8,790 research outputs found
Benchmarking some Portuguese S&T system research units: 2nd Edition
The increasing use of productivity and impact metrics for evaluation and
comparison, not only of individual researchers but also of institutions,
universities and even countries, has prompted the development of bibliometrics.
Currently, metrics are becoming widely accepted as an easy and balanced way to
assist the peer review and evaluation of scientists and/or research units,
provided they have adequate precision and recall.
This paper presents a benchmarking study of a selected list of representative
Portuguese research units, based on a fairly complete set of parameters:
bibliometric parameters, number of competitive projects and number of PhDs
produced. The study aimed at collecting productivity and impact data from the
selected research units in comparable conditions i.e., using objective metrics
based on public information, retrievable on-line and/or from official sources
and thus verifiable and repeatable. The study has thus focused on the activity
of the 2003-06 period, where such data was available from the latest official
evaluation.
The main advantage of our study was the application of automatic tools,
achieving relevant results at a reduced cost. Moreover, the results over the
selected units suggest that this kind of analyses will be very useful to
benchmark scientific productivity and impact, and assist peer review.Comment: 26 pages, 20 figures F. Couto, D. Faria, B. Tavares, P.
Gon\c{c}alves, and P. Verissimo, Benchmarking some portuguese S\&T system
research units: 2nd edition, DI/FCUL TR 13-03, Department of Informatics,
University of Lisbon, February 201
Efficiency of the Portuguese metros. is it different from other European metros?
This research analyses the performance of Portuguese metros in the European context. By means of two non-parametric benchmarking techniques, respectively performance indicators and data envelopment analysis, we compute the efficiency of 37 European metros. In order to provide statistical inference and robustness to our results we apply the recent technique of bootstrap. We also use the partial frontiers (order-m) to identify outliers and the double bootstrap procedure in a second stage methodology to take into account the influence of the operational environment. The results show important levels of inefficiency both in the Portuguese metros and in other European metros.Metro; Efficiency; Portugal; Performance Indicator; Data Envelopment Analysis
How far are Portuguese prisons inefficient? A non-parametric approach
In Portugal, as worldwide, especially in the past decades, crime has become an issue of increasing interest both for society and researchers. The global growth of criminality had several repercussions in the prison system. The most direct one was the overcrowding of prisons. This situation required a great amount of investment to increase the capacity of Portuguese prisons. Simultaneously, the value for money associated with the prisonsâ budget has turned itself more and more relevant. These circumstances together emphasize the importance of assessing the prisonsâ performance. This study measures the efficiency of Portuguese prison facilities by means of the non-parametric benchmarking approach of data envelopment analysis (DEA). However, due to the limitations of this technique, a bootstrap methodology is also applied in order to add more robustness to the results. Furthermore, a recent procedure is computed to evaluate congestion. The results show relevant levels of inefficiency in the Portuguese prison facilities, which represent an excess of several millions of Euros spent inadequately in this sector.Bootstrap; Congestion; DEA; Efficiency; Portugal; Prison facilities
Designing incenttives in local public utilities, an international comparison of the drinking water sector
Direct and indirect standardization procedures aim at comparing differences in health or differences in health care expenditures between subgroups of the population after controlling for observable morbidity differences. There is a close analogy between this problem and the issue of risk adjustment in health insurance. We analyse this analogy within the theoretical framework proposed in the recent social choice literature on responsibility and compensation. Traditional methods of risk adjustment are analogous to indirect standardization. They are equivalent to the so-called conditional egalitarian mechanism in social choice. In general, they do not remove incentives for risk selection, even if the effect of non-morbidity variables is correctly taken into account. A method of risk adjustment based on direct standardization (as proposed for Ireland) does remove the incentives for risk selection, but at the cost of violating a neutrality condition, stating that insurers should receive the same premium subsidy for all members of the same risk group. Direct standardization is equivalent to the egalitarianequivalent (or proportional) mechanism in social choice. The conflict between removing incentives for risk selection and neutrality is unavoidable if the health expenditure function is not additively separable in the morbidity and efficiency variables.
The Role of the European Inspections in the European Educational Space - Echoes from Portugal Regarding the Assessment of Schools
This paper is an approach to the construction of a European educational space (NĂłvoa & Lawn, 2002), which is due to new modes of regulation in education. The policy under consideration is the institutional evaluation of schools carried out by the Portuguese General Inspectorate of Education. The aim is to explore how concepts and policies get âcontaminatedâ by the European models (Barroso, 2003, 2006) and understanding how the regulation is outlined by the Inspectorates in some European countries, including Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. This paper owes to the phenomena associated to âtravelling policiesâ (Alexiadou & Jones, 2001), to âpolicy transferâ (Dolowitz et al, 2000; Stone, 2001), and to âpolicy borrowingâ (Halpin & Troyna, 1995; Steiner-Khamsi, 2004).
