Efficiency analysis of maintenance and outage repair in electricity distribution

For several years electricity distribution companies have been using efficiency and productivity analysis in the form of data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis to analyse their operations. This reflects both market forces and responses to regulatory incentives. However we show that there is a significant difference in purpose and implementation between public regulatory benchmarking and internal company benchmarking. In this paper we use a variety of data envelopment analysis models to examine data on maintenance and outage repair on the electricity distribution system during 2004 -2005 in Portu­gal. In particular we examine the relationship between orientated and non-orientated models, and radial and non-radial analysis. We develop performance measures for the regional electricity networks operated in Portugal by EDP Distribuição, and we discover very close relationships among the performance rankings under different models, fulfilling widely-used consistency conditions for performance modeling. The paper uses the experience of this company example to draw some lessons about how performance measurement can be implemented within a company, in contrast to the usual objective of regulatory benchmarking procedures

Environmental efficiency analysis of listed cement enterprises in China

© 2016 by the authors.China's cement production has been the highest worldwide for decades and contributes significant environmental pollution. Using a non-radical DEA model with slacks-based measure (SBM), this paper analyzes the environmental efficiency of China's listed cement companies. The results suggest that the average mean of the environmental efficiency for the listed cement enterprises shows a decreasing trend in 2012 and 2013. There is a significant imbalance in environmental efficiency in these firms ranging from very low to very high. Further investigation finds that enterprise size and property structure are key factors. Increasing production concentration and decreasing the share of government investment could improve the environmental efficiency. The findings also suggest that effectively monitoring pollution products can improve environmental efficiency quickly, whereas pursuit for excessive profitability without keeping the same pace in energy saving would cause a sharp drop in environmental efficiency. Based on these findings, we proposed that companies in the Chinese cement sector might consider restructuring to improve environmental efficiency. They also need to make a trade-off between profitability and environmental protection. Finally, the Chinese government should reduce ownership control and management interventions in cement companies

Dynamic network range-adjusted measure vs. dynamic network slacks-based measure

Workshop 2013 on Dynamic and Network DEA (January 29-30, 2013)We formulate weighted, dynamic network range-adjusted measure (D-NRAM) and dynamic network slacksbased measure (D-NSBM), run robustness tests and compare results. To the best of our knowledge, the current paper is the first to compare two weighted dynamic network DEA models and it also represents the first attempt at formulating D-NRAM. We illustrate our models using simulated data on residential aged care. Insight gained by running D-NRAM in parallel with D-NSBM includes (a) identical benchmark groups, (b) a substantially wider range of efficiency estimates under D-NRAM, and (c) evidence of inefficient DMU size bias. D-NRAM is also shown to have the additional desirable technical efficiency properties of translation-invariance and acceptance of data. Managerial implications are also briefly discussed.This workshop is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 22310095 under the title “Theory and Applications of Dynamic DEA with Network Structure.

Eco-efficiency considering the issue of heterogeneity among power plants

One of the main objectives in restructuring power industry is enhancing the efficiency of power facilities. However, power generation industry, which plays a key role in the power industry, has a noticeable share in emission amongst all other emission-generating sectors. In this study, we have developed some new Data Envelopment Analysis models to find efficient power plants based on less fuel consumption, combusting less polluting fuel types, and incorporating emission factors in order to measure the ecological efficiency trend. We then applied these models to measuring eco-efficiency during an eight-year period of power industry restructuring in Iran. Results reveal that there has been a significant improvement in eco-efficiency, cost efficiency and allocative efficiency of the power plants during the restructuring period. It is also shown that despite the hydro power plants look eco-efficient; the combined cycle ones have been more allocative efficient than the other power generation technologies used in Iran

Congestion in the Chinese automobile and textile industries revisited

This paper re-examines a problem of congested inputs in the Chinese automobile and textile industries, which was identified by Cooper et al. (Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 35 (2001) 227-242). These authors employed a single approach to measuring congestion, however, so it is of interest to see whether other approaches would yield very different answers as regards the severity of this problem. Indeed, the measurement of congestion is an area where there has been much theoretical debate but relatively little empirical work. Here we use the data set assembled by Cooper et al. for the period 1981-1997 to compare and contrast the measurements of congestion generated by three alternative approaches. We find that these measurements are indeed very different.Monetary Policy;

Relative Efficiency of Decision Making Units Producing Both Desirable and Undesirable Outputs: A Case of Textile Processing Units in Pakistan.

