity/mortality in order to isolate the causal effect of late fertility. By a structural model we mean a model which represents a set of causal relationships represented mathematically by a multi-equation model and graphically by directed acyclic graphs. As a complementary approach, a chapter of the thesis is devoted to an exploratory model highlighting the role of the extreme values rather than average values traditionally of interest in most statistical analyses. Both methods are tested with Hungarian data: individual registration forms of livebirths and infant deaths (1984-1984 and 1994-1998), and the Hungarian case-control surveillance of congenital abnormalities (1997-2002). The second part analyses the effect of parental ageing in the fertility decision process. We try to determine whether the detrimental effect of late fertility on health of the child and on fecundity of the couples intervene in the preferences for a child. We assume that parental age influences the preferences for a child through effects on the desire for a child and on the beliefs in the capacity of reproduction of a healthy child. This hypothesis is tested using the data from the National Survey of Family Growth (United States, 2002) and from the Fertility and Family Survey (Hungary, Czech Republic and Belgium).

本文採用一階段隨機邊界分析法（Battese and Coelli, 1995）衡量2004 年第一季至2008 年第三季台灣上市櫃證券商的技術效率，並將Orea（2002）提出的產出導向一般化Malmquist生產力指數改寫成投入導向模式，用來分析台灣上市櫃證券商的生產力變動情形。實證結果顯示，小型券商之經營效率平均而言比大型券商之經營效率高，而大部分的證券商都呈現規模報酬遞增的技術狀態，可見台灣上市櫃證券商整體而言規模不夠大，必須設法再擴大至適當的規模方可發揮規模經濟效果。另外，較多的股本雖然理論上具備較強的競爭優勢，但可能沒有適當的決策支持，造成資源浪費反而降低經營效率；股價指數愈高，在相同的投入之下有較多的產出表現且較有能力調整規模至規模報酬較佳的狀況，因而提高經營效率。 / This paper adopts one-stage stochastic frontier analysis (Battese and Coelli, 1995) to measure technical efficiency of listed securities firms in Taiwan from the first quarter of 2004 to the third quarter of 2008. In addition, inspired by the Orea (2002) output orientated productivity model, this paper derives an input orientated generalized Malmquist productivity index to analyze the productivity change of the firms. The empirical results reveal that smaller securities firms are more efficient than larger securities firms in average. The majority of securities firms are operating with increasing returns to scale, indicating that the scale of listed securities firms in Taiwan are generally not large enough, so firms need to enlarge their scale in order to get the effect of economies of scale. Although more capital stocks possess stronger competitive advantage theoretically, without proper strategy to support the firms may waste resources and result in operational inefficiency. Operational efficiency is positively correlated with stock index.

本文採取隨機方向距離函數方法，探討制度變革前、後(第一次金融改革)對台灣銀行業技術效率的影響。資料期間涵蓋1999年至2012年。相較傳統Shephard距離函數，隨機方向距離函數方法最大優點係可同時考量增加意欲產出、減少投入與非意欲產出。本文依循Koutsomanoli-Filippaki et al. (2009a) 模型，並納入考慮非意欲產出。本文採取隨機邊界法進行實證估計，以最大概似法估計方向距離函數，依據Battese and Coelli (1995)的模型將環境變數納入實證模型 (主要模型)，並考量未包含環境變數之模型，與主要模型比較。此外，為凸顯非意欲產出之重要性，本文亦估計未考慮非意欲產出之模型以及傳統距離函數，以茲比較。 實證結果顯示，考慮非意欲產出與環境變數的主要模型，其估計結果相較其他模型之無效率明顯高估。2002年以前，技術無效率逐漸攀升。一次金改期間，技術無效率明顯下降，證明制度變革下，銀行效率獲得改善。惟2004年後反轉向上，尤其在雙卡風暴與次貸風暴期間，技術無效率明顯惡化。此外，本文將資料分群進行分析，發現公營銀行或是金控銀行較有效率。 / This paper aims to gain further insights into whether the policy of First Financial Restructuring (FFR) does improve the technical efficiency of banks in Taiwan during the period 1999-2012 by using the directional technology distance function (DDF). Compared to the conventional distance function, DDF simultaneously allows for the expansion of the desirables and the contraction of the undesirables. We follow Koutsomanoli-Filippaki et al. (2009a), and differing from them, we include undesirable outputs in DDF to depict a bank’s true production activities. We find on average that the banks have a lower technical inefficiency with the main model compared to the other models. However, prior to 2002, the technical inefficiency exhibits a gradual upward trend and then posts a downward trend during the FFR period. These results suggest that the improved efficiency in the FFR period is possibly due to enhanced banking and benefits obtained from compliance with FFR. After the FFR period, the inefficiency scores deteriorate sharply, especially during the “credit card and cash card crisis” in 2006 and “the subprime mortgage crisis” in 2008. Public banks are more efficient than private banks. Banks belonging to a financial holding company (FHC) may operate more efficiently than those belonging to a non-FHC.