The authorsâ perspective on the influences of the international movement of policies is free from simplistic and deterministic logics (Lingard & Rizvi, 2000), advocating that the internationalization of ideas come along with national reflections on how these ideas are materialized (Popkewitz, 1996). At the local/regional levels, the regulation of educational systems can be characterized as a growing âmulti-regulation' - that comes from a growing number of sources and a variety of tools (assessment, monitoring and sharing best practices) - which mingle with modes that exist in a more traditional, bureaucratic regulation (Afonso & Costa, 2010). Thus, each country has its own overview about the structures, and effects of globalization, which do not occur simultaneously, nor in the same way in the different 'nation states' (Lingard & Rizvi, 2000)
Gaming in a benchmarking environment. A non-parametric analysis of benchmarking in the water sector
This paper discusses the use of benchmarking in general and its application to the drinking water sector. It systematizes the various classifications on performance measurement, discusses some of the pitfalls of benchmark studies and provides some examples of benchmarking in the water sector. After presenting in detail the institutional framework of the water sector of the Belgian region of Flanders (without benchmarking experiences), Wallonia (recently started a public benchmark) and the Netherlands (introduced already in 1997 a public benchmark), we non-parametrically measure the productivity gains by the use of a dynamic Malmquist index. The three regions, each at a different stage of the benchmarking circle, exhibit different performance trends. The âcarrotâ and the âstickâ of benchmarking seem to offer an effective incentive to trigger performance. In addition, the Malmquist decompositions provide some evidence on the âgamingâ of the stakeholders by the water utilities.Benchmarking; gaming; Malmquist decomposition; regulation; water sector
Analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costing
This paper investigates the use of customer profitability analysis (CPA) in four and five star hotels located in Algarve (Portugal). Traditional accounting systems have been criticized for focusing on product, service or department profitability, and not on customer profitability, thus failing to provide effective information to marketing-related decisions. Results are reported by operating departments, whilst marketing activities focus on customer market segments. Recognizing the growing emphasis on customer value creation, and to overcome the mismatch between the provision and use of information in hotels, CPA techniques have been suggested. Notwithstanding their benefits, namely a strategic focus, hotels still apply traditional techniques. A structured questionnaire collected through personal interviews showed that CPA is far from widespread in hotel management; instead, hotels accumulate costs in profit centers and in cost centers. None of the surveyed hotels had adopted activity based costing, despite this technique being viewed as the most appropriate to calculate individual customer profitability.Este artigo investiga a anålise de rendibilidade de clientes nos hotéis de
quatro e cinco estrelas do Algarve (Portugal). Os sistemas de
contabilidade tradicionais focalizam-se na rendibilidade dos produtos,
serviços ou departamentos não fornecendo informação eficaz para
decisÔes de marketing. Os resultados são relatados por departamentos,
sendo as atividades de marketing direcionadas para segmentos de
mercado. Reconhecendo o foco na criação de valor para o cliente e o
âdesencontroâ entre fornecimento e utilização de informação nos hotĂ©is,
a literatura tem sugerido técnicas de anålise de rendibilidade de clientes.
Apesar dos beneficios destas técnicas, nomeadamente o foco estratégico,
os hotéis utilizam técnicas tradicionais. Um questionårio estruturado
recolhido presencialmente revelou que a técnica CPA estå pouco
difundida no setor; os hotéis acumulam custos por centros de resultados
e por centros de custos. Nenhum adopta o custeio baseado nas
actividades, embora seja o método mais apropriado para atribuir custos a
clientes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Technical Efficiency, Regulation, and Heterogeneity in Japanese Airports
In this paper, the random stochastic frontier model is used to estimate the technical efficiency of Japanese airports taking into regulation and heterogeneity in the variables. The airports are ranked according to their productivity for the period 1987 to 2005 and homogenous and heterogeneous variables in the cost function are disentangled. Policy implication is derived.Japan; airports; efficiency; random frontier models; policy implications
The shadow economy in Portugal: An analysis with the MIMIC approach
The paper estimates the Portuguese Shadow Economy (SE) from 1977 to 2004 and tests the statistical relationships between the SE and other economic variables. In order to carry out the econometric analysis, a multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model with means and intercepts is applied. The main causes of the Portuguese SE are analyzed and economic policies to reduce it are suggested. An appraisal on the reliability of estimates and an alternative benchmark strategy for the MIMIC approach are proposed.shadow economy, MIIMIC model, Portugal
Technical Efficiency and Heterogeneity of Argentina Pension Funds
This paper examines the technical efficiency of Argentinean pension funds management companies using a random stochastic frontier model to rank the pension funds management companies, taking into account heterogeneity in the data. The empirical findings reveal that efficiency measures have a significant effect on pension funds efficiency. The implications for managers and policy makers are discussed.Argentina; pension funds; efficiency; stochastic frontier models.
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