This paper aims at measuring the relative efficiency of the most polluting industry in terms of water pollution in Pakistan. The textile processing is country‘s leading sub sector in textile manufacturing with regard to value added production, export, employment, and foreign exchange earnings. The data envelopment analysis technique is employed to estimate the relative efficiency of decision making units that uses several inputs to produce desirable and undesirable outputs. The efficiency scores of all manufacturing units exhibit the environmental consciousness of few producers is which may be due to state regulations to control pollution but overall the situation is far from satisfactory. Effective measures and instruments are still needed to check the rising pollution levels in water resources discharged by textile processing industry of the country. JEL classification: L67, Q53 Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Decision Making Unit (DMU), Relative Efficiency, Undesirable Outpu

Energy Efficiency in Transportation along with the Belt and Road Countries

China’s huge investment in the “belt and road initiative” (BRI) may have helped improve the economic level of participating countries, but it may also be accompanied by a substantial increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The BRI corridors aim to bring regional stability and prosperity. In such efforts, energy efficiency due to increased transport has been overlooked in the recent literature. This paper employed a data envelopment analysis of the slack-based measurement (SBM) for bad output to assess the transport energy efficiency of 19 countries under the BRI economic corridors. By using the most cited transport-related input variables, such as vehicles, labor, motor oil, jet fuel, and natural gas, this study first analyzes the transport energy efficiency by first assuming the output variables individually and then takes two years as a pre- and post-BRI case by considering the aggregated output model. The results show an increase in economic activity but a decline in transport energy efficiency in terms of consumption and emissions

Efficiency Measure in Nitrogen Management under U.S. Trade Induced Corn Production

The overall objective of this paper is to measure the impact of the undesirable outputs from NAFTA (agricultural production and trade) on the environment by years in post-NAFTA period. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to measure environmental efficiency by considering desirable (corn production) and undesirable (nitrogen) outputs in fifteen states. DEA allowed us to measure the level of nitrogen pollution to be reduced by modeling undesirable output in efficiency evaluation. Data from 15 states (Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin) on corn production, land use and nitrogen fertilizer from 1994-2008 (post-NAFTA) were considered. The results indicated environmental inefficiency, nitrogen pollution and land use inefficiency were increasing over the years in the post-NAFTA period.Data Envelopment Analysis, Environmental Efficiency, Nitrogen Pollution, NAFTA., International Relations/Trade,

The Internal Carbon Emissions Reduction Efficiency Of The South African Banking Sector: A Data Envelopment Analysis

In this study, a BCC/CCR Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Input-Oriented model is employed to measure the carbon reduction efficiency of the four major banks in South Africa (ABSA, Standard Bank, First National Bank, and Nedbank). Specifically, the Banxia Frontier Analysis DEA software is utilized to make two runs on publicly available data. In the first run, number of employees and operating costs are treated as inputs and carbon emissions as the output. In the second run, again, the number of employees and operating costs are treated as inputs, but electricity usage, paper usage, and business travel are treated as outputs. Results are opposite to those generated by the DEA input-oriented model; firms distant from the efficiency frontier are deemed efficient in terms of reducing carbon emissions and firms lying on the efficiency frontier are deemed inefficient. The first run reveals one bank (ABSA) to be inefficient and the second run demonstrates two banks (ABSA and Standard Bank) to be inefficient. Taken in sum, the current research study seeks to facilitate the measurement of carbon reduction efficiency within the banking sector

A Network DEA Model with Super Efficiency and Undesirable Outputs: An Application to Bank Efficiency in China

There are two typical subprocesses in bank production—deposit generation and loan generation. Aiming to open the black box of input-output production of banks and provide comprehensive and accurate assessment on the efficiency of each stage, this paper proposes a two-stage network model with bad outputs and supper efficiency (US-NSBM). Empirical comparisons show that the US-NSBM may be promising and practical for taking the nonperforming loans into account and being able to rank all samples. Applying it to measure the efficiency of Chinese commercial banks from 2008 to 2012, this paper explores the characteristics of overall and divisional efficiency, as well as the determinants of them. Some interesting results are discovered. The polarization of efficiency occurs in the bank level and deposit generation, yet does not in the loan generation. Five hypotheses work as expected in the bank level, but not all of them are supported in the stage level. Our results extend and complement some earlier empirical publications in the bank level