The aim of the thesis is to estimate the cost efficiency of the banks from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia during 2008-2013 using stochastic frontier analysis. In addition to this, mutual relationships between the changes in banks' cost efficiency, risk- taking, and capital position are examined. First, the literature that is concerned with these relationships is reviewed and the stochastic frontier approach towards the efficiency estimation is outlined. In the empirical analysis, the cost efficiency of the banks from the aforementioned countries is estimated. The results suggest that the Czech and the Polish banks from the sample have the highest average cost efficiency while the Hungarian banks rank the lowest. The estimated efficiency is decreasing during the sample period. No conclusive results are found to support the hypothesis that the larger banks exhibit higher cost efficiency. Subsequently, the system of simultaneous equations is applied to test the mutual relationships between the changes in the banks' cost efficiency, risk-taking, and capital position. The results suggest a negative relationship between the changes in risk-taking and cost efficiency and between the changes in capital position and risk-taking of the banks. Moreover, the results do not indicate simultaneous...

This thesis examines the bank efficiency and the impact of the regulatory and supervisory instruments on the efficiency of banks actively performing on the financial markets in the countries of European Union. Our analysis concerns 8-year time period, covering also the period of global financial crisis with the aim to determine possible changes in the relationship regulation versus efficiency. We apply SFA Fourier-flexible model for estimation of profit and cost efficiency scores. Consequently we use GLS panel data estimation in order to test for the regulatory determinants of efficiency, we have specified 6 various models with the focus on different regulatory instruments. Results firstly suggest that high cost efficiency does not necessarily imply high bank profit efficiency. Secondly, we uncovered the negative relation between market concentration, the level of development of financial market and the cost efficiency of foreign banks. Thirdly, we also found evidence supporting the assumption of positive impact of private monitoring and the independence of supervisory authority implying the increasing of transparency in the market. Additionally, we uncovered support for negative effect of activity and diversification restrictions. However, the results concerning the financial crisis period are...

Cette thèse étudie les systèmes bancaires africains et se concentre tout particulièrement sur la question de l’actionnariat bancaire et de ses impacts. Le premier chapitre étudie l’efficience de coût. Les banques étrangères sont plus efficientes que les banques domestiques et les banques panafricaines sont les banques les plus efficientes du continent. Le second chapitre étudie la cyclicité des portefeuilles de prêt. La croissance des prêts des banques africaines est sensible à l’évolution de la croissance du PIB par habitant. Les banques panafricaines ont une croissance des prêts moins cyclique. La croissance des prêts des banques étrangères est sensible à l’évolution de la croissance dans leur pays d’origine. Les chapitres trois et quatre étudient l’inclusion financière. La probabilité d’être inclus financièrement augmente lorsque l’individu est de sexe masculin, a un revenu plus élevé, une éducation plus importante, et est plus âgé jusqu’à un certain seuil. La présence des banques panafricaines augmente l’accès au crédit des entreprises. Les banques panafricaines augmenteraient aussi l’inclusion financière des ménages, mais ce résultat est moins robuste. La conclusion générale de cette thèse souligne le rôle nouveau et bénéfique que jouent les banques panafricaines sur le continent. Ces jeunes institutions financières augmentent l’efficience de coût, diminuent la cyclicité des portefeuilles de prêt, et améliorent l’inclusion financière. / This dissertation studies African financial systems with a focus on bank ownership. Chapter one studies cost efficiency. Foreign banks are more efficient than domestic banks, and Pan-African banks are the most efficient banks on the continent. Chapter two analyses lending procyclicality. Lending growth of African banks is sensitive to the GDP per capita growth. Pan-African banks have a less pro-cyclical lending behaviour. Lending growth of African foreign banks is sensitive to GDP per capita growth in their home country. Chapter three and four study financial inclusion. Being male, wealthier, more educated and older to a certain extent increases the likelihood to be financially included. Pan-African banks presence increases firms’ access to credit. Pan-African banks would also increase households’ financial inclusion, but such result is less robust.The general conclusion of this dissertation underlines the new, beneficial role Pan-African banks play on the continent. These young financial institutions increase cost efficiency, reduce cyclicality of lending and improve financial inclusion.

The author highlights the important role of logistics and its application to international trade. To succeed in business it is crucial to reveal new logistics trends in order to adapt to the changes as soon as possible. The main objective of the thesis is therefore providing the analysis of current logistics trends and pointing out the factors that will have a major impact on the future direction of logistics. At the end there are case studies on companies Škoda Auto and Wal-Mart to familiarize with new logistics approaches in practice.

