Assessing Judicial Efficiency of Egyptian First Instance Courts: A DEA Analysis

Egypt started a recent judicial reform program in 2007, which can be considered the first ever since the establishment of the National Egyptian Judicial System in 1952. It focuses mainly on solving organizational problems within First Instance Courts (FIC), as they form the active cell of the Egyptian judicial system. However the efficiency of FICs is still doubtable to a large extent. This paper provides for the first time an efficiency analysis of 22 FICs in Egypt using the technique of Data Envelop Analysis (DEA). The main strength of this study is to consider the number of computers per court, as none of the previous papers on court efficiency has included a capital variable when defining their court production function before. Our results show that there are no significant differences observed in terms of management efficiency between the civil and criminal FICs, however criminal FICs districts are superior with respect to their corresponding civil districts in terms of program efficiency.Egyptian Judicial System; Efficiency; Data envelopment analysis

Some Determinants of Intermediate Local Governments' Spending Efficiency: The Case of French Départements

Efforts undertaken by France to restructure the allocation of governmental competencies increased the importance of subnational governments by transferring additional tasks. This paper analyzes the efficiency of public spending on an intermediate government level for a sample of 96 départements in metropolitan France in 2008. Spending efficiency is measured using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Results indicate significant room for improvements and detect spending inefficiencies averaging between 10 and 22 percent, depending on model specification. To explain efficiency, a bootstrapped truncated regression, following Simar and Wilson (2007), is applied. The second-stage regression shows that efficiency is also determined by exogenous factors and identifies the distance to the national capital, inhabitants' income and the share of inhabitants of an age over 65 as significant determinants of efficiency.Intermediate government spending efficiency, nonparametric efficiency analysis, bootstrapped truncated regression

Accounting for slacks to measure dynamic inefficiency in data envelopment analysis

Slacks that arise when nonparametrically constructing technologies are relevant because they can be an important source of technical inefficiency. This paper extends the measurement of dynamic inefficiency in the full input–output space in the adjustment-cost theory framework to account for slacks. In particular, the paper develops the dynamic weighted additive model in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and shows its main properties. Additionally, the approach is illustrated by a real application. The empirical applica- tion concerns data on large firms in the dairy-manufacturing industry in the main dairy-producing coun- tries in the European Union (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic) from 2005 to 2012. The results show the differences in average dynamic inefficiency between the analyzed countries. The findings also indicate that, not surprisingly, firms are, on average, closer to their own-country fron- tier than the common frontier comprising all firms, regardless of country. Greater inefficiency was also found, on average, in the new approach when related to the dynamic framework that does not account for slacksWe thank three anonymous referees for providing constructive comments and help in improving the contents and presentation of this paper. Additionally, the authors appreciate the financial support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness (Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad), the State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigacion) and the European Regional Development Fund (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional) under grant MTM2016-79765-P (AEI/FEDER, UE)

Business analytics adoption and technological intensity: An efficiency analysis

Despite the overwhelming popularity of business analytics (BA) as an evidence-based decision support mechanism, the impact of its adoption on organizational performance has received scant attention from the research community. This study aims to unfold the adoption efficiencies of BA and its applications by proposing a data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology to holistically assess the underlying factors with respect to the level of achievement regarding organizational performance, operational performance, and financial performance. Furthermore, the study unveils the firm-level and sectoral-level discrepancies in BA adoption efficiency in different industry settings. Relying on survey data obtained from 204 executives in various industries, this study provides empirical support for the cross-industry differences in BA adoption efficiencies. The results show that the firms in low-tech industries seem to achieve the highest efficiency from adopting BA regarding its influence on firm performance

The Impact of Port Technical Efficiency on Mediterranean Container Port Competitiveness