This thesis uses innovative approaches to analyse energy policy interventions aimed at enhancing the environmental sustainability of energy use as well as its consequential welfare implications. First, we examine the relationship between energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emissions at the macro level. We use the Index Decomposition Analysis to derive energy efficiency by separating out the impact of shifts in economic activity on energy intensity. We then employ econometric models to relate energy efficiency and CO2 emissions accounting for non-economic factors such as consumers lifestyle and attitudes. The applications for 13 OPEC and 30 OECD countries show that at the country-group and individual country level, increase in energy intensity for OPEC is associated with both deteriorations in energy efficiency and shifts towards energy-intensive activities. The model results suggest that the reduction in energy efficiency in general go in tandem with substantial increases in CO2 emissions. The decline in energy intensity for OECD can be attributed mainly to improvements in energy efficiency which is found to compensate for the impact on CO2 emissions of income changes. The results confirm the empirical relevance of energy efficiency improvements for the mitigation of CO2 emissions. The method developed in this chapter further enables the separate assessment of non-economic behavioural factors which according to the results exert a non-trivial influence on CO2 emissions. Secondly, having empirically confirmed the relationship between energy efficiency improvements and CO2 emission at the macro level in Chapter 2, we investigate potential underlying drivers of energy efficiency improvements taking into account potential asymmetric effects of energy price change in Chapter 3. This is crucial for designing effective and efficient policy measures that can promote energy efficiency. In addition to the Index Decomposition Analysis used to estimate the economy-wide energy efficiency in Chapter 2, we also use Stochastic Frontier Analysis and Data Envelop Analysis as alternative methods. The driving factors are examined using static and dynamic panel model methods that account for both observed and unobserved country heterogeneity. The application for 32 OECD countries shows that none of the three methods leads to correspondence in term of ranking between energy efficiency estimates and energy intensity at the country level corroborating the criticism that energy intensity is a poor proxy for energy efficiency. The panel-data regression results using the results of the three methods show similarities in the impacts of the determinants on the energy efficiency levels. Also, we find insignificant evidence of asymmetric effects of total energy price but there is proof of asymmetry using energy specific prices. Thirdly, in Chapter 4 we offer an improved understanding of the impacts to expect of abolishing fuel price subsidy on fuel consumption, and also of the welfare and distributional impacts at the household level. We develop a two-step approach for this purpose. Key aspect of the first step is a two-stage budgeting model to estimate various fuel types elasticities using micro-data. Relying on these estimates and the information on households expenditure shares for different commodities, the second step estimates the welfare (direct and indirect) and distributional impacts. The application for Nigeria emphasises the relevance of this approach. We find heterogeneous elasticities of fuel demand among household groups. The distributional impact of abolishing the kerosene subsidy shows a regressive welfare loss. Although we find a progressive loss for petrol, the loss gap between the low- and high-income groups is small relative to the loss gap from stopping kerosene subsidy, making the low-income groups to suffer a higher total welfare loss. Finally, from the highlighted results, we draw the following concluding remarks in chapter 5. Energy efficiency appears a key option to mitigate CO2 emissions but there is also a need for additional policies aiming for behavioural change; energy specific prices and allowing for asymmetry in analysing the changes in energy efficiency is more appropriate and informative in formulating reliable energy policies; the hypothesis that only the rich would be worse-off from fuel subsidy removal is rejected and the results further suggest that timing of the fuel subsidy removal would be crucial as a higher international oil price will lead to higher deregulated fuel price and consequently, larger welfare loss.

金控銀行和獨立銀行在傳統在做績效評估時，可能都只考慮相同的技術水準，如此可能無法正確來衡量不同群體的的差異，而忽略其潛在的效率改善指標。因此，本文將先採用隨機邊界模型(SFA)，估出兩體系的隨機邊界模型，接著，再運用Rao (2006)所提出的共同邊界模型(metafrontier)，來進行兩個體系的銀行效率評估。 本研究運用了民國91年到民國97年期間，13家金控銀行與24家獨立銀行的資料為樣本，去分析此兩個群體的效率比較，可得以下結論： 1.在金控銀行與獨立銀行的個別隨機邊界中，兩個群體在於技術效率的表現上差異不大。 2.金控銀行的技術效率變動有越來越小的趨勢；而獨立銀行術效率沒有明顯的縮小的趨勢。 3.獨立銀行的技術缺口比TGR有顯著的大於金控銀行的TGR。 4.在共同邊界的技術效率中，獨立銀行的技術效率顯著的大於金控銀行 / Most of traditional banking performance evaluation analyses assume both financial holding banks and independent banks share the same level of technology, thus it may not able to identify the managerial efficiency difference of different groups correctly . In this research, a SFA model (Battese and Coelli, 1995) is used first to estimate the technologies and inefficiency factors for both systems. Then a deterministic linear programming metafrontier (Rao, 2006) is adopted to evaluate the technology gap ratio between two bank systems. We collect data of 13 financial holding banks and 24 independentbanks from 2001~2008. After analyzing two systems and making comparison, the main conclusions are as follows: 1.Two bank systems have a minor difference in SFA. 2.The variance on technical efficiency becomes smaller with time in financial holding banks, but not in independent banks. 3.Independentbanks’ TGR is significantly larger than financial holding banks’. 4.In metafrontier, technical efficiency of independent banks is significantly larger than financial holding Bbnks.

