Assessing the Relative Performance of University Departments: Teaching vs. Research

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is known as a non-parametric method to evaluate the relative efficiencies of a set of homogenous decision-making units (DMUs) (i.e., banking, health, education, etc.) that use multiple inputs to produce multiple outputs. DEA models also have applications for universities or specifically, departments of a university. In practice, determining input and output measures may be based on the available data. However, lack of defining an important measure or use of invalid data may mislead the decision maker. Therefore, this study aims to assess the affect of missing values such as by discarding of outputs on DMU’s efficiency values. The up-to-date data for the departments of an engineering faculty are considered and their performances are presented based on teaching and research oriented measures.Data Envelopment Analysis, Higher Education, University Departments, Teaching, Research

A Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Bi-Criteria Warehouse Location Problem

The uncapacitated warehouse location problem (UWLP) is one of the widely studied discrete location problems, in which the nodes (customers) are connected to a number (w) of warehouses in such a way that the total cost, yields from the dissimilarities (distances) and from the fixed costs of the warehouses is minimized. Despite w is considered as fixed integer number, the UWLP is NP-hard. If the UWLP has two or more objective functions and w is an integer variable, the UWLP becomes more complex. Large size of this kind of complex problems can be solved by using heuristic algorithms or artificial intelligent techniques. It’s shown that Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) which is one of the technique of artificial intelligent techniques, has achieved a notable success for continuous optimization, however, PSO implementations and applications for combinatorial optimization are still active research area that to the best of our knowledge fewer studies have been carried out on this topic. In this study, the bi-criteria UWLP of minimizing the total distance and total opening cost of warehouses. is presented and it’s shown that promising results are obtained.Warehouse Location Problem, Particle Swarm Optimization, Discrete Location Problems, Bi-criteria.

A Pre-Investigation on the Saving Behaviour of the European Area: A Robust Classification on This Issue

Saving behaviours of countries are shaped with the effects of the some elements as social policies, age structures, cultures, and so forth. Inherently these elements change country to country. Since the possible European countries saving behaviour variation can be seen as a striking issue, the paper aims to explore and classify the different structured countries. For the purpose the classification process is based on Modigliani’s life-cycle model and performed with robust approach.Life-cycle savings model, outlying European countries for saving structure comparison, robust outlier detection.

Service Quality Of University Library: A Survey Amongst Students At Osmangazi University And Anadolu University

Student satisfaction is an important measure of service quality in libraries. Students’ perceptions about libraries seem to have been largely ignored by library management in developing countries. The assessment of service quality provides an important feedback for libraries to assess and improve its service to its users. The aim of this study is to develop a reliable and valid instrument measure student satisfaction in Osmangazi University Library and Anadolu University Library. A questionnaire to measure the service quality of university libraries was used and a total of 400 students at two university libraries were interviewed. Factor analysis was utilized to determine the factor structure. The instrument of the student satisfaction developed in this study provides insights to the researches who study the improvement of student satisfaction with service quality of university libraries and decision markers.Library, Satisfaction, Servqual, Service Quality, Perception, Expectation, Factor Analysis, Regression Analysis

An Empirical Model for the Turkish Trade Balance: New Evidence from ARDL Bounds Testing Analyses

In this paper, the determinants of the Turkish trade balance are tried to be analyzed in an empirical modelling approach. For this purpose, the contemporaneous ARDL-based bounds testing has been used to examine the existence of a long run co-integration relationship between the variables of our interest. The estimation results indicate that real exchange rate depreciations improves the trade balance in a strong and significant way, that domestic real income affects the trade balance negatively, and that trade balance is strongly improved due to an increase in foreign real income. No significant effect of crude oil prices can be observed on trade balance. The error correction modeling gives results in line with the long run findings of the co-integration analysis.Trade Balance, ARDL Bounds Testing Approach, Turkish Economy

EXCHANGE RATE DETERMINATION OF TL/US$:A CO-INTEGRATION APPROACH

In our paper, we investigate exchange rate determination mechanism of TL/US$ for the 1987Q1-2006Q4 period using quarterly observations. Following a large literature review we first highlight various approaches explaining monetary model exchange rate determination based on economic fundamentals and then construct an empirical model revealing both long-run stationary relationships and short-run dynamic adjustment processes of the nominal exchange rate for the Turkish economy. Our findings employing multivariate Johansen-Juselius type co-integrating approach indicate that nominal exchange rate is co-integrated with the fundamentals suggested by economics theory. Besides, short-run deviations from the fundamental-based equilibrium course of the nominal exchange rate have permanent effects on the long-run equilibrium exchange rate and so have been stemmed from the existence of some form of hysteresis effects dominated in the nominal exchange rate.Exchange Rates; Sticky Price Monetary Model; Flexible Price Monetary; Economic Fundamentals; Randow Walk; Co-integration; Hysteresis; Turkish Economy

