scholarly journals Using stochastic frontier analysis to measure the impact of weather on the efficiency of electricity distribution businesses in developing economies

2017 ◽  
Vol 263 (3) ◽  
pp. 1078-1094 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karim L. Anaya ◽  
Michael G. Pollitt
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11139
Author(s):  
Hai-Yen Chang ◽  
Lien-Wen Liang ◽  
Yu-Luan Liu

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices have been used as non-financial indicators to measure bank performance worldwide in the last decade. The United Nations (UN) has specified 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the implementation of these ESG concepts. However, it remains unclear whether the costs of ESG have exceeded the benefits. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of ESG on the cost efficiency of developed and developing Asian banks using a two-step approach comprising stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and stochastic metafrontier analysis (SMF). The data sample from 2015 to 2018 is separated into two groups: 60 Asian developed economies and 85 developing economies. The results show that banks in the developed Asian economies become more cost-efficient through environmentally friendly activities. The banks in the developing Asian economies increase their cost efficiency by socially responsible activities and improved governance. Moreover, banks in the developed Asian economies outperformed those in the developing Asian economies in terms of technology gap ratio (TGR) and metafrontier cost efficiency (MCE). The results of this study benefit not only investors and bank managers but also the entire banking sector and the world economy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 3974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianping Liu ◽  
Kai Lu ◽  
Shixiong Cheng

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of international research and development (R&D) spillovers on innovation efficiency of specific R&D outcomes, employing the country-level panel data for 44 countries in the 1996–2013 period. Fully considering the heterogeneity of different R&D outputs, scientific papers, PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patents, US patents, and domestic patents are observed separately, which enriches the angles of measuring international R&D spillovers. By applying a stochastic frontier analysis to knowledge production function, we find that foreign R&D capital stock positively contributes to the innovation efficiency of scientific papers, but suppresses the productivity of domestic patents, whereas it does not really matter for PCT or US patents. These results are robust to control for a set of institutional factors and also in sensitivity analyses. Hence, dependence on international R&D spillovers seems neither to be the right way for emerging economies to catch up, nor to be a sustainable model for developing countries to fill the technical gap. Local R&D capital stock, instead, keeps an essential contributor to all four R&D outputs, so raising internal R&D expenditure is actually the key to improving innovation level and sustainable development ability.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanishka Gupta ◽  
T.V. Raman

PurposeIntellectual capital (IC) has been recognized in improving the efficiency of businesses and gaining competitive edge in the developed world. The present study offers perspectives into the effect of IC on the efficiency of the Indian financial sector companies.Design/methodology/approachFor the purpose of evaluating efficiency, the research has used stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). All Indian financial sector companies listed in National Stock Exchange (NSE-500) for the timeframe of ten years (2008–2018) have been considered. The paper has employed modified Pulic's Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAICTM) as a proxy to measure IC. Correlation and panel data regression have been used in order to examine the relationship.FindingsThe results of the study indicate positive and significant relationship between IC and efficiency of the firm. The results also show that all the components of IC, that is, human capital, relational capital, process capital and capital employed have a significant impact on firms' efficiency. Additionally, it has been seen that sample companies do not invest in research and development leading to no innovation capital.Practical implicationsThe research will assist managers in managing and controlling the IC, investors in matters related to investment and financial experts in improving the company's IC and value creation.Originality/valueThe current research is one of the pioneering studies in the context of Indian financial sector that examines the impact of modified VAIC on operational efficiency calculated using SFA.


Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongqi Deng ◽  
Qianyu Zhao ◽  
Helen X. H. Bao

The rapid growth of China’s economy since the reform in 1978 should be largely attributed to urbanization. Nonetheless, in terms of farmland productivity, urbanization may lead to perverse incentives and thus threaten food security. On the one hand, the requisition–compensation balance of farmland (RCBF) policy could reduce farmland productivity because of a “superior occupation and inferior compensation”; on the other hand, urbanization promotes the transfer of the younger labor force and thus reduces the productivity of the agricultural labor force. To investigate the undesirable effects, based on some stylized facts, this study selects 29,415 county-level samples in a Chinese county from 2000–2014 to construct an empirical model. With a new stochastic frontier analysis method that eliminates the classical econometric issues of endogeneity and heterogeneity, the empirical results show that there is a U-shaped relationship between the farmland use efficiency (productivity) and urbanization rate, indicating that only when the urbanization rate is relatively low would urbanization decrease the farmland use efficiency; in contrast, when the urbanization rate is relatively high, technical progress would obviously be accompanied by urbanization, and thus, the undesirable effects are fully offset. Furthermore, the U-shaped relationship is robust after considering the endogeneity of the urbanization rate and total-factor farmland use efficiency. With these findings, recommendations to implement sustainable management and conservation policies regarding farmland resources are made.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 669-696
Author(s):  
Pavan Khetrapal

