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The Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta are two regions with the highest level of economic development in China, and their port development is at the forefront of the country. This study measures the efficiency of 23 major ports in the two deltas from 2010 to 2018 using the meta Dynamic Directional Distance Function (D.D.F.) model and discusses the technology gap and the reasons for inefficiency of the ports. The research results show that 80% of the ports in these two deltas are inefficient. The Yangtze River Delta's port efficiency is higher than that of the Pearl River Delta, but the internal efficiency difference of the Yangtze River Delta port cluster is more significant. The efficiency ranking of most ports is inconsistent under the meta-frontier (M.F.) and group frontier (G.F.), and the average technology gap ratio (T.G.R.) of ports in the Pearl River Delta gradually exceeds that in the Yangtze River Delta. The inefficiency of ports in the Pearl River Delta is caused by input factors, and the inefficiency of ports in the Yangtze River Delta is also related to the containerisation level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyses the improvement and differences of digital financial coverage and depth of usage on financial efficiency using the SBM dynamic DEA method. The results show that digital finance's depth of usage having bigger influence on improving the financial system efficiency. The breadth of digital financial coverage is more conducive to improving input efficiency, while its depth of usage is more conducive to improving output efficiency. Considering both the depth of usage and breadth of coverage, in the east region the financial industry efficiency is higher than that in the non-east region.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accommodation and catering industry efficiencies have been widely evaluated from destination, market concentration, and catering supply chain management perspectives; however, few studies have dynamically evaluated the overall accommodation and catering industry efficiencies under the influence of the internet. Therefore, to go some way to filling this research gap, this study used catering and accommodation industry data and related internet data from 31 Chinese provinces from 2012 to 2016 and employed a Dynamic DDF DEA model to evaluate the catering and accommodation industry efficiencies and the influence of the rising internet connections. It found that: 1. the overall catering and accommodation revenue efficiencies were higher when the internet connection inputs were considered; and 2. there were significant catering and accommodation income distribution differences between the eastern, central and western regions, with higher efficiencies being found in the more developed east. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research applies the dynamic slack-based measure (DSBM) model to evaluate the dynamic efficiency of manufacturing companies in the long run and uses the Censored Least Absolute Deviations (CLAD) model to analyze the effect of corporate governance on their overall efficiency and the efficiency of each input factor. We find the following main results. First, overall efficiency of the manufacturing industry listed companies is low. 2) Debt efficiency is lower than the efficiency of shareholders' equity and exhibits a downward trend. 3) Labor efficiency is the lowest among all inputs. 4) The efficiency of the medicine and bio-products industry is the highest, while the efficiency of the paper and printing industry (which causes serious pollution) is the lowest. 5) Companies with low export intensity and high capital intensity are the most efficient, while companies with high export intensity and low capital intensity are the least efficient. 6) Ownership concentration and efficiency have a significantly positive U-shape relationship. 7) Board size and efficiency have a significantly inverted U-shape relationship. 8) An actual controller with a state-owned nature has a significantly negative impact on efficiency. 9) Executive compensation, equity incentive, and institutional ownership have a significantly positive impact on efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because the liquor industry is an important industry in China, alcohol companies have greater social responsibilities when upgrading their production processes to improve efficiencies. Two main data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods have been used for efficiency analyses: radial models, such as CCR (Charnes, Cooper, Rhodes) and BCC (Banker, Charnes, Cooper) and non-radial methods such as SBM (slacks-based model); however, both have disadvantages. The radial DEA model ignores the non-radial slacks and the non-radial DEA model ignores the characteristics of the same proportion in the radial DEA model. Therefore, this research used a dynamic two-stage directional distance function (DDF) model to analyse the production efficiencies of Chinese listed liquor companies from 2016 to 2018 by evaluating each company's poverty alleviation input efficiencies, business operations efficiencies, and their social responsibility efficiencies, which was based on their wastewater treatment efficiencies. To overcome the disadvantages in traditional data envelopment models, the DDF model consisted of both input and output direction vectors, the indicator values for which indicated their relative importance or priorities. The analyses found that the indicator efficiencies at most liquor companies had declined, with the poverty alleviation indicator efficiencies being generally lower than the wastewater treatment indicator efficiencies. Several policy and management recommendations are given to improve the overall corporate efficiency and social responsibility in the Chinese liquor industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research uses a hybrid dynamic DEA model to measure the expense efficiency of wastewater treatment improvement by taking account of both the initial time and location gap between regions as a slack factor in a developing country. We empirically examine the expense efficiency of wastewater treatment by combining radial and non-radial methods, employing a radial measurement to evaluate the efficiency of the radial variables, and comparing with a non-radial measurement to evaluate the efficiency of the slack variable. The study further sets up a dynamic model to reflect each region's economic development trends with two