Port efficiency is a significant element that stimulates port competitiveness and enhances regional development. With increasing international maritime traffic and changing technology in the maritime transport sector, containerisation and enhanced logistic activities, infrastructure might be one of the main determining factors of port competition (Merk & Dang, 2012). Due to the increasing container traffic and the high quality of service required by the shipping lines, Mediterranean container ports are being compelled to enhance port efficiency to improve comparative advantages that will increase cargo traffic and satisfy the customers’ requirements. The Mediterranean Sea is a link point between Europe, Africa and Asia. This research aims to examine the impact of ports' technical efficiency on the improvement of Mediterranean container ports’ competitiveness. The research analyses the competitiveness and the relative efficiency of the top 22 container ports in the Mediterranean basin using a cross-section, panel data and window analysis application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the period between 1998 and 2012. The selected 15 year period enables the analysis of Mediterranean container port market dynamics and the benchmarking of the technical efficiency of the selected ports for three consecutive market cycles. This research can be classified as quantitative analytical research. The research follows the concept of the Industrial Organization (IO) and the Structuralism (Harvard school) methodology that analyses the market Structures, Conduct and Performance (SCP) of market players. The study conducts a simultaneous three-stage procedure: in the first stage, the competitiveness of the main container ports in the Mediterranean is analysed through the study of market structure and conduct. Market structure is assessed through measuring and analysing market concentration by using four different methods. These methods are: the K-Firm concentration ratio (K-CR), Hirshman-Herfindahl Index (HHI), the Gini coefficient (GC) and the generalized entropy index. Boston Consultant Group (BCG) matrix is also used to visualize the dynamics between ports in the defined market and assess the ports' competitive position. Market conduct is analysed using shift-share analysis (SSA) to get a thorough understanding of the issue of port traffic development. In the second stage, market performance is analysed through the use of the non-parametric models of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) which estimates the relative efficiency scores and ranking seaports according to their efficiency. Five DEA models are adopted for comparative purpose, the DEA- CCR, DEA-BCC, the Super-Efficiency (A&P, 1993), the sensitivity analysis and slack variable analysis models. In the third stage, to examine the impact of port efficiency on port competitiveness, a number of hypotheses are examined through the use of parametric correlation coefficients (Spearman’s rank order) and Simar and Wilson (2007) procedure to bootstrap the DEA scores with a truncated regression. Using this approach enables more reliable evidence compared to previous studies analysing the efficiency of seaports. The main findings demonstrate that the recent deconcentration tendency of the Mediterranean container port market is due to the increased number of market players which will in turn reshape the market structure, change the container port hierarchy and intensify the competition between ports as the market shifts from oligopoly to pure competition. The research findings also reveal the existence of inefficiency pertaining to the management of container ports in the region, since the total technical efficiency is found to be below 50% on average. This relatively limited technical efficiency of the Mediterranean container ports indicates the need for appropriate capital investments for ports’ infra/superstructure. In particular, those ports whose efficiency is not favoured by some factors such as size, geographical position and socio-economic conditions of the region in which they are located, must adopt suitable reform strategies to promptly improve their efficiency and competitive position. What differentiates this work from previous studies on the subject is that both cross-sectional and panel data have been collected and analysed at the level of individual container ports in the Mediterranean. The study is based on a wide range of methodologies, both parametric and non-parametric, that have ensured the validity of the empirical examination that has been undertaken and the results obtained. The research analysed the Mediterranean container ports competitiveness, benchmarked and ranked their efficiency by considering the Mediterranean in its totality, including South Europe, Middle East and North Africa. The study puts forward a way to assess container port efficiency based on simple, yet validated and meaningful physical efficiency measures

Assessing the productivity of selective container terminals in Africa using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to assess the efficiency of 15 container terminals in Africa. The models proposed by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (1978) and Banker, Charnes and Cooper (1984) are used to determine and rank the efficiencies of the container terminals for 2013 and 2014. The results show that selected South African container terminals can improve on their operations relative to some of their neighbours to the North. Bootstrapping methods are used to investigate and clarify the results. The Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) model is used to track and explain changes in efficiency over the period of assessment

Assessing the productivity of selective container terminals in Africa using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to assess the efficiency of 15 container terminals in Africa. The models proposed by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (1978) and Banker, Charnes and Cooper (1984) are used to determine and rank the efficiencies of the container terminals for 2013 and 2014. The results show that selected South African container terminals can improve on their operations relative to some of their neighbours to the North. Bootstrapping methods are used to investigate and clarify the results. The Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) model is used to track and explain changes in efficiency over the period of assessment