Here artificial neural networks (ANNs) are employed for efficiency purposes. First, the main features of ANNs are presented. Then, common techniques of the efficiency literature are reviewed: parametric (deterministic and stochastic) and non-parametric (Data Envelopment Analysis [DEA] and Free...

Data drain for peer active units operating in the same sector is a major factor that prevents policy makers from developing flawless strategic plans for their organisation. This study introduces a hybrid model that incorporates a purely deterministic method, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and...

We consider a semiparametric distributed lag model in which the “news impact curve” m is nonparametric but the response is dynamic through some linear filters. A special case of this is a nonparametric regression with serially correlated errors. We propose an estimator of the news impact...

Research on human development has received considerable importance in India from both academics and a policy point of view. However, previous studies on human development have mainly focused on the equity aspects of development without considering the resource base. The current study seeks to...

This paper studies estimation and specification testing in threshold regression with endogeneity. Three key results differ from those in regular models. First, both the threshold point and the threshold effect parameters are shown to be identified without the need for instrumentation. Second, in...

This paper uses an innovative approach to evaluate educational performance of Spanish students in PISA 2009. Our purpose is to decompose their overall inefficiency between different components with a special focus on studying the differences between public and state subsidized private schools....

In this paper we propose an innovative approach based on life satisfaction to estimate efficiency measures for individuals considering how they convert their resources into higher levels of happiness. We use an extension of the conditional nonparametric robust approach which allows us to...

One learns two main lessons from studying the great quantity of banking efficiency literature. These lessons regard the heterogeneity in results and the absence of a comprehensive review aimed at understanding the reasons for this variability. Surprisingly, although this issue is well-known, it...

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a widely applied nonparametric method for comparative evaluation of firms’ efficiency. A deficiency of DEA is that the efficiency scores assigned to each firm are sensitive to sampling variations, particularly when small samples are used. In addition, an...

This paper uses a fully nonparametric approach to estimate efficiency measures for primary care units incorporating the effect of (exogenous) environmental factors. This methodology allows us to account for different types of variables (continuous and discrete) describing the main...