Investigating the cultural patterns of corruption: A nonparametric analysis

By using a sample of 77 countries our analysis applies several nonparametric techniques in order to reveal the link between national culture and corruption. Based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the corruption perception index, the results reveal that countries with higher levels of corruption tend to have higher power distance and collectivism values in their society.Nonparametric methods; Corruption perception index; National culture

Adjusting for cultural effects on countries’ education policy efficiency:an application of conditional full frontiers measures

In this paper using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) we evaluate the influence of national culture on education policy efficiency for 20 OECD countries. For that reason bootstrap techniques have been employed in order to produce biased corrected efficiency scores and confidence intervals are been calculated. By using probabilistic approaches it conditions the effect of national cultural values on the obtained countries’ educational efficiencies. The empirical results indicate that the efficiency of education policy is mainly influenced from differences of individualistic and masculinity values among the countries. However the results clearly indicate that education policy reforms must be based outside those national cultural bounds in order to support national economies on their foreseen challenges.Data Envelopment Analysis; Education; Linear programming; Statistics

Ranking mainstream economics journals: A note

This paper by applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) ranks Economics journals. In contrast with many other studies this paper ranks journals which are characterized as mainstream economic journals rather than interciplinary economic journals. By using one composite input and one composite output the paper ranks 180 journals. In addition for the first time three different quality ranking reports have been incorporated to the DEA modelling problem in order to classify the journals into four categories (‘A’ to ‘D’). The results reveal that the journals with the highest rankings in mainstream economics are Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Literature, Review of Economic Studies, American Economic Review, Econometrica, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Econometrics, Economic Journal, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of International Economics, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, International Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty and Journal of Public Economics.Rankings; Economics Journals; Data Envelopment Analysis

Economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions: Empirical evidence from China

Using time series data, this paper investigates China’s carbon emissions during 1960-2006, with particular focus on the direct role of growth and in connection to trade and the value added by various sectors like agriculture, industry and services. Our empirical results indicate the presence of an inverted U-shaped curve between CO2 emissions and growth represented by the GDP per capita. Trade seems to be an important determinant in this relationship.CO2 emissions; Economic growth; Trade; Environmental kuznets curve; China

A conditional full frontier approach for investigating the Averch-Johnson effect

This paper applies a probabilistic approach in order to develop conditional and unconditional Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models for the measurement of sectors’ input oriented technical and scale efficiency levels for a sample of 23 Greek manufacturing sectors. In order to capture the Averch and Johnson effect (A-J effect), we measure sectors’ efficiency levels conditioned on the number of companies competing within the sectors. Particularly, various DEA models have been applied alongside with bootstrap techniques in order to determine the effect of competition conditions on sectors’ inefficiency levels. Additionally, this study illustrates how the recent developments in efficiency analysis and statistical inference can be applied when evaluating the effect of regulations in an industry. The results reveal that sectors with fewer numbers of companies appear to have greater scale and technical inefficiencies due to the existence of the A-J effect.Averch-Johnson effect; Industry regulations; Manufacturing sectors; Nonparametric analysis

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

Measuring the effect of virtual mergers on banks’ efficiency levels:A non parametric analysis

This study illustrates how the recent developments in efficiency analysis and statistical inference can be applied when evaluating banks’ performance issues from a potential merger. By using a sample of 29 Greek commercial banks the paper provides a six step procedure in order to evaluate whether a potential bank merger can exhibit economies of scale and characterized as favorable.Data Envelopment Analysis; Bootstrap techniques; Virtual Mergers; Bank efficiency.

Examining the influence of access to improved water and sanitation sources on countries’ economic efficiency

This paper evaluates the effect of access to improved water sources and sanitation on 41 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries’ economic efficiency and growth. For this reason Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), bootstrap techniques and probabilistic approaches are used. The empirical results indicate that SSA countries’ economic efficiency is positively influenced by the access of population both on improved water sources and sanitation. Finally, when the provision of access to improved water sources is provided to more than 50% of the population, the positive effect on countries’ economic efficiency is much greater compared to the effect of providing sustainable access to improved sanitation to the same proportion of population.Water and sanitation; Sub-Saharan African countries; economic efficiency; DEA; nonparametric techniques

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

Does the Kyoto Protocol Agreement matters? An environmental efficiency analysis

This paper uses both conditional and unconditional Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models in order to determine different environmental efficiency levels for a sample of 110 countries in 2007. In order to capture the effect of countries compliance with the Kyoto Protocol Agreement (KPA), we condition the years since a country has signed the agreement until 2007. Particularly, various DEA models have been applied alongside with bootstrap techniques in order to determine the effect of Kyoto protocol agreement on countries’ environmental efficiencies. The study illustrates how the recent developments in efficiency analysis and statistical inference can be applied when evaluating environmental performance issues. The results indicate that the first six years after countries signed the Kyoto protocol agreement have a positive effect on their environmental efficiencies. However after that period it appears that countries avoid complying with the actions imposed by the agreement which in turn has an immediate negative effect on their environmental efficiencies.Environmental efficiency; Kyoto protocol agreement; Conditional full frontiers; Statistical inference; DEA