DEA Based Yardstick Competition in Natural Resource Management

In this paper, we discuss the pros and cons of using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate and enhance the efficiency of natural resource management. The need for a multi-dimensional production frontier approach is sketched, along with examples from other regulated multi-output industries. Also, reviews of the basic properties of DEA and DEA based yardstick competition are provided. Finally, we discuss the use of DEA based yardstick to evaluate bids in multi-dimensional procurement auctions.Regulation; Incentives; Performance Evaluation; Auctions; Yardstick Competition; Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Yardstick Based Procurement Design In Natural Resource Management

This paper discuss the design of multidimensional yardstick based procurement auction. The suggested design combines Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based yardstick schemes with the multidimensional score auction. The principal select a single winner to perform a project, characterized by a multidimensional vector. The design is especially useful when there are uncertainty about the underlying common cost structure as well as the principal's valuation function. Potential applications in natural resource management is provided.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Do the opportunity costs of providing crop diversity differ between organic and conventional farms? The case of Finnish agriculture

The attractiveness of targeted environmental policies on farmlands depends crucially on the opportunity costs of the conservation programs. We use a crop diversity index as an indicator of environmental output to compare the efficiency of conventional and organic crop farms. Technical efficiency scores are estimated by applying data envelopment analysis to a sample of Finnish farms for the period 1994 – 2002. We also estimate shadow values, or the opportunity costs, of producing crop diversity. Our results show that there is variation in the shadow values between farms and the technology adopted. The findings provide a basis for designing cost-effective policy instruments such as auctions for conservation payments

A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach to the Assessment of Natural Parks’ Economic Efficiency and Sustainability. The Case of Italian National Parks

Wilderness protection is a growing necessity for modern societies, and this is particularly true for areas where population density is extremely high, as for example Europe. Conservation, however, implies very high opportunity costs. It is thus crucial to create incentives to efficient management practices, to promote benchmarking and to improve conservation management. In the present paper we propose a methodology based on Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA, a non parametric benchmarking technique specifically developed to assess the relative efficiency of decision-making units. In particular, the objective of the discussed methodology is to assess the relative efficiency of the management units of the protected area and to indicate how it could be improved, by providing a set of guidelines. The main advantage of this methodology is that it allows to assess the efficiency of natural parks’ management not only internally (comparing the performance of the park to itself in time) but also by external benchmarking, thus providing new and different perspectives on potential improvements. Although the proposed methodology is fairly general, we have applied it to the context of Italian National Parks in order to produce a representative case study. Specifically, the choice of adequate cost and benefit indicators is a very important and delicate phase of any benchmark analysis. For this purpose, a questionnaire was used to investigate the opinions of Italian National Parks managers and stakeholders and to define the relevant indicators for the analysis. Finally, relevant policy implications for the case study are given.Data envelopment analysis, Natural park management

Short Communication: DEA based auctions

In this paper we introduce a simulation framework which we use to numerically evaluate the Hybrid DEA - Second Score Auction. In a procurement setting, the winner of the Hybrid auction by design receives payment at the most equal to the second score auction. It is therefore superior to the traditional second score scheme from the point of view of a principal interested in acquiring an item at the minimum price without losing in quality. For a set of parameters we quantify the size of the improvements. We show in particular that the improvement depends intimately on the regularity imposed on the underlying cost function. In the least structured case of a variable returns to scale technology, the hybrid auction only improved the outcome for a small percentage of cases. However, for those few cases the improvement introduced by the hybrid auction is signicant. For other technologies with constant returns to scale, the gains are considerably higher and payments are lowered in a large percentage of cases. In the simulations, we furthermore calculate the eect of the number of the participating agents, the concavity of the principal value functions, and the number of quality dimensions

