scholarly journals Cost Efficiency of Banks in Croatia

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 12-26
Author(s):  
Ivan Huljak

Abstract Foreign and larger banks in Croatia are generally considered to be more cost efficient compared with domestic and smaller banks. However, those views are often based on data from financial statements that can be misleading due to simultaneous consolidation process on the market and the existence of economies of scale. To contribute to the Croatian banking efficiency literature, we construct a panel of individual bank data for 1994-2014 period and conduct a frontier analysis to calculate bank specific X-efficiency. Our results suggest that efficiency scores depend on the cost definition as domestic and smaller banks are more efficient in managing administrative costs compared with foreign and larger banks but equally efficient in managing total costs. Results indicate that average bank relative efficiency increased on two occasions: one in the late 90s in the period of banking crisis and subsequent “market cleansing” and to a lesser extent in the period marked with financial crisis. Although the differences between bank cost efficiencies seem small, we conclude that the area is worth further research as significant gains in bank earnings could be achieved by increasing efficiency.

Author(s):  
Gustavo Ferro ◽  
Daniel Lema ◽  
Francisco Schiffrer

The main purpose of this paper is to assess the cost-efficiency of Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires’s bank branches using a Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). With the results, management can decide on new branching dimension. Also, if some regulatory or managerial limits could be lift, such as closure or opening of new branches without the central bank authorization, or redundant staff reduction, the results could be important for management. We detect best and worst behaved branches. The more cost-efficient branches and the least cost-efficient ones differ in their size and input mix. Nonetheless, they present a similar output mix.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1656-1664
Author(s):  
John Vianne Murcia ◽  
Joey Yares ◽  
Rey Cabilan ◽  
Honey Lorie Arat

The aim of this study is to determine the cost efficiency of thrift banks in the Philippines. Data were taken from the financial statements of thrift banks in the Central Bank of the Philippines from 2013 to 2016. In deriving cost efficiency, the inputs used were total liability, net of real and other property acquired and net of bank premises, furniture and fixture, and equipment, while outputs were represented in terms of total loan portfolio (TLP) and other financial assets. With the input and output variables employed, evident in the outcomes of data envelopment analysis that variable return-to-scale (VRS) assumption resulted to greater number of cost efficient banks as compared under constant return-to-scale (CRS) assumption. Although findings had revealed that most thrift banks cost efficiency percentages lie below 50 percent, there were still identified thrift banks that has been cost efficient in terms of inputs and outputs used in the study. Hence, majority of the thrift banks in the Philippines were not cost-efficient with respect to the inputs and outputs. Additionally, the number of thrift banks found to be cost-efficient are significantly low in both CRS and VRS assumptions, although VRS reflected greater number than CRS assumption. Implications were discussed in this paper based on the findings gleaned from the econometric analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6075
Author(s):  
Ola Lindroos ◽  
Malin Söderlind ◽  
Joel Jensen ◽  
Joakim Hjältén

Translocation of dead wood is a novel method for ecological compensation and restoration that could, potentially, provide a new important tool for biodiversity conservation. With this method, substrates that normally have long delivery times are instantly created in a compensation area, and ideally many of the associated dead wood dwelling organisms are translocated together with the substrates. However, to a large extent, there is a lack of knowledge about the cost efficiency of different methods of ecological compensation. Therefore, the costs for different parts of a translocation process and its dependency on some influencing factors were studied. The observed cost was 465 SEK per translocated log for the actual compensation measure, with an additional 349 SEK/log for work to enable evaluation of the translocation’s ecological results. Based on time studies, models were developed to predict required work time and costs for different transportation distances and load sizes. Those models indicated that short extraction and insertion distances for logs should be prioritized over road transportation distances to minimize costs. They also highlighted a trade-off between costs and time until a given ecological value is reached in the compensation area. The methodology used can contribute to more cost-efficient operations and, by doing so, increase the use of ecological compensation and the benefits from a given input.


Author(s):  
Iveta Palecková

The aim of the paper is to estimate the cost efficiency of the Czech and Slovak commercial banks within the period 2010-2014. For empirical analysis the Data Envelopment Analysis input-oriented model with variable returns to scale is applied on the data of the commercial banks. The intermediation approach is adopted to define the inputs and outputs. The Czech commercial banks are more cost efficient than Slovak commercial banks. The development of average cost efficiency is similar in the Czech and Slovak banking industry. The most efficient Czech banks are Ceská sporitelna and Sberbank in the Czech banking sector, the most efficient Slovak bank is Privatbanka with 100% efficiency.


2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (04) ◽  
pp. 219-232
Author(s):  
B. J. Rosello ◽  
A. N. Perakis

The ability to transport containers with the least cost at currently required service speeds of approximately 25 knots to maintain a regular operating schedule is the goal of every post-panamax containership operator. The desire to carry more containers is driven by several economies of scale and their implications, which allow for significant savings. A single-screw containership, the Suez Max SS, is designed and evaluated against existing designs that include the P & O Nedlloyd Southhampton, Maersk S-Class, and the twin-screw Suez Max, which is a concept vessel. The containerships are compared using several different ratios and a cost per 20-ft equivalent unit (TEU) evaluation. The design of the Suez Max SS was built to the maximum draft currently allowed by the Suez Canal Authority. An initial stability analysis is performed that utilizes five different container loading conditions. A cost analysis that involves capital, operating, port, and fuel costs and Suez Canal fees is also completed. The four vessels are evaluated on a round-trip schedule between the ports of Rotterdam and Singapore with the same voyage characteristics and conditions. The Suez Max SS is found to be a more economical design with savings of approximately 25% over the existing vessels and a 15% savings over the concept vessel evaluated in the cost analysis. The Suez Max SS utilizes its economies of scale and the advantages of a two-port schedule that allow it to be such a cost-efficient design.


Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luuk S.M. Vissers ◽  
Ingrid C. de Jong ◽  
Peter L.M. van Horne ◽  
Helmut W. Saatkamp

In the 2000s, the idea of a so-called middle-segment arose in North-West Europe to address the criticism on intensive broiler production systems. Middle-segment systems being indoor housing of slower-growing broiler strains at a stocking density ≤38 kg/m2. Previous literature showed that Dutch middle-segment systems entail a relatively large gain in animal welfare at a relatively low increase in costs, i.e., have a high cost-efficiency. The question is to what extent these findings are applicable to other countries. Therefore, the aim of this study is to gain insight in the global prospects of middle-segment systems by exploring the cost-efficiency of these systems in other parts of the world. A set of representative countries, containing the Netherlands, United States and Brazil were selected. Cost-efficiency was defined as the ratio of the change in the level of animal welfare and the change in production costs. The level of animal welfare was measured by the Welfare Quality (WQ) index score. Data was collected from literature and consulting experts. Results show that in the Netherlands, United States and Brazil a change from conventional towards a middle-segment system improves animal welfare in a cost-efficient manner (the Netherlands 9.1, United States 24.2 and Brazil 12.1). Overall, it can be concluded that in general middle-segment production systems provide a considerable increase in animal welfare at a relatively small increase in production costs and therefore offer good prospects for a cost-efficient improvement of broiler welfare.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-410
Author(s):  
Kekoura Sakouvogui ◽  
Saleem Shaik

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the importance of financial liquidity and solvency on US commercial and domestic banks’ cost efficiency while accounting for internal and external factors. Design/methodology/approach The Stochastic Frontier Analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis estimators are used to estimate the cost efficiency of 11,044  US commercial and domestic banks from 2005 to 2017. Using Tobit regression model, the importance of financial liquidity and solvency on cost efficiency is examined. Findings The results provide evidence that the financial liquidity and solvency negatively impact the cost efficiency of US commercial and domestic banks. Overall, US commercial and domestic banks were inefficient during the financial crisis in comparison to the tranquil period. The importance of financial solvency on the cost efficiency was not statistically significant, while the financial liquidity negatively collapsed because of contagion. Finally, the results provide evidence that the amount of total assets matters in the improvement of the cost efficiency. Originality/value This paper estimates and identifies the 2007-2009 financial crisis with liquidity, solvency or both financial factors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 172988141982804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin Chen ◽  
Xinjun Mao ◽  
Shuo Yang ◽  
Qiuzhen Wang

A multi-robot system in resource-constrained environments needs to obtain resources for task execution. Typically, resources can be fetched from fixed stations, which, however, can be costly and even impossible when fixed stations are unavailable, depleted or distant from task execution locations. We present a method that allows robots to acquire urgently required resources from those robots with superfluous residual resources, by conducting rendezvouses with these robots. We consider a scenario where tasks are organised into a schedule on each robot for sequential execution, with cross-schedule dependencies for inter-robot collaboration. We design an algorithm to systematically generate such rendezvouses for entire multi-robot system to increase the proportion of tasks whose resource demands are satisfied. We also design an algorithm that periodically reallocates tasks among robots to improve the cost-efficiency of schedules. Our experiment shows the synergetic effectiveness of both algorithms, when fixed stations are unavailable and all resources are fetched through inter-robot delivery. We also investigate the effectiveness of inter-robot delivery in scenarios where fixed stations are existent but distant from the locations of tasks.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-227
Author(s):  
Phong Hoang Nguyen ◽  
Duyen Thi Bich Pham

PurposeThe paper aims to enrich previous findings for an emerging banking industry such as Vietnam, reporting the difference between the parametric and nonparametric methods when measuring cost efficiency. The purpose of the study is to assess the consistency in issuing policies to improve the cost efficiency of Vietnamese commercial banks.Design/methodology/approachThe cost efficiency of banks is assessed through the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Next, five tests are conducted in succession to analyze the differences in cost efficiency measured by these two methods, including the distribution, the rankings, the identification of the best and worst banks, the time consistency and the determinants of efficiency frontier. The data are collected from the annual financial statements of Vietnamese banks during 2005–2017.FindingsThe results show that the cost efficiency obtained under the SFA models is more consistent than under the DEA models. However, the DEA-based efficiency scores are more similar in ranking order and stability over time. The inconsistency in efficiency characteristics under two different methods reminds policy makers and bank administrators to compare and select the appropriate efficiency frontier measure for each stage and specific economic conditions.Originality/valueThis paper shows the need to control for heterogeneity over banking groups and time as well as for random noise and outliers when measuring the cost efficiency.


Author(s):  
Robert E. Cimera

Abstract The cost efficiency of supported employees with intellectual disabilities who were served by vocational rehabilitation agencies throughout the United State from 2002 to 2007 was explored. Findings indicate that, on average, supported employees with intellectual disabilities were cost-efficient from the taxpayers' perspective regardless of whether they had secondary disabilities. In addition, no changes in cost efficiency were found during the period investigated. The data, however, did demonstrate considerable variability in cost efficiency throughout the United States and its territories.


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