The efficiency of public and publicly subsidized high schools in Spain: Evidence from PISA-2006

This paper compares the efficiency of Spanish public and publicly subsidized private high schools by data envelopment analysis (DEA), employing the results provided by a hierarchical linear model (HLM) applied to PISA-2006 (Programme for International Students Assessment) microdata. The study places special emphasis on the estimation of the determinants of school outcomes. The educational production function is estimated through an HLM that takes into account the nested nature of PISA data. Inefficiencies are then measured through DEA and decomposed into two types: managerial (related to individual performance), and programme (related to structural differences between management models), following the approach adopted by Silva Portela and Thanassoulis. Once differences in students’ backgrounds, school resources and individual management inefficiencies are removed, the results reveal that Spanish public high schools are more efficient than their publicly subsidized private equivalents.     

A comparison of public and private schools in Spain using robust nonparametric frontier methods

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. We use a technique inspired by the non-parametric free disposal hull and the application of robust order-\(m\) models, which allow us to mitigate the influence of outliers and the curse of dimensionality. Subsequently, we adopt a metafrontier framework to assess each student relative to the own group best practice frontier (students in the same school) and to different frontiers constructed from the best practices of different types of schools. The results show that state-subsidised private schools outperform public schools, although the differences between them are significantly reduced once we control for the type of students enrolled in both type of centres.     

Estimating technical and allocative efficiency in the public sector: A nonparametric analysis of Dutch schools

Public sector output provision is influenced not only by discretionary inputs but also by exogenous environmental factors. In this paper, we extended the literature by developing a conditional DEA estimator of allocative efficiency that allows a decomposition of overall cost efficiency into allocative and technical components while simultaneously controlling for the environment. We apply the model to analyze technical and allocative efficiency of Dutch secondary schools. The results reveal that allocative efficiency represents a significant 37 percent of overall cost efficiency on average, although technical inefficiency is still the dominant part. Furthermore, the results show that the impact of environment largely differs between schools and that having a more unfavorable environment is very expensive to schools. These results highlight the importance of including environmental variables in both technical and allocative efficiency analysis.     

Attrition patterns in a high ability programme for precollege students

Completion and performance data from 92 high ability seventh and eighth grade students in an eight‐week summer programme conducted in 1989 and sponsored by the GTE Service Corporation are examined.     

A multiple criteria decision making approach for electricity planning in Spain: economic versus environmental objectives

Growing social concern about the environmental impact of economic development has drawn attention to the need to integrate environmental criteria into energy decision-making problems. This has made electricity planning issues more complex given the multiplicity of objectives and decision-makers involved in the decision making process. This paper proposes a methodology that combines several multi-criteria methods to address electricity planning problems within a realistic context. The method is applied to an electricity planning exercise in Spain with a planning horizon set for the year 2030. The model includes the following objectives: (1) total cost; (2) C0₂; (3) SO₂; and (4) NO _x emissions as well as the amount of radioactive waste produced. An efficient social compromise between these conflicting objectives is obtained, which shows the advantages of using this model for policy-making purposes.     

Potentials and limitations of robotics: Guides to managerial evaluations

This article primarily focuses on: the place of robotics within current and prospective advances in manufacturing technology, the impacts of increasing robot utilization on the productivity and costs of users, and resulting effects on the international competitiveness of domestic industries.     

Stepwise selection of variables in data envelopment analysis: Procedures and managerial perspectives

One of the most important steps in the application of modeling using data envelopment analysis (DEA) is the choice of input and output variables. In this paper, we develop a formal procedure for a “stepwise” approach to variable selection that involves sequentially maximizing (or minimizing) the average change in the efficiencies as variables are added or dropped from the analysis. After developing the stepwise procedure, applications from classic DEA studies are presented and the new managerial insights gained from the stepwise procedure are discussed. We discuss how this easy to understand and intuitively sound method yields useful managerial results and assists in identifying DEA models that include variables with the largest impact on the DEA results.     

The affine equivariant sign covariance matrix: asymptotic behavior and efficiencies

We consider the affine equivariant sign covariance matrix (SCM) introduced by Visuri et al. (J. Statist. Plann. Inference 91 (2000) 557). The population SCM is shown to be proportional to the inverse of the regular covariance matrix. The eigenvectors and standardized eigenvalues of the covariance matrix can thus be derived from the SCM. We also construct an estimate of the covariance and correlation matrix based on the SCM. The influence functions and limiting distributions of the SCM and its eigenvectors and eigenvalues are found. Limiting efficiencies are given in multivariate normal and t-distribution cases. The estimates are highly efficient in the multivariate normal case and perform better than estimates based on the sample covariance matrix for heavy-tailed distributions. Simulations confirmed these findings for finite-sample efficiencies.     