notable discoveries. First, the expense efficiency of wastewater treatment in most regions is inefficient. Second, some regions are subjected to existing disadvantages in both time and geographic location gap and thus are hindered by obstacles in the expense efficiency of wastewater treatment improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the future promotion of Paris Agreement, the European Union (EU) has become an object of concern in the world through its own performance at improving energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions. This research collects data from 28 EU countries and Norway from 2010 to 2015 to evaluate their energy and CO2 emission efficiency through a meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function. Different from previous studies, only considering the individually countries efficiency comparison, this research divides the sample countries into two groups, the group of North-Western European countries and the group of Central-Eastern European countries. The empirical results show that there is a declining trend in the efficiency value of Central-Eastern European countries from 2010 (0.832) to 2015 (0.792), and a significant average technology gap ratio at 0.904. We then compare energy and CO2 emissions' room for improvements for specific countries and conclude that the Central-Eastern European countries should learn from the management experience of the North-Western European countries. It is an effective way to improve the energy and CO2 emission performances of EU countries by restricting the transfer of high carbon emissions industries and encouraging the long-term sustainable development of renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses resampling data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the performance of Taiwan's financial institutions over the period 2012–2017. The results show that Tachin, Grand, CapitalFS, and Fubon are among the top 10 for good performance, but they present a larger confidence interval bias (I-bias), indicating their inputs and outputs are unstable, and thus these financial institutions must improve their overall business strategy. The insurance group (INSG) has higher efficiency than the financial holding group (FHG) and securities group (SECG) over the period 2012–2017, showing that its performance is relatively stable and that its future performance trends do not change much. The efficiencies of the groups exhibit very significant differences in higher and other of return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) via the Wilcoxon test. The business efficiency of INSG is the best and that of SECG is the worst. Overall, the government should provide a more prudent strategy to monitor the operations of SECG groups in order to reduce investors' investment risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, as China has become the factory of the world, China's industrial sectors have become the country's main source of energy consumption and emissions including CO2, SO2, NOx and soot. This article will use the non-radial directional dispersion function model (DDF) to explore ways to improve both the energy efficiency and the emission efficiency of China's industrial sectors. Based on current research, this article proposes a new projected input for the treatment of industrial waste gas, and optimizes the projected input and output settings. The data analysis shows that there is room for improvement in China's energy efficiency, and its regional imbalances have expanded. The Chinese government is urged to pay more attention to the improvement of energy efficiency in the central and western regions, and to provide more policy support. Simultaneously, the paper attemtps to establish measurement indexes to improve the efficiency of emission reduction. As a result, the authors suggest that increasing government expenditure can play a positive role in the overall improvement of emission reduction efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is vital to economic progress; however, global climate change and environmental damage have been caused by the increased need for fossil fuel resources. The rapid increase in urbanization and the associated construction projects have resulted a significant pollution, such as CO2, SO2, NO2 and particulate matter (PM2.5), which has begun to cause severe health problems and damage environments. This study used a dynamic data envelopment analysis to analyze the environmental energy, CO2, AQI (air quality index), and gross domestic product (GDP) efficiencies in 31 cities in China from 2013 to 2016. It was found that except for five cities – Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Lhasa and Nanning – that achieved efficiency scores of 1, there was significant room for improvement in urban air pollution indicator efficiencies. The AQI efficiency scores in most cities were generally significantly lower than the CO2 efficiency scores; however, the AQI was observed to have a greater impact. Therefore, emphasis needs to be placed on AQI control and governance. The average efficiency of the eastern region is better than average efficiency of the western region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid economic growth in China has resulted in a significant increase in particulate matter (PM2.5) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), the reduction of which has become a primary government focus. However, as the energy consumption and air pollutant emissions in Chinese cities have very significant regional characteristics, individual governance measures are necessary. This study used 2013 to 2016 energy consumption data from 31 Chinese cities to evaluate the dynamic efficiency of the urban environments. Labor, fixed assets, and energy consumption were taken as the inputs, gross domestic product (GDP) was taken as the output, and particulate matter (PM2.5) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) were taken as the carry-over variable indicators. Using a meta-frontier dynamic DEA model, the 31 cities were classified into high-income and upper-middle-income cities, the overall 2013-2016 energy consumption and air pollutant efficiency scores were analyzed, and improvements and changes were recommended to increase the efficiencies. Large differences were found in the energy consumption and air pollution emissions efficiency scores and the needed improvements, with the hig-income cities performing better overall than the upper-middle-income cities. While there have been some significant improvements