MULTIRANK COINTEGRATION ANALYSIS OF TURKISH M1 MONEY DEMAND (1987Q1-2006Q3)

In our paper, we employ multivariate cointegration analysis to the Turkish M1 narrow money demand. The ex-post estimation results reveal that it is possible to identify a money demand vector in the cointegrating space as a priori hypothesized through economics theory. But some structural break points and parameter instabilities coincided with post-1994 economic crisis period and 2000-stabilization program cast some doubt upon whether the estimated model can represent all the period under investigation. Besides, a second potential vector found in the long-run variable space has been decomposed to reconcile it with excess aggregate demand reacting to the domestic inflation.Money Demand, Aggregate Demand, Turkish Economy, Cointegration,Identification, Super Exogeneity, Structural Breaks, Economic Policy

Monetary Transmission Mechanism In An Open Economy Framework: The Case Of Turkey

Monetary transmission mechanism (MTM) is an illuminating policy tool in appreciating the monetary policy implementations by policy makers upon various nominal and real factors of interest in the eyes of economic agents. Especially in an open economy such as Turkish economy highly exposed to the effects of capital flows on domestic business cycles with a liberalised capital account, control over policy aggregates may be difficult since many other economic policy implementations would be of great consequence on some other policy targets on macroeconomic income generation process and in providing price stability and external balance. In this respect, in our paper we aim to estimate the MTM for the Turkish economy. Our ex-post estimates for the period 1992-2004 using contemporaneous vector autoregression models such as impulse response analysis indicate that weakly exogeneous capital inflows appreciate the real effective exchange rate, and in turn lower the real interest rates and domestic inflation while increasing both the real output growth and also the stock exchange index considering an asset-price channel for the latter and vice versa. We find some significant effects of the courses of capital flows and real effective exchange rate on monetary policy variable in the transmission mechanism, and such a case may impose an endogeneous characteristic on the policy variable given also that both domestic real interest structure is highly sensible to the monetary policy and that monetary policy is subject to the structural breaks in the sense of so-called Lucas’ critique of contemporaneous economics.Monetary Transmission Mechanism, Turkish Economy, Capital Flows, Real Exchange Rate, Real Interest Rate, Inflation, Income Growth, Stock Exchange, Price Puzzle

Determinants of Intra-Industry Trade in Final Goods and Intermediate Goods between Turkey and Selected OECD Countries

The increased importance of fragmentation in world trade has created an interest among trade economists to explain the determinants of trade in intermediate goods. A significant portion of trade in intermediates between Turkey and OECD countries takes the form of intra-industry (IIT). Country-specific and industry-specific hypotheses drawn from the IIT literature are put forward to investigate the IIT in final and intermediates between Turkey and other selected OECD countries for the period of 1985-2000. To test these hypotheses, we have utilized three-way fixed effects and random effects models. The results indicate that the determinants of IIT for final goods are not much different from those for intermediate goods. Finally, the results suggest that country-specific rather than industry-specific variables are the central determinants of IIT in final and intermediate goods between Turkey and OECD.Fragmentation, Outsourcing, Final Goods, Intermediate Goods, Intra-Industry Trade, Panel Econometrics, OECD, Turkey

Forecasting The Exchange Rate Series With Ann: The Case Of Turkey

As it is possible to model both linear and nonlinear structures in time series by using Artificial Neural Network (ANN), it is suitable to apply this method to the chaotic series having nonlinear component. Therefore, in this study, we propose to employ ANN method for high volatility Turkish TL/US dollar exchange rate series and the results show that ANN method has the best forecasting accuracy with respect to time series models, such as seasonal ARIMA and ARCH models. The suggestions about the details of the usage of ANN method are also made for the exchange rate of Turkey.Activation function, ARIMA, ARCH, Artificial neural network, Chaotic series, Exchange rate, Forecasting, Time series