Some Determinants of Intermediate Local Governments' Spending Efficiency: The Case of French Départements

Efforts undertaken by France to restructure the allocation of governmental competencies increased the importance of subnational governments by transferring additional tasks. This paper analyzes the efficiency of public spending on an intermediate government level for a sample of 96 départements in metropolitan France in 2008. Spending efficiency is measured using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Results indicate significant room for improvements and detect spending inefficiencies averaging between 10 and 22 percent, depending on model specification. To explain efficiency, a bootstrapped truncated regression, following Simar and Wilson (2007), is applied. The second-stage regression shows that efficiency is also determined by exogenous factors and identifies the distance to the national capital, inhabitants' income and the share of inhabitants of an age over 65 as significant determinants of efficiency.Intermediate government spending efficiency, nonparametric efficiency analysis, bootstrapped truncated regression

Overcoming Data Limitations in Nonparametric Benchmarking: Applying PCA-DEA to Natural Gas Transmission

This paper provides an empirical demonstration for a practical approach of efficiency evaluation against the background of limited data availability in some regulated industries. Here, traditional DEA may result in a lack of discriminatory power when high numbers of variables but only limited observations are available. We apply PCA-DEA for radial efficiency measurement to US natural gas transmission companies in 2007. This allows us to reduce dimensions of the optimization problem while maintaining most of the variation in the original data. Our results suggest that the PCA-DEA methodology reduces the probability of over-estimation of the individual firm-specific performance. It also allows for a large number of original variables without substantially reducing the discriminatory power of the model.Efficiency analysis, DEA, PCA, company regulation, natural gas transmission

Enacted Destiny: West African Charismatic Christians in Berlin and the Immanence of God

"The focus of this article is the concept of enacted destiny, which was identified among charismatic Christians of West African origin in Berlin. Different from more fatalistic concepts of destiny, it combines a strong notion of free agency with a strong notion of a good, almighty, and immanent God. The imaginary of enacted destiny is constituted by two components: 1. presituational religious empowerment by which charismatic Christians can reduce complexities, anxieties, and insecurities in the context of decision making; and 2. postsituational sense-making by which divine agency is ascribed to an originally ambiguous situation. Both components temporally embrace the actions of West African charismatic Christians in Berlin. Actions thereby become the means through which God becomes immanent in the everyday lives of West African charismatic Christians in Berlin and enacted destiny a category of movement toward convergence of human and divine agency." [author's abstract

Development and Diaspora: Ghana and its Migrants

"The recent emphasis on the link between development and diasporic activities does not only reflect social changes, like the increase in migrant remittances, but also facilitates the building of institutions for the political and social inclusion of migrants in their country of origin. This article shows that the Ghanaian 'diaspora' is not a social unit that predated the new discourse on transcontinental labour migration but rather emerged in its course. Institutional slots were created for Ghanaian migrant associations and individuals in the receiving countries to act as representatives of the Ghanaian 'diaspora'. In this framework transnational development rituals have become an important means for legitimising migrant organisations and their claims to political participation in their country of origin. The postcolonial imaginary of development and its icons, in particular hospitals, schools and public infrastructure, provide a symbolical background against which migrants and state representatives re-negotiate questions of social status, citizenship and identity. The symbolical power of the discourse of development and diaspora helps to reconfigure older discourses of belonging and citizenship and to adapt them to the conditions of transnational mass migration." (author's abstract)"Die aktuelle Diskussion über den Einfluss von Migranten auf die Entwicklung ihres Herkunftslandes reflektiert nicht nur veränderte gesellschaftlichen Realitäten, sondern schafft gleichzeitig auch Partizipationsmöglichkeiten, innerhalb derer die Inklusion von Migranten in ihr Herkunftsland erst hergestellt wird. Die 'ghanaische Diaspora' ist, wie anhand des Falles von Ghanaern in Deutschland gezeigt wird, keine an sich existierende soziale Einheit, sondern formierte sich erst im Zuge der Neubewertung von transnationaler Migration aus Ghana. Diaspora-Politiken kreieren soziale Räume für Migrantenorganisationen und Individuen, innerhalb derer sie als legitime Repräsentanten der Migranten in den Zuwanderungsländern agieren können. Kollektive Entwicklungsrituale sind in diesem Kontext von besonderer Bedeutung. Sie legitimieren Migrantenorganisationen und deren Ansprüche auf politische und soziale Teilhabe im Herkunftsland. Der postkoloniale ghanaische Entwicklungsdiskurs und seine modernistischen Symbole, insbesondere Krankenhäuser, Schulen und öffentliche Infrastruktur, liefern einen symbolischen Hintergrund, der es Migranten in Ghana ermöglicht, sozialen Status, Bürgerrechte und Identitäten neu zu verhandeln. In diesem Sinne trägt die Debatte über den Zusammenhang von Entwicklung und Migration dazu bei, Zugehörigkeiten umzudefinieren und an die gesellschaftlichen Bedingungen von transnationaler Massenmigration anzupassen." (Autorenreferat

Regulierung und Investitionen in der leitungsgebundenen Energieversorgung

Seit Anfang 2009 unterliegt die leitungsgebundene Energieversorgung in Deutschland der Anreizregulierung, durch die ein effizienter Betrieb von Strom und Gasnetzen sichergestellt werden soll. Unklar ist allerdings, inwieweit die Anreizregulierung sich auf Investitionen in Ersatz und Ausbau der Netze auswirkt. Der massive Ausbau der erneuerbaren Energien, eine verstärkte dezentrale Erzeugung und die Einspeisung von erneuerbaren Energien erfordern kurz- und langfristig sehr hohe Investitionen in die Erweiterung, Modernisierung und Wartung der Netzinfrastruktur. Der Frage nach der Wirkung von unterschiedlichen Regulierungsregimen, insbesondere der neu eingeführten Anreizregulierung, auf Investitionen in den Netzwerkindustrien kommt daher in der theoretischen und empirischen Literatur aktuell eine große Bedeutung zu. Der vorliegende Roundup fasst die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse zusammen