in SO2 emissions, PM2.5 improvements have been far slower. Therefore, in most cities, more control measures are needed to control PM2.5 emissions. However, in addition to improving PM2.5 in the upper-middle-income cities, SO2treatments are also needed. Implications: There are big differences in the expectation of improvement of the two pollutants in all cities. In many Western cities, the expectation of PM2.5 improvement in the past years has not been reduced, but has been expanding. This shows that the central government has unified the air pollution control policies and the existing air pollution control measures formulated and implemented by the local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking listed and Over-The-Counter (OTC) Taiwanese companies in 2008-2010 as samples, this study divides them two groups - crisis companies and normal companies - and employs Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) benchmarking models to calculate their operation efficiency values respectively. We then examine the relationship between corporate governance and operation performance. We propose a systematic framework of four input variables and two output variables to test and substantiate the performance of these two groups of companies. Our empirical results show the following: Most traditional industries are low-risk and non-crisis, compared with higher risk for high-tech industries; a company whose efficiency value is below 1 should actively improve its operational efficiency. Lower-risk traditional industries imply a higher stockholding ratio of directors along with a lower efficiency value. A negative correlation exists in traditional industries between the stockholding ratio of directors and the possibility of a financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article selects G20 countries during the period 1991 to 2007 and uses Seiford and Zhu’s (2002) data envelopment analysis and Malmquist Index to calculate and analyze these 19 countries’ productivity efficiency based on fossil-fuel CO2emissions, studying the effects of the undesirable output to productivity efficiency ranking. The input variables are industry and population. The output variances are gross domestic product and the amount of fossil-fuel CO2emissions from 1991 to 2007. The undesirable output is fossil-fuel CO2emissions. The result shows that in order to reduce CO2emissions after the Kyoto Protocol, some countries have spent a lot of effort but with results lower in productivity than before. Only the U.S. can offer the best productivity, but is unaffected by CO2emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hybrid DEA model can solve the difference between radial inputs and non-radial inputs and evaluate efficiency. This is a pioneering study that uses the hybrid DEA model, evaluating the proportionate inputs with a radial measure and the non-proportionate inputs with a non-radial measure, in order to examine the impact of non-performing loans (NPLs) on the efficiency of Taiwan's banking sector from 2006 to 2010. In summary, this research demonstrates the following: (1) Only nine banks remained in the top efficiency list during these years: China Development Industrial Bank, Mega International Commercial Bank, Chinatrust Commercial Bank, Cathay United Bank, Bank of Kaohsiung, Industrial Bank of Taiwan, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Land Bank, and Bank of Taiwan. (2) Risk is an important factor that should be taken into consideration when evaluating banking efficiency. (3) From the hybrid DEA model, we find that most of the inefficient banks have an inefficiency factor caused primarily by too many NPLs (risk). (4) The efficiency of Taiwan's large-scale banks is significantly better than the small-scale bank. By looking at the inefficiency index, the large-scale bank's inefficiency is caused by NPLs. For the small-scale bank, both radial variables and non-radial variables have equal importance in improving its efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated technology gaps of productive and service processes of Taiwanese non-chain, franchised, and company-owned hotels by using a meta-frontier model to calculate the meta-technology ratio (MTR) that represents the technical difference between types. We further develop an approach, extending from the meta-frontier model, to analyze the influence of technology gaps on inefficiency. The empirical results show that the productive MTR of non-chain type is calculated as higher than chain type; the efficiency and MTR of franchised type are higher than company-owned type in both processes; and the inefficiency of non-chain hotels is primarily derived from relative operational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study uses the data envelopment analysis model to measure the optimal occupancy rate, operational, and profitability efficiency of Taiwan's international tourist hotels in a single implementation. The efficiencies calculated show that a high performance in operational efficiency does not necessarily ensure high profitability. Through optimal occupancy rate analysis, this study shows that increasing sales is not the best way to improve performance. For some hotels, it is actually better to decrease the occupancy rate in order to improve operational and profitability efficiencies. Additionally, evidence is presented that shows that inconsistent occupancy rate targets can be remedied through an empirical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we adopt the two Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methods, including Banker-Charnes-Cooper (BCC) and Slacks-based Measure (SBM) super efficiency, to investigate whether a bank's technical efficiency index's results, incorporating account risk and not incorporating account risk, differ significantly. The information is obtained from 43 Taiwanese banks for the period 1998 to 2002. We also employ the nonradial and slacks-based Malmquist Total Factor Productivity (TFP) index to measure the impact of productivity change on the panel data. Our empirical results from the DEA approach are summarized as follows: (1) Loan quality factors have an impact on a bank's efficiency. In general, the bank with a higher degree of problem loans drops down its efficiency by incorporating account risk; however, the bank with a lower degree of problem loans increases its efficiency by incorporating account risk. (2) Super efficiency provides a good framework for ranking efficient units. (3) Based on the nonradial and slacks-based Malmquist TFP index, we