This paper analyzes the efficiency of Czech small and medium enterprises. We use the data from 2002 to 2005 of thirty manufacturing industries, each divided into five subgroups according to the number of employees. We employ standard and advanced robust data envelopment analysis (DEA) to obtain...

In this paper we compare two flexible estimators of technical efficiency in a cross-sectional setting: the nonparametric kernel SFA estimator of Fan, Li and Weersink (1996) to the nonparametric bias corrected DEA estimator of Kneip, Simar and Wilson (2008). We assess the finite sample...

In this paper we investigate the determinants of local governments' technical efficiency in road maintenance for a panel of German counties using a broad variety of estimation approaches. More specifically, we calculate efficiency indices using non-parametric (DEA) and parametric (stochastic...

The need for monitoring countries’ overall performance in sustainable development (SD) is widely recognized, but the methods for aggregating vast amounts of empirical data remain rather crude. This paper examines the so-called ‘benefit of doubt’ weighting method as a tool for identifying...

In this paper, we consider how Russian Agriculture has developed since the constitution of the Russian Federation. The analysis is based on Oblast level data of 75 territorial units during the period from 1993 to 1998 and is focusing on technical efficiency (TE), technological change, and (both...

Im November 2007 ist die Anreizregulierungsverordnung in der Energiewirtschaft in Kraft getreten. Sie hat zum Ziel, mehr Wettbewerb auf den Strom- und Gasmärkten im Einklang mit EU-Vorgaben zu gewährleisten. Die konkrete Umsetzung der Regulierung im Jahre 2009 wird zur Zeit diskutiert. Diese...

Efficiency and quality of services are crucial to today's banking industries. The competition in this section has become increasingly intense, as a result of fast improvements in Technology. Therefore, performance analysis of the banking sectors attracts more attention these days. Even though...

Focusing in particular on upper secondary education, this paper examines whether the relatively high level of expenditure on education in the Nordic countries is matched by high output from the educational sector, both in terms of student enrolment and indicators of output quality in the form of...