PurposeThe objective of the present study is to evaluate and analyse the performance of Indian electricity distribution utilities post the implementation of landmark Electricity Act 2003.Design/methodology/approachStochastic frontier analysis (SFA) that incorporates exogenous influences on operational efficiency is adopted in the present study. Specifically, a stochastic frontier production function model with a technical inefficiency effects model (Battese and Coelli, 1995) is chosen as a preferred model. In this model, the function that explains the inefficiency scores is estimated in a single stage with the production technology. This avoids the problem of inconsistency which is possible in the two-stage approach.FindingsThe sample involved 52 Indian electricity distribution utilities for seven-year period from 2006 to 2013. Major findings of SFA show that Indian electricity distribution utilities post the implementation of Electricity Act (2003) had, on average, experienced efficiency improvement during the observed period. The overall mean technical effciency score is estimated as 78.5% which indicates that there exist wide scope for effciency improvement in the sector. Further, the empirical findings also indicate that publicly owned distribution utilities obtain average technical efficiencies of 71.3%, which is lower than privately owned distribution utilities, which achieve average technical efficiencies of 85.7%.Research limitations/implicationsPower supply quality indicators such as SAIFI, SAIDI, CAIFI, etc. and unobserved heterogeneity also influence the efficiency analysis of electricity distribution utilities. Hence, these parameters as explanatory variables can be incorporated in the future work.Practical implicationsThe results obtained from this empirical study would likely be helpful for utility managers and policymakers to know how well they are performing, and how a better corporate strategy a particular utility can formulate to improve its operational efficiency and also its position in the marketplace.Originality/valueThis paper is amongst the first significant attempts that implement SFA approach to the panel dataset over a longer period of time – 2006 to 2013, so, as to evaluate and analyse the operational efficiency of Indian electricity distribution utilities in a single framework after the enactment of Electricity Act (2003). Unlike previous studies, this study investigates the degree to which various exogenous (or environmental) factors influence efficiency levels in these utilities.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Vinicius Pereira de Souza ◽  
Madiagne Diallo ◽  
Reinaldo Castro Souza ◽  
Tara Keshar Nanda Baidya

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficiency indices for 60 Brazilian electricity distribution utilities. These scores are obtained by DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) and Bayesian Stochastic Frontier Analysis models, two techniques that can reduce the information asymmetry and improve the regulator's skill to compare the performance of the utilities, a fundamental aspect in incentive regulation schemes. In addition, this paper also addresses the problem of identifying outliers and influential observations in deterministic nonparametric DEA models.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-70
Author(s):  
Selçuk Özaydın

Foreign ownership in European football has been rapidly increasing especially in the last two decades. Although the main interest for the foreign investors are the teams of Big 5 leagues, there are some occasional surprises. One of the surprises is the oldest football team in Czech football, SK Slavia Prague. This study investigates the impact of Slavia’s takeover on Czech First Division. First a stochastic frontier analysis is conducted and efficiency scores are estimated. The results indicate that Slavia’s athletic efficiency has improved significantly after the takeover. The transfer activity in the league increased greatly thanks to Slavia’s additional funds allocated to transfers and also it should be noted that Slavia’s domestic transfers have created an opportunity for the other teams to improve their finances. Finally, the overall competitive balance in the league improved after the takeover despite Slavia’s dominance in the league after the takeover.


2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (No. 10) ◽  
pp. 445-453
Author(s):  
Tamara Rudinskaya ◽  
Tomas Hlavsa ◽  
Martin Hruska

This paper deals with the technical efficiency analysis of farms in the Czech Republic. The empirical analysis provides an evaluation of technical efficiency with regard to the farm size, farm specialisation, and farm location. Accounting data of Czech farms from the Albertina database for the years 2011–2015 were used for the analysis. The data were classified by the utilised agricultural area and location of the farm expressed as a less favoured area type from the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) database. Research was conducted using the translogarithmic production function and Stochastic Frontier Analysis. The results indicate positive impact of farm size, expressed by utilised agricultural area, on technical efficiency. The analysis of the impact of farm specialisation on technical efficiency verified that farms specialised on animal production are more efficient. The lowest technical efficiency is shown by farms situated in mountainous Less Favoured Areas (LFAs), the highest technical efficiency by farms located in non-LFA regions.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Molinos-Senante ◽  
Alexandros Maziotis ◽  
Ramon Sala-Garrido

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to estimate and compare the efficiency of several water utilities using three frontier techniques. Moreover, this study estimates the impact of several qualities of service variables on water utilities’ performance.Design/methodology/approachThe paper utilizes three frontier techniques such as data envelopment analysis (DEA), stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and stochastic non-parametric envelopment of data (StoNED) to estimate efficiency scores.FindingsEfficiency scores for each methodological approach were different being on average, 0.745, 0.857 and 0.933 for SFA, DEA and StoNED methods, respectively. Moreover, it was evidenced that water leakage had a statistically significant impact on water utilities’ costs.Research limitations/implicationsThe choice of an adequate and robust method for benchmarking the efficiency of water utilities is very relevant for water regulators because it affects decision making process such as water tariffs and design incentives to improve the performance and quality of service of water utilities.Originality/valueThis paper evaluates and compares the performance of a sample of water utilities using three different frontier methods. It has been revealed that the choice of the efficiency assessment method matters. Unlike SFA and DEA, a lower variability was shown in the efficiency scores obtained from the StoNED method.


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