Short Communication: DEA based auctions

In this paper we introduce a simulation framework which we use to numerically evaluate the Hybrid DEA - Second Score Auction. In a procurement setting, the winner of the Hybrid auction by design receives payment at the most equal to the second score auction. It is therefore superior to the traditional second score scheme from the point of view of a principal interested in acquiring an item at the minimum price without losing in quality. For a set of parameters we quantify the size of the improvements. We show in particular that the improvement depends intimately on the regularity imposed on the underlying cost function. In the least structured case of a variable returns to scale technology, the hybrid auction only improved the outcome for a small percentage of cases. However, for those few cases the improvement introduced by the hybrid auction is signicant. For other technologies with constant returns to scale, the gains are considerably higher and payments are lowered in a large percentage of cases. In the simulations, we furthermore calculate the eect of the number of the participating agents, the concavity of the principal value functions, and the number of quality dimensions

Short Communication: DEA based auctions

In this paper we introduce a simulation framework which we use to numerically evaluate the Hybrid DEA - Second Score Auction. In a procurement setting, the winner of the Hybrid auction by design receives payment at the most equal to the second score auction. It is therefore superior to the traditional second score scheme from the point of view of a principal interested in acquiring an item at the minimum price without losing in quality. For a set of parameters we quantify the size of the improvements. We show in particular that the improvement depends intimately on the regularity imposed on the underlying cost function. In the least structured case of a variable returns to scale technology, the hybrid auction only improved the outcome for a small percentage of cases. However, for those few cases the improvement introduced by the hybrid auction is signicant. For other technologies with constant returns to scale, the gains are considerably higher and payments are lowered in a large percentage of cases. In the simulations, we furthermore calculate the eect of the number of the participating agents, the concavity of the principal value functions, and the number of quality dimensions

Using Data Envelopment Analysis to Evaluate Environmentally Conscious Tourism Management

This paper discusses a methodology to assess the performances of tourism management of local governments when economic and environmental aspects are considered as equally relevant. In particular, the focus is on the comparison and efficiency assessment of Italian municipalities located on the costal areas. In order to assess the efficiency status of the considered management units, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a methodology for evaluating the relative efficiency of decision making units, is applied. The efficiency index measure used in DEA analysis accounts for both environmental and economic features correlated to the tourism industry. Further, potential managerial improvements for those areas resulting far from the efficiency frontier can be investigated.Data envelopment analysis, Sustainable tourism

Using Data Envelopment Analysis to Assess the Relative Efficiency of Different Climate Policy Portfolios

Within the political, scientific and economic debate on climate change, the process of evaluating climate policies ex-ante, during and/or ex-post their lifetime, is receiving increasing attention from international institutions and organisations. The task becomes particularly challenging when the aim is to evaluate strategies or policies from a sustainability perspective. The three pillars of sustainability should then be jointly considered in the evaluation process, thus enabling a comparison of the social, the environmental and the economic dimensions of the policy’s impact. This is commonly done in a qualitative manner and is often based on subjective procedures. The present paper discusses a data-based, quantitative methodology to assess the relative performances of different climate policies, when long term economic, social and environmental impacts of the policy are considered. The methodology computes competitive advantages as well as relative efficiencies of climate policies and is here presented through an application to a sample of eleven global climate policies, considered as plausible for the near future. The proposed procedure is based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a technique commonly employed in evaluating the relative efficiency of a set of decision making units. We consider here two possible applications of DEA. In the first, DEA is applied coupled with Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) in order to evaluate the comparative advantages of policies when accounting for social and environmental impacts, as well as net economic benefits. In the second, DEA is applied to compute a relative efficiency score, which accounts for environmental and social benefits and costs interpreted as outputs and inputs. Although the choice of the model used to simulate future economic and environmental implications of each policy (in the present paper we use the FEEM RICE model), as well as the choice of indicators for costs and benefits, represent both arbitrary decisions, the methodology presented is shown to represent a practical tool to be flexibly adopted by decision makers in the phase of policy design.Climate, Policy, Valuation, Data envelopment analysis, Sustainability