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從2015年統計數據來看，中國大陸涉農金融機構地方滲透性比重較高。03年中國大陸國務院下發《深化農村信用社改革試點方案》到現在為止雖然14年了，但是農村信用社還是存在很多問題。 所以研究農村信用社經營效率，對提高涉農金融機構質量和促進中國大陸農村金融市場的發展具有重大的意義。 本研究以數據包絡分析法為主，由於dea方法沒有考慮到誤差項的分配，因此加入了隨機前沿分析法。 本研究發現雖有個別農村信用社效率不足的情況存在，但福建地區整體農村信用社各項指標都很穩定。只是要針對個別經濟環境不景氣的地區重點研究，造成其效率低下的主要原因，改善其經營效率，也能提高整體指標。 從本研究對福建省地區農村信用社效率的比較影射到全國農村信用社。在國務院對農村金融改革後，雖農信社還存在部分問題，但也慢慢趨向穩定發展。可看出國務院的金融改革日漸成效。 / The statistical data of 2015 indicates that most of the Chinese local financial institutions are served as agriculture-related financial institutions.Although state council promulgated<The reform of rural credit cooperatives >in 2003, there are still lots of problems to be solved today. Therefore, the researches about the operating efficiency of rural credit cooperatives can help not only the improvement in the quality of agriculture-related financial institutions but also the development of rural financial market in China. This paper is mainly based on the data envelop analysis (DEA). Because the DEA doesn't consider the distribution of residuals, we also use the stochastic frontier analysis. In this paper, we find that the inefficiency problem still exists in some rural credit cooperatives, but all indexes of overall rural credit cooperatives in Fujian area are still stable. Moreover, we think that the improvement in the operating efficiency of individual rural credit cooperatives can also improve the overall indexes. Applying our analysis into whole districts of China, we find that the development becomes stable gradually, meaning the reform by state council works.

Despite measures on the European level to increase the compatibility between the HE sectors of the member states, the recent literature exposes variations in their efficiencies. To gain insights into these differences we split the efficiency term according to the two management levels each university is confronted with. Utilizing a recent advancement in the method to measure efficiency, we separate short-term (transient) and long-term (persistent) efficiency, while controlling for unobserved institution specific heterogeneity. While the first term reflects the efficiency of the individual universities working within the country, the second term echoes the influence of the country specific overall HE structure. The cross-country comparison displays if the overall efficiency difference between countries is related to individual performance of their universities or their HE structure. This allows more purposeful policy recommendation and expands the literature regarding the efficiency of universities in a fundamental way. Choosing Italy and Germany as two important illustrative examples we can take advantage of a novel dataset including characteristics of institutions in both countries for an exceptional long period of time from 2001 to 2011. We show that the Italian universities exhibit a higher overall efficiency value than their German counterparts. With the individual universities working at the upper bound of efficiency in both countries, the overall inefficiency as well as the gap between the countries is caused by persistent, structural inefficiency. To expedite a true European Area of Higher Education future measures should hence aim at the country specific structure, not solely at affecting the activities of single universities.

To date there is little evidence on the effect of property-liability (P-L) insurer's business strategy and organizational structure change on their frontier efficiency performance and productivity change. This issue is important since traditional theory assumes firms that minimizes cost and maximizes profit with more efficient strategy will survive in the long run. The main goal of this dissertation is to examine the efficiency performance in the U.S. P-L insurance industry using frontier efficiency and productivity methods. This dissertation consists of three essays on the efficiency studies. The first essay uses the data envelopment analysis to examine the efficiency performance and economies of scope for nonspecialists and specialists in the U.S. P-L insurance industry. The empirical evidence suggests that nonspecialists (specialists) dominate specialists (nonspecialists) in producing nonspecialists (specialists) input–output vectors and provide evidence for the coexistence of economies of scope and diseconomies of scope in the U.S. P-L insurance industry. Our second essay uses the stochastic frontier analysis to examine whether nonspecialized strategy dominates specialized strategy in the U.S. P-L insurance industry. The empirical evidence supports that both the nonspecialized hypothesis and the specialized hypothesis hold for different types of P-L insurers. Our third essay investigates whether the conversion of U.S. P-L insurers improves their efficiency performance before and after conversion. The empirical evidences of the value-added approach and the financial intermediary approach indicate that converting insurers experience improvement in their efficiency relative to mutual counter samples after the conversion, supporting the efficiency hypothesis proposed by Mayers and Smith (1986). Overall, the evidence of this dissertation shows that P-L insurer's diversification strategy and organizational structure change has significant impact on their frontier efficiency performance and productivity change.