LA VALORACION DE LOS EXPERTOS SOBRE LAS ESTADISTICAS RELATIVAS AL CONOCIMIENTO DE LOS TURISTAS

El conocimiento del comportamiento del turista, a partir de la información que generan y recogen tanto administraciones públicas, como privadas, resulta clave para la planificación de los destinos. Por ello, es fundamental conocer la opinión de los expertos al respecto. La realización de entrevistas personales a diferentes actores de la administración pública, la empresa privada y el ámbito universitario ha permitido detectar necesidades y demandas reales de información en relación al comportamiento del turista, así como realizar una reflexión relativa a la necesidad de la formulación de un Sistema de Información Turístico público. Knowledge of tourist behavior, based on the information generated and collected by both public and private management, is key for destination planning. Therefore, in this regard, it is essential to know the experts' opinions. Carrying out personal interviews with different players in the public administration, private companies and the academy has enabled finding actual needs and requirements of information regarding tourist behaviors, as well as reflecting on the necessity of the development of a public Tourist Information System.

The potential direct economic impact and private management costs of an invasive alien species: Xylella fastidiosa on Lebanese wine grapes

Since its outbreak in 2013 in Italy, the harmful bacterium Xylella fastidiosa has continued to spread throughout the Euro-Mediterranean basin and, more recently, in the Middle East region. Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa is the causal agent of Pierce’s disease on grapevines. At present, this alien subspecies has not been reported in Lebanon but if this biological invader was to spread with no cost-effective and sustainable management, it would put Lebanese vineyards at a certain level of risk. In the absence of an Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa outbreak, the gross revenue generated by Lebanese wine growers is estimated as close to US$22 million/year for an average period of 5 years (2015–2019). The potential quantitative economic impacts of an Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa outbreak and particularly, the private control costs have not been assessed yet for this country as well as for others which Xylella fastidiosa may invade. Here, we have aimed to estimate the potential direct economic impact on growers’ livelihoods and provide the first estimate of the private management costs that a theoretical Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa outbreak in Lebanon would involve. For this purpose, we used a Partial Budget approach at the farm gate. For the country as a whole, we estimated that a hypothetical full spread of Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa on Lebanese wine grapes would lead to maximum potential gross revenue losses of almost US$ 11 million for an average recovery period of 4 years, to around US$ 82.44 million for an average grapevine life span period of 30 years in which infected plants are not replaced at all. The first yearly estimated additional management cost is US$853 per potentially infected hectare. For a recovery period of 4 years, the aggregate estimated additional cost would reach US$2374/ha, while the aggregate net change in profit would be US$-4046/ha. Furthermore, additional work will be needed to estimate the public costs of an Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa outbreak in Lebanon. The observed costs in this study support the concerned policy makers and stakeholders to implement a set of reduction management options against Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa at both national and wine growers’ levels. This re-emerging alien biota should not be neglected in this country. This understanding of the potential direct economic impact of Xylella fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa and the private management costs can also benefit further larger-scale studies covering other potential infection areas and plant hosts.

Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Ownership Model (Public vs. Private) on the Efficiency of Urban Rail Firms

The discussion over public vs. private management in the operation of public transport has been on the research agenda for the past decade. Several studies have analyzed the benefits of private management; however, no study has analyzed the effects of the management model while controlling for other external factors such as economic crises and political factors. This study intends to focus on the impact of the ownership model (public vs. private) of urban rail firms on their efficiency, while expanding the existing literature by controlling for economic and political factors. The methodology consisted of the calculation of DEA scores and subsequent use of regression analysis to identify the main determinants. We used a data set of four Portuguese rail firms during the period 2009–2018 along with five distinct efficiency scores. The results show that privately managed firms tend to be more efficient, but with distinct behavior depending on the economic cycle. In periods of growing GDP, private firms lose their potential superiority over public firms. The results also show that election years and unemployment rate also play a role in understanding the efficiency scores of these firms.

Peruvian Electrical Distribution Firms’ Efficiency Revisited: A Two-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis

The extent to which the structural reform of the Peruvian electricity market in the 1990s has improved the technical efficiency levels of the distribution companies and whether some firm specific explanatory variables had influenced upon the efficiency was analysed for first time using a second stage Tobit model to study the influence of some firm specific explanatory variables on efficiency. Some authors have argued that the use of Tobit regression is inappropriate in the second stage of DEA and have suggested using other recently developed options. Due to this, it might be worth revisiting this issue and adding those other alternative models to check whether the conclusions obtained with the Tobit model could be upheld. The nine alternative models estimated allow us to confirm that the incentives generated by the reform process led to the firms becoming more efficient. Moreover, private management and the ratio of low voltage sales to medium voltage sales for each company positively affect efficiency, whereas investment per customer is negatively correlated to it.

Does privatization make Brazilian airports more efficient?

Airport concessions to private management began in Brazil in 2011 to address infrastructure bottlenecks and the need for investments. Productivity improvements after privatization need to be measured and efficiency gains can help to identify strategic points where to intervene both in current and upcoming concessions. However, previous studies have applied neither the Slacks-Based Measure Data Analysis Envelopment models nor the second stage Tobit regression to evaluate airport efficiency, especially in the context of Brazilian airport privatization. The objective of this study is to verify if privatization contributes to improving Brazilian airports' productive efficiency compared with public airports, using variable slacks and identifying new socio-economic variables that may influence the productive efficiency index. A two-stage SBM-DEA approach found that only 40% of the sample among 28 airports are efficient, evidencing poor management overall, and the slacks show the sectors that need most attention and investments. Based on the productive process and the sample evaluated, the study concludes that privatization of Brazilian airports did not improve their production efficiency. A revision of the contracts in the first round of concessions is suggested, as contractual obligation may result in lower production efficiency.

Factors Determining the Students’ Choice of Private Management College in Kathmandu

Educational service is one of the most lucrative businesses at present. Nepal is getting tremendous growth in education sector. College managers are not clear why student choose particular college. This study analyzes major factors that determine the students’ choice of Management College in Kathmandu. This study tries to test the effects of convenient location of the college, friends’ choice of college, advertisement, image, past performances, fun, fee, faculties, resource centers and physical environment on choice of college. This study finds image and physical environment of the college only affect significantly in choice of the college.

Spain

This chapter offers an in-depth look at health politics and the tax-financed, universal health system in Spain. It traces the development of the Spanish healthcare system, focusing in particular on its double transition in the 1980s and 1990s from a centralized social insurance system, mostly funded through workers’ and employers’ contributions, to a decentralized universal model financed by general taxation. The new national health system aimed at covering all residents and transferred healthcare competences to the regions, i.e. the seventeen Autonomous Communities, a process completed in 2001. Key issues include rationalization, harmonization, and territorial equity-building of the decentralized healthcare system; efficiency improvement through the introduction of private management elements; and cost containment to bolster the system’s financial sustainability in the context of growing demand and scarce resources. As the chapter argues, these challenges along with the remarkable changes in the political party system have increased the political salience of healthcare in public debate in the 2010s, but the prospects for developing consensual healthcare policies have worsened, such that structural problems are likely to persist.