Productivity Changes and Risk Management in Indonesian Banking: An Application of a New Approach to Constructing Malmquist Indices

In this study, we utilise a new, non-parametric efficiency measurement approach which combines the semi-oriented radial measure data envelopment analysis (SORM-SBM-DEA) approach for dealing with negative data (Emrouznejad et al., 2010) with the slacks-based efficiency measures of Tone (2001, 2002) to analyse productivity changes for Indonesian banks over the period Quarter I 2003 to Quarter II 2007. Having constructed the Malmquist indices, using data provided by Bank Indonesia (the Indonesian central bank), for the banking industry and different bank types (i.e., listed and Islamic) and groupings, we then decomposed the industry’s Malmquist into its technical efficiency change and frontier shift components. Finally, we analysed the banks’ risk management performance, using Simar and Wilson’s (2007) truncated regression approach, before assessing its impact on productivity growth. The first part of the Malmquist analysis showed that average productivity changes for the Indonesian banking industry tended to be driven, over the sample period, by technological progress rather than by frontier shift, although a relatively stable pattern was exhibited for most of the period. However, at the beginning of the considered period, state-owned and foreign banks, as well as Islamic banks, exhibited volatile productivity movements, mainly caused by shifts in the technological frontier. With respect to the risk management analysis, most of the balance sheet variables were shown to have had the expected impact on risk management efficiency. While the risk management decomposition of technical efficiency change and frontier risk components demonstrated that, by the end of the sample period, the change in risk management efficiency and risk management effects had the same dynamic pattern, resulting in the analogous dynamics for technical efficiency changes. Therefore, a strategy based on the gradual adoption of newer technology, with a particular focus on internal risk management enhancement, seems to offer the highest potential for boosting the productivity of the financial intermediary operations of Indonesian banks.Indonesian Finance and Banking; Productivity; Efficiency.

Lowland farming system inefficiency in Benin (West Africa):

This paper uses a directional distance function and a single truncated bootstrap approach to investigate inefficiency of lowland farming systems in the Benin Republic. First, we employed a dual approach to estimate and decompose short-run profit inefficiency of each farming system into pure technical, allocative and scale inefficiency and also into input and output inefficiency. Second, an econometric analysis of factors affecting the inefficiency was generated using a single truncated bootstrap procedure to improve inefficiency analysis statistically and obtain consistent estimates. In the short run, scale, allocative and output inefficiency were found to be the main sources of inefficiency. Based on inefficiency results, the inefficiency of lowland farming systems is the most diverse. Compared to a vegetable farming system, technical inefficiency is significantly higher if farmers switch to a rice farming system. Scale, allocative, output, and input inefficiency are significantly lower with an integrated ricevegetable farming system and there was high prevalence of increasing returns to scale in the integrated rice-vegetable farming system. Water control and lowland farming systems are complements and play a significant role in the level of inefficiency. Input inefficiency shows the difficulty that the producers face in adjusting the quality and quantity of seeds and fertilizers. The paper provides empirical support for efforts to promote an integrated rice-vegetable farming system in West Africa lowlands to increase food security. Keywords Lowlands . Inefficiency . Bootstrap . Beni

Astro2020 Project White Paper: The Cosmic Accelerometer

We propose an experiment, the Cosmic Accelerometer, designed to yield velocity precision of $\leq 1$ cm/s with measurement stability over years to decades. The first-phase Cosmic Accelerometer, which is at the scale of the Astro2020 Small programs, will be ideal for precision radial velocity measurements of terrestrial exoplanets in the Habitable Zone of Sun-like stars. At the same time, this experiment will serve as the technical pathfinder and facility core for a second-phase larger facility at the Medium scale, which can provide a significant detection of cosmological redshift drift on a 6-year timescale. This larger facility will naturally provide further detection/study of Earth twin planet systems as part of its external calibration process. This experiment is fundamentally enabled by a novel low-cost telescope technology called PolyOculus, which harnesses recent advances in commercial off the shelf equipment (telescopes, CCD cameras, and control computers) combined with a novel optical architecture to produce telescope collecting areas equivalent to standard telescopes with large mirror diameters. Combining a PolyOculus array with an actively-stabilized high-precision radial velocity spectrograph provides a unique facility with novel calibration features to achieve the performance requirements for the Cosmic Accelerometer

A review of gear housing dynamics and acoustics literature

A review of the available literature on gear housing vibration and noise reduction is presented. Analytical and experimental methodologies used for bearing dynamics, housing vibration and noise, mounts and suspensions, and the overall geared and housing system are discussed. Typical design guidelines as outlined by various investigators are given

