a comprehensive eco efficiency model and dynamics of regional eco efficiency in china abstract in order to have a comprehensive eco efficiency measure which can incorporate productivity resource efficiency environmental efficiency and inter temporal comparability and circularity the paper proposes an extended data envelopment analysis model named gb us sbm model which combines global benchmark technology undesirable output super efficiency and slacks based measure using the gb us sbm model this paper investigates the dynamics of regional eco efficiency in china from 2000 to 2010 the empirical results show that the movement of average eco efficiency of china presents a v shape from 2000 to 2010 with the trough occurred in 2005 but there are big differences of eco efficiency among the regions for the growth of eco efficiency technological progress contributes 56 87 58 21 18 27 62 19 scale efficiency contributes 40 01 61 14 167 43 39 12 efficiency change contributes 3 82 19 99 63 40 2 16 to the eastern middle western and northeastern regions of china respectively these imply that there is a big space for western region to enhance its technological progress and huge space for the whole country to promote its management ability

party systems and electoral volatility in latin america a test of economic institutional and structural explanations three different theoretical explanations are tested for the exceptionally high level of electoral volatility found in contemporary latin america economic voting institutional characteristics of political regimes and party systems and the structure and organization of class cleavages a pooled cross sectional time series regression analysis is conducted on 58 congressional elections and 43 presidential elections in 16 latin american countries during the 1980s and 1990s institutional variables have the most consistent effect on volatility while the influence of economic performance is heavily contingent upon the type of election and whether the dependent variable is operationalized as incumbent vote change or aggregate electoral volatility the results demonstrate that electoral volatility is a function of short term economic perturbations the institutional fragilities of both democratic regimes and party systems and relatively fluid cleavage structures

a non radial dea approach to measuring environmental performance data envelopment analysis dea has gained great popularity in environmental performance measurement because it can provide a synthetic standardized environmental performance index when pollutants are suitably incorporated into the traditional dea framework past studies about the application of dea to environmental performance measurement often follow the concept of radial efficiency measures in this paper we present a non radial dea approach to measuring environmental performance which consists of a non radial dea based model for multilateral environmental performance comparisons and a non radial malmquist environmental performance index for modeling the change of environmental performance over time a case study of oecd countries using the proposed non radial dea approach is also presented it is found that the environmental performance of oecd countries as a whole has been improved from 1995 to 1997

state business relations and economic growth in sub saharan africa abstract this paper contributes to the literature on the determinants of economic growth in sub saharan africa by examining the effect of effective state business relations on economic growth for a panel of 19 sub saharan african countries for the period 1970 2004 we propose a measure that we argue captures the various dimensions of effective state business relations in sub saharan africa we then estimate standard growth regressions using dynamic panel data methods with this measure along with the more conventionally used measures of institutional quality such as degree of executive constraints the rule of law the degree of corruption and the quality of the bureaucracy our results show that effective state business relations contribute significantly to economic growth countries which have shown improvements in state business relations have witnessed higher economic growth controlling for other determinants of economic growth and independent of other measures of institutional quality

some models for estimating technical and scale inefficiencies in data envelopment analysis in management contexts mathematical programming is usually used to evaluate a collection of possible alternative courses of action en route to selecting one which is best in this capacity mathematical programming serves as a planning aid to management data envelopment analysis reverses this role and employs mathematical programming to obtain ex post facto evaluations of the relative efficiency of management accomplishments however they may have been planned or executed mathematical programming is thereby extended for use as a tool for control and evaluation of past accomplishments as well as a tool to aid in planning future activities the ccr ratio form introduced by charnes cooper and rhodes as part of their data envelopment analysis approach comprehends both technical and scale inefficiencies via the optimal value of the ratio form as obtained directly from the data without requiring a priori specification of weights and or explicit delineation of assumed functional forms of relations between inputs and outputs a separation into technical and scale efficiencies is accomplished by the methods developed in this paper without altering the latter conditions for use of dea directly on observational data technical inefficiencies are identified with failures to achieve best possible output levels and or usage of excessive amounts of inputs methods for identifying and correcting the magnitudes of these inefficiencies as supplied in prior work are illustrated in the present paper a new separate variable is introduced which makes it possible to determine whether operations were conducted in regions of increasing constant or decreasing returns to scale in multiple input and multiple output situations the results are discussed and related not only to classical single output economics but also to more modern versions of economics which are identified with contestable market theories

