Adjustment of Inputs and Measurement of Technical Efficiency: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis of the Egyptian Manufacturing Sectors

The purpose of this paper is to construct a dynamic stochastic production frontier incorporating the sluggish adjustment of inputs, to measure the speed of adjustment of output, and to compare the technical efficiency estimates from this dynamic model to those from a static model. By assuming instantaneous adjustment of all inputs, a static model may underestimate technical efficiency of a production unit in the short-run. However, in this paper I show that under the assumption of similar adjustment speed for all inputs, a linear partial adjustment scheme for output characterizes the dynamic production frontier. The dynamic frontier with time-invariant technical efficiency is estimated using the system GMM (generalized method of moments) estimator. Applying the model and estimation method on a panel dataset spanning nine years of data on private manufacturing establishments in Egypt, I find that 1) the speed of adjustment of output is significantly lower than unity, 2) the static model underestimates technical efficiency by 4.5 percentage points on average, and 3) the ranking of production units based on their technical efficiency measures changes when the lagged adjustment process of inputs is taken into account.

Financial Reforms and Technical Efficiency in Indian Commercial Banking: A Generalized Stochastic Frontier Analysis

In this study we estimate technical efficiency of Indian commercial banks from 1989- 2009 using a multiple-output generalized stochastic production frontier, and analyze the effects of financial sector reforms on measured efficiency. This generalized technique estimates technical efficiency in the presence of multiple outputs, filling a gap in the existing literature. Our results show that Indian commercial banks were operating with 64% efficiency on average during the sample period and that efficiency declined in both public and private banks during most parts of the post-reform period. The capital adequacy ratios negatively influenced efficiency while the number of branches had no significant effect on bank efficiency. Financial sector reforms, however, have had mixed results on technical efficiency. The initial phase of reform had positive impact on technical efficiency while the later phases adversely affected technical efficiency of commercial banks. Throughout the sample period, public sector banks show higher efficiency levels compared to private sector and foreign banks.

Adjustment of Inputs and Measurement of Time-varying Technical Efficiency: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis

This paper provides estimation method to measure technical efficiency of production units and the speed of adjustment of output, both varying with time, from a dynamic stochastic production frontier that incorporates the sluggish adjustment of inputs. Using a panel dataset on private manufacturing establishments in Egypt I find that the speed of adjustment of output is lower than unity in every period and slowly increases over time. When compared to the results from the static model, the dynamic model is found to produce higher estimates of technical efficiency on average, captures more variation in the time pattern of technical efficiency, and provides a different ranking of production units.

Choice, internal consistency, and rationality

The classical theory of rational choice is built on several important internal consistency conditions. In recent years, the reasonableness of those internal consistency conditions has been questioned and criticized, and several responses to accommodate such criticisms have been proposed in the literature. This paper develops a general framework to accommodate the issues raised by the criticisms of classical rational choice theory, and examines the broad impact of these criticisms from both normative and positive points of view.

A rare case of oxcarbazepine induced Stevens Johnson Syndrome: toxic epidermal necrosis overlap

Oxcarbazepine is a closely related analogue of carbamazepine and is useful in the monotherapy of seizures with an improved toxicity profile. Its clinical safety has been recently put under scrutiny as evidence has emerged about its adverse drug reactions and it is increasingly being reported to cause cutaneous drug eruptions. Here we report a rare case of oxcarbazepine induced Stevens Johnson - toxic epidermal necrolysis overlap

Prescribing trends of anti glaucoma medication usage in treatment naive patients of primary open angle glaucoma in a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India

Background: Primary open angle glaucoma remains a high magnitude healthcare problem due to its prevalence and chronicity. The real world scenario of anti glaucoma medical therapy needs periodical auditing as far as drug prescriptions are concerned for formulation of treatment guidelines. Few studies from India have taken a longitudinal approach in this respect. This study was undertaken to identify such lacunae.Methods: This was an open label, prospective, observational study. Each treatment naive patient was followed up for a period of 6 months, where their prescriptions were scanned for the type of the anti glaucoma medications, total number of medications, route of administration, their duration of use and their frequency of dosage and change in medications if any, in each visits.Results: A gradual shift from monotherapy towards combination therapy was observed. Overall averages for prescriptions were topped by monotherapy at 44.25 followed by fixed dose combinations at 38.25, and then combination-polytherapy at 36 and the least number of prescriptions were for concurrent polytherapy at 17.5. Amongst all monotherapy agents, beta blockers were the most frequently prescribed drugs at baseline but their share of prescriptions was almost halved at the end of our study. The prostaglandin analogs on the other hand saw an upsurge in prescriptions from their baseline to the end of this study. Prostaglandin analogs andbeta blockers as fixed dose combination was a popular prescription over the entire study duration.Conclusions: Prescribing trends were remarkable for the shift from primary monotherapy towards fixed dose combinations as the study concluded. The decline in the number of beta blocker prescriptions and a rise in prostaglandin analog prescriptions is a testament to their better effectiveness and tolerability. The future of open angle glaucoma pharmacotherapy lies in prescribing more efficacious drugs either in monotherapy or in fixed combinations