<p>Företag: Midelfart Sonesson AB</p><p>Syfte: Studien skulle ge en bild av vilka kriterier som är betydelsefulla för företag vid rationalisering av lagerställen. Den skulle dessutom ge en bild av vilka tänkbara ekonomiska konsekvenser som kan följa efter en rationalisering. Genom en fallstudie av ett typföretag och genom kompletterande intervjuer med kunniga inom logistik och företagsekonomi skulle författarna undersöka vilka kriterier som företagen lägger mest vikt på när de ska starta ett så stort projekt som lagerställesrationalisering, samt förstå vad kostnadsbesparingen kan bli.</p><p>Metod: En studie av företaget Midelfart Sonesson AB har utförts. Primär- och sekundärdata har samlats in genom personliga intervjuer, litteratur, rapporter, och elektroniska källor.</p><p>Teori: Teorin består av nio olika avsnitt som kan tillämpas på ämnet i uppsatsen. Teorin används för att förstå företagets uppbyggnad, organisation och dess handlande. Det ger en förståelse av lagerhållning och lagerställesrationalisering.</p><p>Empiri: I empirin beskrivs företagets situation idag. Förslag från konsulten tas upp, angående den förändring och det val som de står inför. Material som inkommit genom intervjuer belyses även i empirin.</p><p>Slutsats: Kostnadseffektivitet med bibehållen kundservice är de viktigaste kriterierna. Stora kostnadsbesparingar kan göras vid lagerställesrationalisering.</p> / <p>Company: Midelfart Sonesson AB</p><p>Purpose: The essay should give a picture of which criteria are important to companies when rationalizing their warehouse places. It would also illustrate what the possible economic consequences could be after a rationalization. A case study of a typical company and in addition, interviews with experts in the areas of logistics and business administration should help the authors investigate which criteria the companies emphasize, when they start such a large project as warehouse place rationalizing, and also understand the cost effect.</p><p>Methodology: A study of the company Midelfart Sonesson AB has been done. Primary- and secondary data has been gathered through personal interviews, literature, reports and electronic sources.</p><p>Theoretical perspective: The theory consists of nine different sections that can be applied to the subject of this essay. The theory is used to understand a company’s build-up, organization and its action. It gives a comprehension of stock holding and warehouse place rationalization.</p><p>Empirical foundation: This is where the company’s situation of today is described. The consultant’s recommendations, concerning the transformation and the choice that has to be made, are described. Information received through interviews is also illustrated in the empirical foundation.</p><p>Conclusion: Cost efficiency with maintained customer service is the most important criteria. Large cost savings can be made through warehouse place rationalizing.</p>

Företag: Midelfart Sonesson AB Syfte: Studien skulle ge en bild av vilka kriterier som är betydelsefulla för företag vid rationalisering av lagerställen. Den skulle dessutom ge en bild av vilka tänkbara ekonomiska konsekvenser som kan följa efter en rationalisering. Genom en fallstudie av ett typföretag och genom kompletterande intervjuer med kunniga inom logistik och företagsekonomi skulle författarna undersöka vilka kriterier som företagen lägger mest vikt på när de ska starta ett så stort projekt som lagerställesrationalisering, samt förstå vad kostnadsbesparingen kan bli. Metod: En studie av företaget Midelfart Sonesson AB har utförts. Primär- och sekundärdata har samlats in genom personliga intervjuer, litteratur, rapporter, och elektroniska källor. Teori: Teorin består av nio olika avsnitt som kan tillämpas på ämnet i uppsatsen. Teorin används för att förstå företagets uppbyggnad, organisation och dess handlande. Det ger en förståelse av lagerhållning och lagerställesrationalisering. Empiri: I empirin beskrivs företagets situation idag. Förslag från konsulten tas upp, angående den förändring och det val som de står inför. Material som inkommit genom intervjuer belyses även i empirin. Slutsats: Kostnadseffektivitet med bibehållen kundservice är de viktigaste kriterierna. Stora kostnadsbesparingar kan göras vid lagerställesrationalisering. / Company: Midelfart Sonesson AB Purpose: The essay should give a picture of which criteria are important to companies when rationalizing their warehouse places. It would also illustrate what the possible economic consequences could be after a rationalization. A case study of a typical company and in addition, interviews with experts in the areas of logistics and business administration should help the authors investigate which criteria the companies emphasize, when they start such a large project as warehouse place rationalizing, and also understand the cost effect. Methodology: A study of the company Midelfart Sonesson AB has been done. Primary- and secondary data has been gathered through personal interviews, literature, reports and electronic sources. Theoretical perspective: The theory consists of nine different sections that can be applied to the subject of this essay. The theory is used to understand a company’s build-up, organization and its action. It gives a comprehension of stock holding and warehouse place rationalization. Empirical foundation: This is where the company’s situation of today is described. The consultant’s recommendations, concerning the transformation and the choice that has to be made, are described. Information received through interviews is also illustrated in the empirical foundation. Conclusion: Cost efficiency with maintained customer service is the most important criteria. Large cost savings can be made through warehouse place rationalizing.