Tractors in Spain: A Logistic Analysis

This paper presents an attempt to make reliable projections of the stock of agricultural tractors in Spain. The approach to be followed is that of fitting a logistic trend to the historical data for the period 1951-1976. A set of possible trend curves is presented and their properties discussed; reasons for choosing the logistic trend are given. Preliminary estimates for the parameters of the logistic are obtained by means of the relatively unsophisticated three point method. Alternative heteroscedasticity assumptions in the data are explored with the help of a non-linear regression. Final estimates are obtained by means of a non-linear optimization algorithm. The influence of economic variables and government policies is traced in the residuals.     

Technical efficiency,managerial efficiency and objective-setting in the educational system: an international comparison

This study uses data envelopment analysis to analyse the efficiency of educational systems in 31 countries. This type of evaluation is of interest both when formulating a model for analysis and when applying such a model empirically. The efficiency of an educational system must take into account the students' economic and social background, as this is an environmental factor that decisively influences their performance. This is a highly important aspect and so we propose a specific evaluative process for it. Secondly, we evaluate the efficiency of educational systems in different countries, an analysis that has few forerunners since the majority of previous research has focused on analysing a single country. The results suggest that, in general, the most efficient management of educational systems can be found in those countries with a Communist past. They also suggest that there is a series of developed countries, which, judging by the results obtained, could increase their students' performance with even fewer resources than those currently allocated to their educational systems.     

Monitoring managerial efficiency in the performing arts: A regional theatres network perspective

Managerial efficiency within the performing arts programming can be understood as the technical efficiency of transforming the resources cultural managers have available into a determined cultural output. Through this explanation different conceptions on the finished performance product it leads us to select two different output variables (number of performances, and number of attendances). In this way, three different models are considered regarding those conceptual points of view. Data on the Circuït Teatral Valencià, a Spanish regional theatres network, is used to develop empirically the concept of Managerial Efficiency and set up a framework to allow us to monitor it.     

Decomposition of technical and scale efficiencies in two-stage production systems

Conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) models are used to measure the technical and scale efficiencies of a system when it is considered as a whole unit. This paper extends the efficiency measurement to two-stage systems where each stage has one process and all the outputs from the first process become the inputs of the second. An input-oriented DEA model for the first process is developed to separate the process efficiency into the input technical and scale efficiencies, and an output-oriented model is developed for the second process to separate the process efficiency into the output technical and scale efficiencies. Combining the two models, the system efficiency is expressed as the product of the overall technical and scale efficiencies, where the overall technical and scale efficiencies are the products of the corresponding efficiencies of the two processes, respectively. The detailed decomposition allows the sources of inefficiency to be identified.     

Tractors in Spain: a Further Logistic Analysis

The three parameter logistic growth function is known to give a good fit to annual statistics of the number of tractors in Spain. A parameterisation directly yielding the upper asymptote or saturation level is advanced, and the variance-covariance matrix of the parameter estimates is computed. A generalisation of the logistic, which proved useful in studying the growth of the number of tractors in Great Britain is examined and gives appreciably different results.     

A strange case of the cost and allocative efficiencies in DEA

In this paper we point out the shortcomings of the cost and allocative efficiencies as used in the DEA literature, and propose a new approach to the cost efficiency evaluation.     

Modelling and forecasting mortality in Spain

Experience shows that static life tables overestimate death probabilities. As a consequence of this overestimation the premiums for annuities, pensions and life insurance are not what they actually should be, with negative effects for insurance companies or policy-holders. The reason for this overestimation is that static life tables, through being computed for a specific period of time, cannot take into account the decreasing mortality trend over time. Dynamic life tables overcome this problem by incorporating the influence of the calendar when graduating mortality. Recent papers on the topic look for the development of new methods to deal with this dynamism.     

Citizen coproduction and efficient public good provision: Theory and evidence from local public libraries

In both public administration and economics, efficiency is brought forward as an important criterion for evaluating administrative actions. Clearly, its value as an assessment principle depends on our ability to adequately measure efficiency. This article argues that citizen’s coproduction in public services requires a careful reassessment of how we approach the measurement of productive efficiency in public service delivery. Theoretically, we illustrate that using observable outcomes (e.g., library circulation, school results, health outcomes, fires extinguished, and crimes solved) as output indicators is inappropriate and leads to biased estimates of public service providers’ productive efficiency. This bias arises because citizens co-determine final outputs, leaving them at least partly beyond the service providers’ control. Empirically, we find supportive evidence of both the existence and importance of such ‘demand-induced’ bias.     

Assessment of China transit and economic efficiencies in a modified value-chains DEA model

This study incorporates the concepts of undesirable intermediate, intermediate input, uncontrollable input, and undesirable output to the value-chains model (Chen and Zhu, 2004), thereby creating a modified value-chains model to compute transit and economic efficiencies in 30 regions of China. The modified value-chains model forms a more general formulation to the value-added chains in the utilization of the above concepts; it also provides an optimal intermediate measure which differs from the independent two-stage measure.