Essays on Estimation of Technical Efficiency and on Choice Under Uncertainty

In the first two essays of this dissertation, I construct a dynamic stochastic production frontier incorporating the sluggish adjustment of inputs, measure the speed of adjustment of output in the short-run, and compare the technical efficiency estimates from such a dynamic model to those from a conventional static model that is based on the assumption that inputs are instantaneously adjustable in a production system. I provide estimation methods for technical efficiency of production units and the speed of adjustment of output for cases when they are time-invariant and when they vary with time. I also apply the methods to a panel dataset on private manufacturing establishments in Egypt. The dynamic frontiers with time-invariant and time-varying technical efficiency are estimated using the System Generalized Method of Moments estimator and the Generalized Least Squares estimator with instrumental variables, respectively. The results for the Egyptian private manufacturing sectors show that the speed of adjustment of output is significantly lower than unity, the static model underestimates technical efficiency on average, and the dynamic model captures more variation in the time pattern of technical efficiency. Further, the ranking of production units based on their technical efficiency measures changes when the lagged adjustment process of inputs is taken into account.In another essay, I characterize a class of rules for decision-making under the type of non-probabilistic uncertainty that was first axiomatically analyzed by Arrow and Hurwicz (1972). In this framework, the agent knows the possible states of the world and the outcome of each of her actions for each state, but does not have any information about the probabilities with which each state occurs. The decision-making rules characterized in this essay focus on the outcome(s) which occupy the middle position(s), when all outcomes of an action under different states of the world are arranged according to the agent's preference ordering defined over the outcomes. The existing literature in the Arrow-Hurwicz framework has mainly considered `max'-based or `min'-based rules and their variants, which reflect rather extreme forms of optimism or pessimism on the part of an agent. In contrast, the results of this essay characterize a decision rule that reflects a more `balanced' attitude of the agent

Post-radiotherapy locoregional recurrence of hyalinizing clear cell carcinoma of palate

Clear cell carcinoma of the salivary glands is a rare tumor that represents less than 1% of all salivary tumors and is a new disease that is only recognized in recent years. It is rare and the standard treatment is still under investigation. This tumor often follows an indolent course and treatment includes wide surgical excision with or without adjuvant radiotherapy. Recurrence of the hyalinizing clear cell carcinoma (HCCC) after complete surgical resection is uncommonly documented. We hereby report a case of post-radiotherapy locoregional recurrence of HCCC of the palate and recommend further clinicopathological study and long-term follow-up to document the biological behavior of this entity along with highlighting the role of special stains and immunohistochemistry in its diagnosis

Incidental Gallbladder Carcinoma: An Eastern Indian Experience and Necessity of Routine Histopathological Examination after All Cholecystectomy

Introduction: The carcinoma of gallbladder is the most common malignancy of the biliary tract. The incidence of this carcinoma varies geographically. Incidental gallbladder carcinoma is diagnosed during histopathological examination after cholecystectomy due to other reasons. Histopathological examination of all cholecystectomy specimens are very essential to rule out these incidental gallbladder carcinomas. Aim: To this study to estimate the frequency of incidental gallbladder carcinoma in patients undergoing routine cholecystectomy and also to evaluate the necessity of routine histopathological examination after all cholecystectomy. Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted in Department of Pathology, Midnapore Medical College and Hospital, West Bengal, India between January 2014 to December 2019 (six years) covering 650 patients who underwent laparoscopic and open cholecystectomy. Patients' demographic data, pathologic results, macroscopic appearance of the specimen, cancer staging were recorded and frequency of incidental gallbladder carcinoma were calculated. Result: Total 650 cholecystectomy specimens due to benign gallbladder disease were received in pathology department. Histopathological examination revealed 18 cases of incidental gallbladder carcinoma which comprised 2.8% of all the cholecystectomies. Among them 13 were female and five were in male with male: female ratio of 1:2.6 and the age ranges from 35 to 68 years. Among 18 cases 10 cases showed invasion upto lamina propria (stage T1a), five) cases had invasion in muscular layer (stage T1b) and three cases showed perimuscular connective tissue invasion (stage T2a). Conclution: The present study observed that the incidence of incidental gallbladder carcinoma in cholecystectomy specimen was little higher range in East Indian population and so routine histopathological examination of all cholecystectomy specimens are recommende

An Observational Study to Correlate the Histopathological and Dermoscopic Features in Leprosy Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Introduction: Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous infection with varied clinical presentations. Dermoscopy is a noninvasive technique widely used in the diagnosis of various skin diseases. Objective: To see the correlation between the clinical and dermoscopic features with the histopathological findings in leprosy. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted on clinically suspected leprosy patients attending the dermatology outpatient department (OPD) for 18 months. Representative lesions were observed by dermoscopy, and a biopsy was performed, followed by histopathology for final diagnosis. Patients were categorized by Ridley-Jopling classification. Results: A total of 70 clinically suspected leprosy patients were included in the study. Amongst 70 cases, 56 cases were diagnosed as leprosy by dermoscopy, and 53 cases were confirmed as leprosy by histopathology (hematoxylin and eosin [H and E] staining and Fite-Faraco staining). The other six cases were diagnosed as other nonspecific dermatitis by histopathological findings. Eleven cases that were dermoscopically negative were also confirmed by histopathology to be truly negative. There are three inconclusive cases of dermoscopic findings, which were diagnosed as mid-borderline leprosy by histopathology. Dermoscopic and histopathological correlation was found above 87% in all types of leprosy except mid-borderline leprosy, which showed only a 25% correlation. Conclusion: Dermoscopy is a useful noninvasive tool to assess lesions of leprosy, requires less time for diagnosis, skin features are magnified several times and may become evident before clinical presentation. It definitely helps to reduce the number of biopsies in case of diagnosis of leprosy. However, in doubtful cases, histopathology is required for definitive diagnosis as it is the gold standard to date