Syftet med den här studien är att förbättra informationsflödet från projektering och produktion in i förvaltningen. Detta för att väcka ett intresse hos förvaltare och för att visa att det finns pengar att spara genom att ta hand om informationen från projekteringen och produktionen. Tidigare studier inom området BIM visar att stor fokus läggs på projektering och produktion men det är ett väldigt litet fokus på förvaltningen när man talar om BIM. Målet är att konkret kunna visa vad informationen är värd och att visa vilken information förvaltare använder och var den finns i byggprocessens skeden före förvaltningen. Rapporten bygger på en litteraturstudie, intervjuer och beräkningar. Förvaltare har blivit tillfrågade vilken information de använder i förvaltningen och sedan har projektör och entreprenör blivit tillfrågad ifall denna information finns att tillgå i projekteringen och produktionen. Värderingen av informationen har sedan gått till på två sätt. Det ena sättet är att bedöma kostnaden av att uppdatera information mot kostnaden att ta fram information på nytt. Det andra sättet är att med hjälp av nyckeltal (kronor per kvadratmeter) och den lista med typ av information som förvaltare använder, som sammanställts från intervjuerna, ta reda på vad information är värd. Det första sättet att värdera visar att det kostar lika mycket att hålla relationsritningar (A) uppdaterade i som minst 18år och i som mest 50år som att ta fram informationen helt på nytt. Nästan samma gäller för BIM-modell med avseende på relationsritningar (A). Fast där är kostnaden för framtagning på nytt lika stor som att hålla den uppdaterad i som minst 22år och i som mest 58år. Det andra sättet att värdera visar att mindre än 25% av den information man kan finna i projekteringen och eller i produktionen är värd cirka 10% av projekteringskostnaden. / The purpose of this study is to improve the flow of information from the design and construction phase into the facility management. This in order to make the facility managers see the advantages with BIM and to show that there is money to be saved by retrieving the information from the design and the construction phase. Earlier studies show that there actually has been quite little research done within BIM in the facility management and that the main focus has been at the design and the construction phase. The aim with the study is to specify the value of the information and to show which information facility managers use and where it can be retrieved from within the earlier phases of the construction process. The report is based on a literature study, interviews and calculations. A number of facility managers have been asked which types of information they use and designers and entrepreneurs have then been asked if these types of information can be found in the design and the construction phase. The information has been valued in two different ways. In one way the information was valued by comparing the cost between updating existing information or recreate the same type of information. The other way of valuing the information was to find out the worth of information by using key figures (SEK per square meter) and the list of information that facility managers use, which was made up from the interviews. The first way of valuing shows that the cost of producing as built drawings (A) in the facility management cost as much as keeping the same type of information updated for at least 18years and as most 50years. Almost the same goes for a BIM-model. Only there the difference is that the cost of producing a BIM-model focused on as built drawings (A) in the facility management cost as much as keeping the same type of information updated for at least 22years and as most 58years. The other way that the information was valued shows that less than 25% of the information that can be found in the design and/or construction phase is worth circa 10% of the projecting fee.

本文採用新的隨機共同邊界方法，將其擴充至Fourier富伸縮成本函數，針對西歐地區十個國家的銀行業進行成本效率之分析，資料期間涵蓋1996年至2010年。不同於Battese et al. (2004), O’Donnell et al. (2008), and Huang et al. (2011a) 等人利用線性規劃法，本文應用隨機共同邊界法來估計技術缺口比率，進而做跨國間的效率比較，此法的特點在於技術缺口比率可以設為一些反映國家環境差異的外生變數之函數，而線性規劃法則無法做此設定。實證結果顯示採用線性規劃方法所估計出的技術缺口比率與共同成本效率會有低估的現象，技術缺口比率以及共同成本效率在1996年至2000年間逐步上升，此結果支持金融市場的整合可以增進效率，然而，到2000年之後則反轉向下，特別是在2007年至2010年次級房貸風暴時期明顯惡化。此外，進一步的分群進行分析的結果顯示，小規模、高獲利、或是較保守的銀行相對來說較具有效率。 / This paper aims to gain further insights into cost efficiency using the newly developed metafrontier approach under the framework of the Fourier flexible cost frontier for banking industries across 10 Western European nations during the period 1996-2010. Unlike Battese et al. (2004), O’Donnell et al. (2008), and Huang et al. (2011a), who suggest using programming techniques, the stochastic metafrontier is formulated and applied to obtain the technology gap ratio (TGR) for efficiency comparisons among countries. One salient feature of our method is that the TGR can be specified as a function of some exogenous variables that reflect group-specific environmental differences, while the mathematical programming is not allowed to do so. Empirical results show that both TGR and metafrontier cost efficiency (MCE) are underestimated by programming techniques. The TGR and MCE exhibit a gradual upward trend during 1996-2000 and then followed by a downward trend, especially after the subprime crisis of 2007-2010. This suggests that a more integrated financial market is able to improve banking efficiency. Smaller banks tend to be more cost efficient than larger ones. Higher profitable banks and more conservative banks are related to greater efficiency.

