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

A conditional full frontier modelling for analyzing environmental efficiency and economic growth

By applying conditional and unconditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) models along side with statistical inference using bootstrap techniques; this paper investigates the link between China’s carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) environmental efficiency and its economic growth (measured in GNI per capita) for the time period of 1965 to 2009. The results reveal that China’s changing consumption patterns has caused emissions levels to increase dramatically the last two decades providing clear evidence of a negative effect of China’s GNI per capita increase on its environmental efficiency.Environmental efficiency; Economic growth; Carbon dioxide emissions; China; Data envelopment analysis; Conditional efficiency; Bootstrap procedures

The competitiveness of nations and implications for human development

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.Human development should be the ultimate objective of human activity, its aim being healthier, longer, and fuller lives. Thus, if the competitiveness of a nation is properly managed, enhanced human welfare should be the key expected consequence. The research described here explores the relationship between the competitiveness of a nation and its implications for human development. For this purpose, 45 countries were evaluated initially using data envelopment analysis. In this stage, global competitiveness indicators were taken as input variables with human development index indicators as output variables. Subsequently, an artificial neural network analysis was conducted to identify those factors having the greatest impact on efficiency scores

Environmental Concerns in Water Pricing Policy:Â Â an Application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Water management is subject to conflicting economic and environmental objectives, and policymakers require a clear overview of the different outcomes derived from different water management options. The aim of this paper is to assess the efficiency of several irrigation water pricing policies with a special focus on their environmental implications. Irrigation is chosen here as a crucial sector of water use in large parts of southern Europe, where pressure on the resource is expected to increase due to climate change. A novel methodological approach for performing an ex ante analysis of alternative water pricing policies is proposed here, where environmental and technical performance are simultaneously considered. This approach takes place in two steps: the first is a simulation of alternative water policies through a mathematical programming model, and the second is the analysis of results by using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. A case study is applied in Puglia (southern Italy), where irrigation is the primary factor of strategic relevance for policymakers regarding water management. Our results show that on the one hand alternative pricing policies perform similarly in terms of technical efficiency and environmental efficiency. On the other hand, inefficiency appears to depend mainly on technical rather than environmental concerns. According to the assigned weights, through the DEA technique, the highest improvement for inefficient options may be obtained by better labour use. We conclude that the proposed approach may be a comprehensive and versatile framework for water policy analysis, offering a tool for supporting the decision-making process.Irrigation, Policy assessment, Efficiency, Data Envelopment Analysis, Linear Programming

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

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

International competitiveness power and human development of countries

Human development should be the ultimate objective of human activity and its aim should be healthier, longer, and fuller lives. It is expected that if the competitiveness of a country is suitably managed, human welfare will be enhanced as a consequence. The research described here seeks to explore the relationship between the competitiveness of a country and its use for human development. For this purpose, 45 countries were evaluated using data envelopment analysis, where the global competitiveness indicators are taken as input variables and the human development index indicators as output variables. A detailed analysis is also conducted for the emerging economies