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In the past, energy and environmental research focused on the performance of individual efficiencies. In order to make up for the research deficiencies, this research uses SBM (slack-based measures) dynamic network DEA (DN-SBM) to assess energy, health efficiency, and DN-TFP productivity changes from 2011 to 2015. This research uses forest area as the carryover that can objectively measure the performance of OECD energy, health, and total efficiency, and calls for the importance of forest protection and planting. The empirical results show that Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, and Turkey have the best overall efficiency performance, while Ireland (0.4469), Israel (0.4179), and the Netherlands (0.3697) are the three worst. In total, 29 economies show progress in terms of productivity. Moreover, Chile (0.9706), Mexico (0.9995), Slovak Republic (0.9942), Turkey (0.9815), and the UK (0.9886) exhibit a slight decline. The overall efficiency value of 20 countries is greater than the average, and their productivity is showing an upward trend. Only the UK (0.5081, 0.9886) has an overall efficiency value that is less than the overall average with productivity that is showing a drop. About research method, this study utilizes dynamic intertemporal data to evaluate the changes in the overall efficiency and productivity of OECD members with DN-SBM and DN-TFP indices in order to offer more objective research results for various economies that are useful for formulating policies related to energy, national health, and forest conservation., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

The demand for energy has continued to increase because of global economic development, which has led to rising fuel prices and continued pollution problems. China is currently the largest coal consumer and is also the largest emitter of coal-fired CO 2 emissions. However, past efficiency studies have been mostly limited to static analyses and have not considered undesirable outputs. Therefore, this study developed a bound dynamic directional distance function (DDF) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to explore the energy and environmental efficiencies in 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2015, from which it was found that (1) the overall efficiency was the best in the eastern region, but relatively low in the western region; (2) Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangxi, Jilin, and some other regions had efficiencies of 1; (3) the revenue and non-coal indicator efficiencies were reasonably good, but the expenditure and emissions efficiencies were generally poor; and (4) the key direction for primary improvements was found to be the emissions index.

This paper selects energy consumption data of 11 provinces in YRB and 19 provinces and cities in non-YRB from 2014 to 2016 and constructs a shared border Metafrontier non-radial directional short model, adding CO 2 and AQI indicators as undesirable factors, in order to evaluate the total efficiency and the input and output efficiencies of these two regions. The results are as follows. (1) From the changes in the score and ranking of the two regions' total environmental efficiency, only two provinces in YRB show a slight decrease, while most of them show a stable or rising trend; seven provinces in non-YRB have a low rising rate. This means during the study period that YRB made more progress at energy conservation, emission reduction, and pollution control than other provinces and cities in non-YRB. (2) The efficiency scores of energy consumption, GDP, CO 2 , and AQI emissions are different in each province. Overall, the situation of YRB is better than that of non-YRB. Not only is the efficiency score of each index higher, but the efficiency difference between provinces and cities within the region is small, which is conducive to the linkage effect of the region and the realization of green coordinated development.

With a total length of 35,000 kilometers, China has the world's largest high-speed rail network. Due to the deepening of China's "Internet +" strategy, new opportunities and challenges have emerged for China's railway system. While railway transportation industry efficiency has been widely discussed, most previous studies have focused on railway transportation industry operations and have generally ignored the important influence of internet technology on the industry. Therefore, to go some way to filling this gap, this study took the number of Chinese internet users as an investment indicator and integrated big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) concepts into a dynamic directional distance function-data envelopment analysis (DDF-DEA) model to comprehensively measure the impact of internet technology on railway transportation industry efficiency in 31 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2016. It was found that (1) when the internet influence was considered, the overall railway transportation industry efficiency in most regions significantly improved, with Heilongjiang Province having the largest increase; (2) the labor input, passenger traffic, freight volume, railway turnover, and freight turnover input efficiencies in most provinces were significantly higher when the internet influence was considered; and (3) the internet has had a positive impact on railway transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased global competition has led to a slowdown in Taiwan's domestic semiconductor industry growth, which has resulted in many semiconductor companies reducing their investments and or seeking mergers and acquisitions (M & As) to increase market power, expand their business territories or increase their competitive edge. However, as there is general uncertainty regarding the efficiencies to be gained from these M & As, there has been an increase in M & A supervision. While past research has explored company operations and management efficiency after mergers, there has been less focus on potential mergers. Therefore, this study used a resample slacks-based measure (RSBM) and merger potential gains models to evaluate potential merger efficiency gains. Data on 29 Taiwanese-listed integrated circuit (IC) design industry firms were collected to evaluate the efficiency of potential M & As, from which it was found that the potential M & As efficiencies had positive and negative values, indicating that efficiency gains were not guaranteed. A positive value was found for a potential M & A between MTK & NOVATEK and MTK & DAVICOM, which meant that a potential M & A would increase operating efficiencies and reduce costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The probability of losses for financial institutions fluctuates in accordance with commodity prices and risk managers' investment tolerance. For the financial service sector, when the capital base increases through lending and investment instruments, the associated financial risks often grow proportionally higher. In other words, the inherent risk of a loss is the financial institution's principal trade. However, with risk comes reward, and therefore banks often engage in complex financial risk management in order to capitalize on their profits. To assess a bank's performance, traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) incorporates various inputs and outputs and runs through preset formulae to arrive at conclusions. As a result, traditional DEA models often overlook the duality of risks. This paper discusses network DEA by considering the inputs and outputs of a bank's surrounding production processes as additional undesirable factors and integrates the dual nature of risks. We employ and analyze Taiwanese banks' data to assess the local financial service sector's performance efficiency. The results provide a basis for future recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In conventional multistage data envelopment analysis (DEA) studies, different hotel types are mostly assumed to be in a single technology set. However, the assumption that a single technology can have multiple operating types has been criticized by researchers in the past. To overcome this shortcoming, the main propose of this study is to establish a combination of the models of Tone and Chen and Zhu in order to assess the efficiencies of two hotel types. We first provide evidence that there is an existing defect arising from the direct combination of the two models. The nonhomogeneous two-stage model is established to evaluate the operational and expense utilization efficiencies for the Taiwanese international tourist hotels. The results verify that the defect from the direct combination of these models can be corrected by the new model. Empirical evaluation reveals that independent hotels have higher expense utilization efficiency and chain hotels have higher operational efficiency. The evaluation also indicates that tourist hotels can achieve best practices through a mutual learning strategy. [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]