measuring ecological efficiency with data envelopment analysis dea abstract the measurement of ecological efficiency provides some important information for the companies environmental management ecological efficiency is usually measured by comparing environmental performance indicators data envelopment analysis dea shows a high potential to support such comparisons as no explicit weights are needed to aggregate the indicators in general dea assumes that inputs and outputs are goods but from an ecological perspective also bads have to be considered in the literature bads are treated in different and sometimes arbitrarily chosen ways this article aims at the systematic derivation of ecologically extended dea models starting from the assumptions of dea in production theory and activity analysis a generalisation of basic dea models is derived by incorporating a multi dimensional value function f extended preference structures can be considered by different specifications of f e g specifications for ecologically motivated applications of dea

counting the number of parties an alternative index i propose an alternative index to operationalize the variable number and size of parties in a party system to support it i present a critical overview of the two most common indices laakso and taagepera s effective number of parties and kesselman and wildgen s hyperfractionalization showing the causes of their weakness then i explain the computational logic of my alternative number of parties and compare it with the other two using hypothetical cases after that i contrast the laakso taagepera index with mine using data from actual elections between 1945 and 1981 i conclude that my index outperforms the other two as an operationalization of the variable number and size of parties

neopatrimonialism and the political economy of economic performance in africa critical reflections during the past two decades neopatrimonialism has become the convenient all purpose and ubiquitous moniker for african governance the school of thought behind this research program which the author refers to as the neopatrimonialism school has produced an impressive literature on africa its analysis informs policymakers and its language permeates media reportage on african states while neopatrimonialism has long been a focus of development studies in recent times it has assumed politically and economically exigent status the school identifies causal links between neopatrimonialism and economic performance and makes predictions drawing from what is referred to as the logic of neopatrimonialism neopatrimonialism is said to account for trade policies hyperinflation economic stagnation low investment in infrastructure urban bias andultimately the lack of economic development in africa this article examines the empirical basis of predictions and policy prescriptions it argues that while descriptive of the social practices of the states and individuals that occupy different positions within african societies the concept of neopatrimonialism has little analytical content and no predictive value with respect to economic policy and performance

market reform programmatic de alignment and party system stability in latin america although democratic regimes in latin america since the early 1980s have been surprisingly durable party systems in much of the region continue to experience very high levels of electoral instability a critical juncture approach to institutional change suggests that variation in party system stability is related to the impact of market liberalization in the 1980s and 1990s on the programmatic alignment or dealignment of partisan competition market reforms that were adopted by conservative leaders and opposed by a major leftist rival aligned party systems programmatically allowing societal opposition to be channeled into institutionalized forms of competition that were highly stable in the postadjustment era by contrast bait and switch reforms adopted by populist or leftist leaders were programmatically dealigning for party systems leaving them vulnerable to highly destabilizing reactive sequences in the aftermath to the reform process including mass social protests the demise of historic conservati

state failure and success in uganda and zimbabwe the logic of political decay and reconstruction in africa abstract this article uses the post colonial experiences of uganda and zimbabwe to demonstrate both the strengths and weaknesses of competing theoretical explanations for problems of state and economic failure in africa it shows that they all explain some but not all of these processes it demonstrates the crucial role of contextual circumstances and ongoing structural changes in each country in determining the success or failure of policy regimes and of current prospects for a long term transformation to liberal democratic capitalism