find that bank productivity has increased and technical change has improved. (4) In Taiwan, bank with a higher performance will be more secure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopts the data envelopment analysis (DEA), including the Banker, Charnes, and Cooper and system DEA estimation, to investigate the operating efficiency of Taiwanese Hotels under different efficient frontier systems. The results are summarised as follows: (1) the efficiency of chain-operated hotels are higher than the efficiency of independent-operated hotels; (2) if different frontier systems are assessed by the same frontier, then it will cause a wrong judgement in efficient reference sets; (3) if the hotels are treated as independent samples, then some inefficient hotels are mistaken as being efficient; and (4) the independent type take the chain type as efficient reference sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we use the data envelopment analysis to measure the efficiency of banks before and after credit rating is taken into consideration and we also employ the Malmquist Productivity Index to measure the total factor productivity changes from 2001 to 2003. The results are as follows: (1) There is a positive relationship between the efficiency scores and credit rating, and thus, the credit rating can be a representative to evaluate the performance and quality of a bank; (2) We use the Wilconxon two-sample test of nonparametric statistic to test the influences of credit rating. The empirical result shows that the credit rating is proven to influence the efficiency of banks; (3) The efficiency scores improve in both investment grade (above tw BBB-) and speculation grade (under tw BBB-), when credit rating is taken into consideration. The empirical results show that the efficiency scores of banks with a high credit rating improved relatively more when compared to banks with a lower credit rating; (4) In this research we also adopt the Malmquist index to observe the productivity and efficiency changes from year to year. We obtain results whereby the improvement of efficiency may be influenced greatly both from pure technical and scale efficiency changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to keen competition, banks may increase their market share and profits by imposing price policies, such as raising deposit rates, lowering loan rates, or even worse by loaning to those with high risks, which all could increase the probability of bankruptcy. Under these circumstances, the literature has paid great attention to the topics of bankruptcy and risk management. We adopt a two-stage approach, the Super-SBM and logistic regression, to investigate a bank efficiency index and the bank bankruptcy effect from incorporating capital adequacy regulations and a supervisory review process. This study uses data on 36 Taiwanese commercial banks for the 3-year period from 2002 to 2004. This article's empirical results from the Super-SBM and logistic regression approach are summarized as follows: (1) The efficiency factor is proven to be influential in evaluating bank bankruptcy. (2) If certain prerequisites on capital adequacy are imposed on each bank, then it results in a lower risk to the bank and this reduces bank bankruptcy. (3) Corporate governance plays an important role in bank bankruptcy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study the researchers adopt two DEA methods - Banker-Charnes-Cooper and Super Efficiency - to investigate whether a bank's technical efficiency is significantly different when capital adequacy (risk) is specified compared with when capital adequacy (risk) is not specified. The information is obtained from 46 Taiwanese banks for the period 2000 to 2002. The Malmquist total factor productivity (TFP) index is employed to measure the impact of productivity change on the panel data. The empirical results from the DEA approach are summarized as follows: (1) Capital adequacy is proven to be an influential factor in evaluating the efficiency of banks. (2) The average efficiency scores of banks with high capital adequacy (>8%) are significantly higher than those of banks with lower capital adequacy (<8%). (3) The efficiency scores of banks with high risk capital requirement (above the average) are higher than those of banks with lower risk capital requirement (under the average). (4) Banks with both high capital adequacy and high risk capital requirement are superior in performance than all the other banks, while banks with both low capital adequacy and low-risk capital requirement performance are the worst by contrast. (5) Based on the Malmquist total TFP index, we find that bank productivity has not increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we adopt a stochastic cost frontier method to investigate the influence of off-balance sheet (OBS) activities on the cost efficiency of Taiwan's banks. We estimate and compare cost inefficiency with or without OBS outputs of 46 Taiwanese commercial banks during the period, 1998 through 2001. The conclusions of this empirical study are as follows. First, omitting off-balance sheet outputs in estimating the cost frontier function of banks results in an underestimation of bank efficiency by approximately 5 per cent. Second, large banks are associated with a higher cost efficiency and have an increased ability to develop OBS activities. This is consistent with Taiwan's regulatory policies, which focus on promoting efficiency in the banking industry of emerging markets. Banks with higher employee productivity are also more cost efficient. Finally, we observe evidence of economies of scale in both models with or without OBS specification in Taiwan's bank industry. Economies of scope between loans and OBS outputs are also observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1990s, Taiwan began her deregulation trend in order to enhance competition and economic efficiency across all industries. We derive a theoretical framework to predict possible rankings in technical efficiencies of public, mixed, and private banks. A panel data set with 43 Taiwanese banks during 1997-1999 is used for empirical analysis. We then apply a translog distance function to estimate technical efficiencies. The relationship between technical efficiency and government shareholding is also examined. Empirical results show that a public bank in Taiwan can improve its technical efficiency by mixed ownership at a diminishing rate. Moreover, banks in Taiwan on average performed worse after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]