Radial Velocity Prospects Current and Future: A White Paper Report prepared by the Study Analysis Group 8 for the Exoplanet Program Analysis Group (ExoPAG)

[Abridged] The Study Analysis Group 8 of the NASA Exoplanet Analysis Group was convened to assess the current capabilities and the future potential of the precise radial velocity (PRV) method to advance the NASA goal to "search for planetary bodies and Earth-like planets in orbit around other stars.: (U.S. National Space Policy, June 28, 2010). PRVs complement other exoplanet detection methods, for example offering a direct path to obtaining the bulk density and thus the structure and composition of transiting exoplanets. Our analysis builds upon previous community input, including the ExoPlanet Community Report chapter on radial velocities in 2008, the 2010 Decadal Survey of Astronomy, the Penn State Precise Radial Velocities Workshop response to the Decadal Survey in 2010, and the NSF Portfolio Review in 2012. The radial-velocity detection of exoplanets is strongly endorsed by both the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey "New Worlds, New Horizons" and the NSF Portfolio Review, and the community has recommended robust investment in PRVs. The demands on telescope time for the above mission support, especially for systems of small planets, will exceed the number of nights available using instruments now in operation by a factor of at least several for TESS alone. Pushing down towards true Earth twins will require more photons (i.e. larger telescopes), more stable spectrographs than are currently available, better calibration, and better correction for stellar jitter. We outline four hypothetical situations for PRV work necessary to meet NASA mission exoplanet science objectives.Comment: ExoPAG SAG 8 final report, 112 pages, fixed author name onl

SOPHIE+: First results of an octagonal-section fiber for high-precision radial velocity measurements

High-precision spectrographs play a key role in exoplanet searches and Doppler asteroseismology using the radial velocity technique. The 1 m/s level of precision requires very high stability and uniformity of the illumination of the spectrograph. In fiber-fed spectrographs such as SOPHIE, the fiber-link scrambling properties are one of the main conditions for high precision. To significantly improve the radial velocity precision of the SOPHIE spectrograph, which was limited to 5-6 m/s, we implemented a piece of octagonal-section fiber in the fiber link. We present here the scientific validation of the upgrade of this instrument, demonstrating a real improvement. The upgraded instrument, renamed SOPHIE+, reaches radial velocity precision in the range of 1-2 m/s. It is now fully efficient for the detection of low-mass exoplanets down to 5-10 Earth mass and for the identification of acoustic modes down to a few tens of cm/s.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Reference-free evaluation of thin films mass thickness and composition through energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy

In this paper we report the development of a new method for the evaluation of thin films mass thickness and composition based on the Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS). The method exploits the theoretical calculation of the in-depth characteristic X-ray generation distribution function, $\phi$/($\rho$ z), in multilayer samples, obtained by the numerical solution of the electron transport equation, to achieve reliable measurements without the need of a reference sample and multiple voltages acquisitions. The electron transport model is derived from the Boltzmann transport equation and it exploits the most updated and reliable physical parameters in order to obtain an accurate description of the phenomenon. The method for the calculation of film mass thickness and composition is validated with benchmarks from standard techniques. In addition, a model uncertainty and sensitivity analysis is carried out and it indicates that the mass thickness accuracy is in the order of 10 $\mu$g/cm$^2$, which is comparable to the nuclear standard techniques resolution. We show the technique peculiarities in one example measurement: two-dimensional mass thickness and composition profiles are obtained for a ultra-low density, high roughness, nanostructured film.Comment: This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ENSURE grant agreement No. 647554

Precise Stellar Radial Velocities of an M Dwarf with a Michelson Interferometer and a Medium-resolution Near-infrared Spectrograph

Precise near-infrared radial velocimetry enables efficient detection and transit verification of low-mass extrasolar planets orbiting M dwarf hosts, which are faint for visible-wavelength radial velocity surveys. The TripleSpec Exoplanet Discovery Instrument, or TEDI, is the combination of a variable-delay Michelson interferometer and a medium-resolution (R=2700) near-infrared spectrograph on the Palomar 200" Hale Telescope. We used TEDI to monitor GJ 699, a nearby mid-M dwarf, over 11 nights spread across 3 months. Analysis of 106 independent observations reveals a root-mean-square precision of less than 37 m/s for 5 minutes of integration time. This performance is within a factor of 2 of our expected photon-limited precision. We further decompose the residuals into a 33 m/s white noise component, and a 15 m/s systematic noise component, which we identify as likely due to contamination by telluric absorption lines. With further development this technique holds promise for broad implementation on medium-resolution near-infrared spectrographs to search for low-mass exoplanets orbiting M dwarfs, and to verify low-mass transit candidates.Comment: 55 pages and 13 figures in aastex format. Accepted by PAS