In the face of severe water pollution, all provinces and cities in China have actively invested in water environment management funds driven by the goals of national energy conservation and emissions reduction. However, due to differences in natural environment, economic and technological levels, industrial structure, and other aspects in provinces and cities, their water environment management effects are also different across time and space. Under economic development and environmental regulation policies, it can be seen that the change in industrial GDP is not completely consistent with that of industrial wastewater discharge. How to improve desirable outputs and reduce undesirable outputs under the limited investment in water pollution control are key issues when investigating the efficiency of industrial water pollution control. This study uses the Dynamic SBM (Slacks-Based Measure) model to assess wastewater resources for research samples covering the 30 regions of China. There are two output variables, two input variables, and one carry-over variable. The output variables are industrial wastewater treatment and industrial output, the two input variables are industrial water consumption and facility operation cost, and the carry-over variable is industrial waste. This study concludes with implications for theory research, as these variables may lead to a better understanding and merging with the input variables, output variables, and carry-over variable of recent studies. The empirical results show that from the efficiency rank changes of the 30 regions for 2011–2015, regions with higher industrial output do not appear to have improved versus other regions, such as for Shandong, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Qinghai, and Zhejiang. The 30 regions' efficiency scores show some volatility, with 13 regions' efficiency score volatility clustering close to 0, like Beijing, Chongqing, Shandong, Guangdong, and Sichuan. In contrast, for Anhui, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, and Xinjiang, their efficiency scores fell more than other regions in this period and thus should adjust their input/output variables to increase their efficiency scores. This study further presents that many lower-/middle-/high-industrial output regions do not achieve a balance between industrial output and industrial wastewater treatment. How to find a balance between these two factors for any region is a vitally important issue for industrial wastewater treatment policy makers. Under such a circumstance, an industrial output region may not actually be highly efficient at doing this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a methodology that discusses a reallocation of carbon emission quotas based on the ZSG-DEA model, also introduces the process of solving the ZSG-DEA model in extensive detail and derives Theorems 1 and 2. Theorem 1 shows the equivalence in competition and the cooperation case, while Theorem 2 indicates the correlation between quota adjustment and efficiency change. Through this ZSG-DEA model, the determination of carbon emission quotas is no longer subjective, and reasonable carbon emission quotas among countries can be obtained. The reallocation of carbon emission quotas can not only ensure that all countries have 100% efficiencies, but also help all countries gain through Pareto improvement. The conclusions of this paper are that most developed countries should increase their carbon emission quotas and that most less developed countries need to reduce theirs, including the two most populous countries of China and India. The reallocation process should be paid by selling the quotas of low efficient countries so that they can obtain funds to support their development, while at the same time high efficient countries can produce more due to relaxation of environmental constraints, thus achieving global Pareto improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its rapid economic development in the last 40 years, China's environmental pollution has begun to seriously affect its citizens' lives as well as domestic business expansion. The problems of water pollution, increasing population, acceleration of urbanization, and strong GDP growth have made this critical issue increasingly more prominent. Recent related literature has mostly focused on economic production development and water pollution separately without systematically considering the relevant links between the former and sewage treatment capacity. Therefore, based on data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2017, this paper uses a modified undesirable dynamic network Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model to look into each province's economic production stage efficiency and sewage treatment stage efficiency. The research findings show big differences in input and output efficiencies for each region from 2011 to 2017 and a distinct mismatch between economic production stage efficiency and sewage treatment stage efficiency, with the former higher and the latter lower. Lastly, sewage treatment stage efficiency is a major drag on overall efficiency. Each province should thus follow the key indicators to improve efficiency according to local conditions. • Explores China provinces' production stage and sewage treatment stage efficiencies. • Sewage treatment stage efficiency is a major drag on overall efficiency. • Each province should follow the key indicators to improve efficiency as per local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]