Regional environmental efficiency and economic growth: NUTS2 evidence from Germany, France and the UK

This paper by applying nonparametric techniques measures spatial environmental heterogeneities of 98 regions from Germany, France and the UK. Specifically environmental performance indexes are constructed for the 98 regions (NUTS 2 level) identifying their ability to produce higher growth rates and reduce pollution (in the form of municipal waste) generated from regional economic activity. By applying conditional stochastic kernels and local constant estimators it investigates the regional economic activity – environmental quality relationship. The results indicate several spatial environmental heterogeneities among the examined regions. It appears that regions with higher GDP per capita levels tend to have higher environmental performance.Regional environmental efficiency; directional distance function; conditional stochastic kernel; nonparametric regression

Does the Kyoto Protocol Agreement matters? An environmental efficiency analysis

This paper uses both conditional and unconditional Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models in order to determine different environmental efficiency levels for a sample of 110 countries in 2007. In order to capture the effect of countries compliance with the Kyoto Protocol Agreement (KPA), we condition the years since a country has signed the agreement until 2007. Particularly, various DEA models have been applied alongside with bootstrap techniques in order to determine the effect of Kyoto protocol agreement on countries’ environmental efficiencies. The study illustrates how the recent developments in efficiency analysis and statistical inference can be applied when evaluating environmental performance issues. The results indicate that the first six years after countries signed the Kyoto protocol agreement have a positive effect on their environmental efficiencies. However after that period it appears that countries avoid complying with the actions imposed by the agreement which in turn has an immediate negative effect on their environmental efficiencies.Environmental efficiency; Kyoto protocol agreement; Conditional full frontiers; Statistical inference; DEA

Efficiency in Brazilian Refineries Under Different DEA Technologies

This paper aims to assess the environmental efficiency of refineries in the public sector with emphasis on generated effluents and water consumption in the production process. In order to conduct this research, the addressed method was quantitative with a qualitative approach to the environmental aspects of controllable and uncontrollable variables implemented in two classical models of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), considering only desirable outputs and two DEA models which include undesirable outputs. The sample consists of ten refineries considering the following as input variables: idleness percentage of the operating plant, the amount of water consumed; and the following as outputs: refinery production volume and generated effluents, desirable and undesirable, respectively, besides the uncontrollable variable, the refinery age. With the comparison result between the models, we observed the clear importance of the environmental variable for a more realistic analysis of the production process

A critical review of the main methods to treat undesirable outputs in DEA

The treatment of undesirable outputs in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has received great research attention recently. As such and as are presented in this work, there are four possible options to deal with those: first ignoring them from the production function; second treating them as regular inputs; third treating them as normal outputs and fourth performing necessary transformations to take them into account. Also new model propositions for their treatment are being presented. Each method brings with it, benefits and drawbacks which each researcher should take into account at every stage of their research and assess which method is more appropriate to be used

A conditional directional distance function approach for measuring regional environmental efficiency: Evidence from the UK regions

This paper, by using conditional directional distance functions as introduced by Simar and Vanhems [J. Econometrics 166 (2012) 342-354] modifies the model by Färe and Grosskopf [Eur. J. Operat. Res. 157 (2004) 242-245], examines the link between regional environmental efficiency and economic growth. The proposed model using conditional directional distance functions incorporates the effect of regional economic growth on regions’ environmental efficiency levels. The results from the UK regional data reveal that economic growth has a negative effect on regions’ environmental performance up to a certain GDP per capita level, where after that point the effect becomes positive. This indicates the existence of a Kuznets type relationship between the UK regions’ environmental performance and economic growth

A critical review of the main methods to treat undesirable outputs in DEA

The treatment of undesirable outputs in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has received great research attention recently. As such and as are presented in this work, there are four possible options to deal with those: first ignoring them from the production function; second treating them as regular inputs; third treating them as normal outputs and fourth performing necessary transformations to take them into account. Also new model propositions for their treatment are being presented. Each method brings with it, benefits and drawbacks which each researcher should take into account at every stage of their research and assess which method is more appropriate to be used

Regional environmental efficiency in waste generation

This paper employs Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to consider waste generation at a regional level in the European Union (EU). By doing so both good and bad outputs are taken into account and different frameworks are designed. Five parameters (waste generation, employment rate, capital formation, GDP and population density) are used for 172 EU regions and for the years 2009, 2011 and 2013. In doing so four frameworks have been designed with different inputs and outputs each time. The results show the more efficient EU regions according to each framework, but it should be noted that results from different frameworks should not be compared to each other. Overall results suggest that the highest performers are regions in Belgium, Italy, Portugal and the UK. Finally the efficiency results from DEA were reviewed against the treatment options employed in the relevant regions. Our findings show that although a country might be efficient according to DEA and by taking many factors into consideration, it is not necessary that regions within a country use sustainable waste treatment options as it is essential to account for trade and shipment of waste between regions and countries as well

Assessment of national waste generation in EU Member States’ efficiency

Waste generation and management may be considered as either a by-product of economic actions or even used as input to economic activity like energy recovery. Every country produces different amounts of municipal solid waste (MSW) and with different composition. This paper deals with the efficiency of 28 EU Member States for the years 2008, 2010 and 2012 by employing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and by using eight parameters, namely waste generation, employment rate, capital formation, GDP, population density and for the first time SOx, NOx and GHG emissions for the relevant countries. With these parameters six environmental production frameworks have been designed each with different inputs and outputs. The empirical analysis shows that overall the more efficient countries according to all frameworks include Belgium, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. These results were then reviewed against the recycling rate of each country for the examined time periods. The recycling rate actually depicts the DEA results, namely more efficient countries seem to have a higher recycling rate too. Moreover the DEA efficiency results were contrasted to the overall treatment options used in the countries under consideration. Overall it is noticed that countries employing all four treatment options with high use of more sustainable ones and decrease in the use of landfill are the ones that also proved to be efficient according to DEA