Regulation and Investment Incentives in Electricity Distribution

In this paper we analyze the investment behavior of electricity distribution companies. First, we test the hypothesis if the implementation of an incentive-based regulatory scheme with revenue caps impacts the firms' investment decisions in general. Second, we test if the specific regulatory design to determine the revenue caps impacts the firms' investment behavior. The analysis is based on a unique and detailed firm level data for German electricity distribution companies over the 2006-2012 period. Controlling for a large amount of firm specific heterogeneity and ownership, we show that the investment rate is higher after the implementation of incentive regulation in 2009. Furthermore, we find that the design with its specific institutional constraints for determining the revenue-caps, influence the investment decisions of the firms. Especially in the base year, when the rate base is determined for the following regulatory period, investments increase. The analysis demonstrates that the whole design of incentive regulation must be taken into account for a sound assessment of investment behavior in electricity distribution

Productive efficiency and ownership when market restructuring affects production technologies

While the link between the ownership and productive efficiency of firms has been discussed extensively, no consensus exists regarding the superiority of one or the other in non-competitive, regulated environments. This paper applies a flexible production model to test for efficiency differences associated with ownership types while allowing the production to adapt to market restructuring over time. Our empirical setting is based on a new, rich micro dataset of electricity distribution firms operating between 2006 and 2012 in Germany, where the energy transition enforces the adjustment of energy infrastructure. First, our results show that electricity distribution system operators adapted their production technologies over time. Second, there is no empirical evidence that public firms operated any less efficiently than private firms. The empirical findings are relevant to the (re)municipalization debate, which appears to have exaggerated the dichotomy between public and private utilities' efficienc

Kein Rückgang der Investitionen in der kommunalen Energie- und Wasserversorgung

Einen beachtlichen Anteil öffentlicher Investitionen tätigen - außerhalb der öffentlichen Haushalte - kommunale Unternehmen, beispielsweise Stadtwerke. Ein bedeutender Investitionsbereich ist die Energie- und Wasserversorgung, da die Unternehmen über beträchtliche Sachanlagen in der leitungsgebundenen Infrastruktur verfügen. Der vorliegende Bericht zeigt auf Basis erstmalig verfügbarer Mikrodaten, dass es in der ausgelagerten Energie- und Wasserversorgung - im Gegensatz zu den kommunalen Kernhaushalten - keine Anhaltspunkte für unzureichende Investitionen gibt. Vielmehr folgten die Bruttoinvestitionen in Leitungsanlagen während der vergangenen zehn Jahre einem steigenden Trend, der mit dem der privaten Energie- und Wasserversorgungsunternehmen - sieht man von Erweiterungsinvestitionen im Rahmen der Energiewende ab - vergleichbar ist. Darüber hinaus lässt sich kein eindeutiger Zusammenhang zwischen dem Investitionsverhalten eines kommunalen Energie- und Wasserversorgers und der regionalen Finanzkraft beziehungsweise Bevölkerungsentwicklung finden. Dies schließt jedoch nicht aus, dass insbesondere der demographische Wandel in Zukunft zu regionalen Unterschieden beim Investitionsbedarf führen kann.A considerable share of public investment comes not only from public budgets but also from public utility companies. One major area of investment is energy and water supply, where the utility companies have substantial fixed assets in the form of distribution infrastructure. Using new microdata which has not been analyzed before, the present report shows that-unlike with the core public budgets-public energy and water supply companies show no signs of insufficient investment. On the contrary, gross investment into distribution networks over the past ten years has shown an upward trend comparable to that of private energy and water supply companies-if investment related to the expansion of infrastructure resulting from the energy transition is not taken into account. In addition, no clear correlation was found between the investment expenditure of energy and water supply companies and the financial strength or demographic trends within a given region. However, this does not rule out the possibility of diverging investment trends in the near future in response to demographic changes

No decline in investment in public-sector energy and water supply

A considerable share of public investment comes not only from public budgets but also from public utility companies. One major area of investment is energy and water supply, where the utility companies have substantial fixed assets in the form of distribution infrastructure. Using new microdata which has not been analyzed before, the present report shows that-unlike with the core public budgets-public energy and water supply companies show no signs of insufficient investment. On the contrary, gross investment into distribution networks over the past ten years has shown an upward trend comparable to that of private energy and water supply companies-if investment related to the expansion of infrastructure resulting from the energy transition is not taken into account. In addition, no clear correlation was found between the investment expenditure of energy and water supply companies and the financial strength or demographic trends within a given region. However, this does not rule out the possibility of diverging investment trends in the near future in response to demographic changes

Environmental factors in frontier estimation - A Monte Carlo analysis

We compare three recently developed frontier estimators, namely the conditional DEA (Daraio and Simar, 2005; 2007b), the latent class SFA (Greene, 2005; Orea and Kumbhakar, 2004), and the StoNEZD approach (Johnson and Kuosmanen, 2011) by means of Monte Carlo simulation. We focus on their ability to identify production frontiers and efficiency rankings in the presence of environmental factors. Our simulations match features of real life datasets and cover a wide range of scenarios with variations in sample size, distribution of noise and inefficiency, as well as in distributions, intensity, and number of environmental variables. Our results provide insight in the finite sample properties of the estimators, while also identifying estimator-specific characteristics. Overall, the latent class approach is found to perform best, although in many cases StoNEZD shows a similar performance. Performance of cDEA is most often inferior