In productivity analysis an important issue is to detect how external (environmental) factors, exogenous to the production process and not under the control of the producer, might influence the production process and the resulting efficiency of the firms. Most of the traditional approaches...

El presente documento aborda al turismo como un factor principal en el desarrollo y crecimiento de un país, generando más que un progreso económico, un beneficio social y cultural. No obstante, también trae afectaciones negativas a la biodiversidad y ecosistemas por la contaminación. Un...

Two visions of aid effectiveness and allocation are compared. The first, corresponding to the new aid paradigm, argues that aid is only effective if domestic policies are appropriate. The second, in contrast, argues that aid effectiveness depends on the external and climatic environment: the...

In Kerala, malaria had been eradicated as early as in 1965. But imported malaria used to occur even thereafter; and indigenous malaria showed signs of resurgence from 1969 onwards. Recently an increasing trend of both imported and indigenous malaria cases has been observed. Malaria began to...

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...

This paper describes the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to a highway maintenance setting, using measures of inputs, outputs and outcomes reported by New Zealand local authorities. A general framework of performance measurement is developed and illustrated through application to...

Despite the impressive growth in the number of firms run by women entrepreneurs, most of these businesses continue to remain small and women-owned firms have not grown as fast as male entrepreneurs. There are many reasons that may help explain the growth limitations in women-owned firms. Among...