eco efficiency measurement of industrial sectors in china a hybrid super efficiency dea analysis abstract eco efficiency is of great significance in the attainment of a sustainable society and is the most severe issue facing industrial sectors in china in this work a hybrid super efficiency data envelopment analysis dea was conducted to measure eco efficiency and analyze the problem of inefficiency facing industrial sectors in china dea has been widely used in eco efficiency analysis however existing dea models focus on the evolution and comparison of eco efficiency values and do not consider the evolution characteristics of the input nor undesirable output inefficiency and neglect the radial and non radial classifications of input and output indices simultaneously thus this work proposes a hybrid super efficiency dea model which combines hybrid dea with super efficiency dea separating the input and undesirable output variables into radial and non radial parts using variable correlations for the panel data of the industrial sectors the malmquist index is introduced in this approach subsequently this approach is illustrated using a real data set from 22 industrial sectors in china corresponding to the period of 2006 2015 results show that eco efficiencies of the 22 industrial sectors increased consistently from 2006 to 2015 due to a lack of momentum in sustained growth technological progress regarding the improvement of eco efficiency requires acceleration more and more sectors have achieved rapid enhancements in input and undesirable output inefficiencies but 10 traditional sectors with high resource consumption and heavy emissions of pollutants remain inefficient

a back door brain drain abstract the long run effect of migration solely by unskilled workers is that skilled workers in the home country acquire additional human capital yet their share in the country s workforce falls consequently the country s average level of human capital is lowered

exploring the existence of kuznets curve in countries environmental efficiency using dea window analysis abstract this paper using data envelopment dea window analysis and generalized method of moments gmm estimators examines the existence of a kuznets type relationship between countries environmental efficiency and national income specifically it measures the environmental efficiency of 17 oecd countries by constructing environmental efficiency ratios for the time period 1980 2002 the analysis with the application of dynamic panel data reveals that there isn t a kuznets type relationship between environmental efficiency and income allowing for dynamic effects we find that the adjustment to the target ratio is instantaneous we also find that increased economic activity does not always ensure environmental protection and thus the path of growth is important in addition to the growth itself

party system competition and private sector development in africa abstractdemocratic transitions by many african countries have generated much analysis of the organisational features of political parties or their role in voter mobilisation during elections yet scholars have largely overlooked how parties negotiate economic policymaking or interact with the private sector in countries that are incipient democracies and emerging markets this article argues that the stability or fragmentation of the party system affects patterns of private sector development and shapes linkages between the state business and labour it compares mozambique and zambia to demonstrate how variations in party system characteristics influence the relationship between economic and political interests

from formlessness to structure the institutionalization of competitive party systems in africa giovanni sartori once described african party systems as formless our contribution challenges this view in an era of resurgent multipartism that swept through the subcontinent in the early 1990s and continues until today the article brings together contemporary research on african party systems with the wider disciplinary literature on party system institutionalization using a data set including all continuous election sequences in africa from 1950 to 2008 we find that africa has some of the most volatile party systems ever recorded and yet tremendous diversity across regimes we test the relative impact of political institutions economic performance the history of party system development and social cleavage structure on party system institutionalization in africa we find that its party systems have been shaped by a set of factors unique to the subcontinent but some of the general global patterns of party system development hold true in africa as well

eco efficiency outcomes of mergers and acquisitions in the european electricity industry abstract the european electricity industry was recently liberalized in response there was a surge of mergers and acquisitions m as this study addresses the effects of m as on the eco efficiency of european electricity producers in 2005 2013 the environmental production technology comprises co2 emissions as an undesirable output i compute eco efficiency using data envelopment analysis dea and the malmquist luenberger productivity index which are both based on radial directional distance function i observe a decreasing trend in average eco efficiency which contradicts the previously documented moderate efficiency gains of liberalization the effects of m as are isolated using second step fractional regression the domestic horizontal m as which are systematically regulated by the european commission have no impact although one cross border horizontal deal has a same year effect of roughly 3 this effect becomes approximately 1 5 over a two year timespan vertical domestic m as have a short run negative impact of 3 6 that does not persist over time vertical international m as reduce the eco efficiency by 2 1 two years after their completion limited evidence suggests that the conglomerate deals are at least not harmful the policy implication is that the merger regulation should be based on dea eco efficiency measures regulators should devote more attention to cross border m as and particularly to vertical deals