In this dissertation, I examine three major aspects of Germany's education system from an empirical public finance perspective. First, I analyse the effects of strong demographic shifts by considering how the East German Länder responded to the rather dramatic decline in the number of students in primary schools (1993-2002). The demographic shock is a consequence of collapsing birth rates after German Reunification. Previous results from the literature, which rely on data from rather stable demographic periods, suggest that public resources are incompletely adjusted to shrinking cohort size such that large reductions in the student population translate into important increases in spending per student and not in significant reductions of public resources allocated to education. Evidence from a panel of 5 East German Länder over the 1993-2006 period suggests, however, that resource adjustments have been considerable, especially in the years when student cohorts were actually decreasing. Adjustments have been less tight in the period when student numbers stagnated such that the 50% decrease in cohort size has translated into a 25% increase in the teacher/student-ratio. Second, I test whether partisan theory can help to explain the practise of ability-tracking in West Germany. The analysis starts from the empirical observation that in the German education system – where tracking is practised very early compared to other OECD countries – the correlation of parent’s education or income with their children’s track choices is very strong. Thus, students whose parents have a high-education background have significantly higher probabilities of attending a high-ability track. Partisan theory states that political parties when in office pursue the interests of their members and electoral constituencies. Political parties representing highly educated households should therefore support the practise of ability-tracking and advocate higher education spending on the tracks for good students. Evidence from a panel of 10 West German Länder over the 1979-2006 period suggests that German political parties support tracking if they represent high-education households and oppose tracking if they represent lower educated households. The results also suggest that political parties tend to allocate public resources towards the track in which party members’ or party electorate’s offspring is overrepresented. Third, research-oriented higher education in Germany is almost exclusively provided by the public sector, which highlights the importance of measuring university cost efficiency, because market exit and entry – which ensure efficient resource use in the private sector – virtually do not exist (see e.g., Hanushek, 2002). Based on a panel of 70 German public universities over the 1998-2003 period I provide evidence about the factors that benefit efficient resource use in the German higher education landscape. I analyse whether relatively liberal university regulation improves the cost efficiency of public universities as suggested in the literature (see Aghion et al., 2008). The results show that liberal university regulation indeed contributes to more efficient use of resources. Moreover, I find that a prosperous private economic environment seems to reduce university costs.

Over that past three decades, power sector reform has been a key pillar of policy agendas in more than half of the countries across the world. This thesis specifically concerns the empirical investigation of the economic performance of the international electricity generation industry. Drawing on the stochastic frontier analysis techniques, the thesis considers the influence of reform as exogenous factors in shifting frontier technology as well as shaping inefficiency function directly -determinants and heteroscedasticity variables. The first essay uses an extensive panel dataset of 91 countries over the period 1980 to 2010 to measure the impact of deregulation on efficiency and total productivity growth using stochastic input distance frontier (SIDF). Three specific issues are addressed in the first essay: (1) the relationship between deregulation and technical efficiency, (2) the extent of the rank correlation of the country intercepts with deregulation via their position on the frontier, (3) the trend of total factor productivity and its components. We establish a positive impact of deregulation on efficiency and some compelling evidence suggesting that the country intercepts equally account for the influence of deregulation aside efficiency. In particular, the technical efficiency index from the first paper reveals that most OECD European countries are consistently efficient. Building on this finding, the second essay investigates the performance in term of cost efficiency for electricity generation in OECD power sector while accounting for the impact of electricity market product regulatory indicators. Empirical models are developed for the cost function as a translog form and analysed using panel data of 25 countries during the period 1980 to 2009. We show that it is necessary to model latent country-specific heterogeneity in addition to time-varying inefficiency. The estimated economies of scale are adjusted to take account of the importance of the quasi-fixed capital input in determining cost behaviour, and adjusted economies of scale are verified for the OECD generation sector. The findings suggest there is a significant impact of electricity market regulatory indicators on cost. Cost complementarity between generation and emissions found to be significant, indicating the possibility of reducing emissions without necessarily reducing electricity generation. Finally, the third essay examines the performance of electric power industry s using consistent state-level electricity generation dataset for the US contiguous states from 1998-2014. We estimate stochastic production frontier for five competing models in order to identify the determinants of technical inefficiency and marginal effects. We find evidence of positive impacts of deregulation on technical efficiency across the models estimated. Our preferred model shows that deregulated states are more efficient in electricity generation than non-deregulated states. The result of the marginal effects shows that deregulation has a positive and monotonic effect on the technical efficiency.