political parties and uncertainty in developing democracies this article lays out a theoretical framework for understanding the effects of political uncertainty on party development and strategies of mobilization and competition defining uncertainty as the imprecision with which political actors are able to predict future interactions the authors identify three types of political uncertainty regime uncertainty economic uncertainty and institutional uncertainty they argue that political uncertainty is particularly high among developing democracies contributing to puzzling empirical patterns of party development and competition in these contexts taking into account the role of uncertainty in the strategic decision making of party elites will help scholars better understand the differences between parties in advanced and developing democracies but it can also help scholars understand the less dramatic differences between parties even within advanced democracies the authors theoretical framework can be applied broadly since uncertainty informs the strategic

economic conditions and incumbent support in africa s new democracies evidence from zambia in this article the authors investigate the effects of economic conditions on support for an incumbent regime in a new african democracy drawing on two unique data sources from zambia the results of a 1 200 respondent postelection survey and a pair of 10 000 household poverty surveys conducted in the same years as that country s first two posttransition general elections the authors find evidence that declining economic conditions coincide with the withdrawal of support for the incumbent president although the effects of changing economic conditions are relatively small compared to noneconomic determinants of the vote such as ethnic affiliation and urban rural location the authors also find that to the extent that voters respond to declining economic conditions they do so via withdrawal from the electoral process rather than via support for the opposition the findings suggest that african electorates are at least modestly responsive to economic trends but that noneconomic motivations still predomin

sustainability assessment of u s manufacturing sectors an economic input output based frontier approach abstract due to increasing concerns related to emerging environmental problems as a result of industrial activities sustainable manufacturing has become a topic of considerable interest worldwide in this study economic input output life cycle assessment eio lca and data envelopment analysis dea a linear programming based mathematical optimization model were integrated to analyze the eco efficiency of manufacturing sectors in the united states this integration was achieved by aggregating different environmental pressures into a single eco efficiency score first greenhouse gas emissions energy use water withdrawals hazardous waste generation and toxic releases of each manufacturing sector were quantified using the eio lca model second an input oriented dea multiplier model was developed third eco efficiency scores and rankings target and performance improvement values of each environmental category were determined finally the sensitivity of each environmental impact category was analyzed analysis results showed that five industrial sectors such as petroleum and coal products manufacturing food manufacturing printing and related support activities ordinance and accessories manufacturing and motor vehicle manufacturing were 100 eco efficient compared to other manufacturing sectors on the other hand approximately 90 of u s manufacturing sectors were found to be inefficient and require significant improvements in their life cycle performance among the environmental impact categories energy use had the highest sensitivity on the eco efficiency of u s manufacturing sectors and therefore improved energy efficiency in industrial processes and successful policy making toward increasing the share of renewable energy utilization were highly recommended

environmental efficiency and economic growth of china a ray slack based model analysis abstract the chinese economy has been experiencing rapid growth since the implementation of the reform and opening up policy however at the same time it faces issues regarding resource savings and environmental protection which are important aspects of the new industrialization therefore this study conducts data envelopment analysis dea to evaluate the environmental efficiency of chinese regions certain existing dea models account for undesirable outputs and do not elucidate the weak disposable relationship between undesirable and desirable outputs thus polar theory is introduced among the dea modeling in this study first drawing on stochastic frontier analysis ray stochastic frontier analysis and dea we propose a ray slack based model rsbm to evaluate provincial environmental efficiencies in china from 2004 to 2012 subsequently an rsbm malmquist luenberger total factor productivity index is structured finally economic growth environmental efficiency and energy consumption are analyzed using spatial panel econometrics as this study treats industrial waste as undesirable outputs the rsbm results show that the environmental efficiencies in the east are the highest while those in the central regions are the lowest the spatial econometric analysis reveals that the ratios of direct to total elasticity and those of direct to total effect for capital labor and energy input variables are fixed furthermore the study provides policy implications and suggestions for future research