2008, Volume XIII, nº 1
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
- Challenges for performance improvement in educationPublication . Azevedo, JoaquimThe quality of education is part of the political agenda of most countries worldwide. The contemporary nature of the quality theme is related to a new program of social policies, that we believe corresponds to both a reduction of the political education field, and a need to legitimate the state. From an 'educator-state' we are evolving towards an 'evaluator-state'. After a description of the main measures that have been taken to improve the quality of education, the article enumerates four challenges, that the author considers relevant for dealing with the problem of educational quality with a social and political perspective.
- Measuring efficiency in english maintained secondary schools : techniques, policy implications and practicalitiesPublication . Pigg, DarrenThis article describes the work that has been undertaken by the Department for Education and Skills in England to construct and utilise school level efficiency measures for all maintained secondary schools in England. The Department is using Data Envelopment Analysis techniques to generate efficiency estimates, to both identify where .current best practice exists and also to bolster the ability of less efficient schools to benchmark themselves against other "similar" peer schools.
- Assessing efficiency of portuguese universities through parametric and non-parametric methodsPublication . Johnes, Geraint; Camanho, Ana S.; Portela, Maria S.In this paper we apply two methodologies to the measurement of efficiency in Portuguese Universities. These are a stochastic frontier parametric method and a non-parametric DEA method. We produce results from both methods in terms of efficiency estimates for each university over the period 2003 to 2005. We also produce, in both methods, unitary cost estimates of teaching students (undergraduates, master, and doctoral students) and of producing research outputs. Results from both methods can be said to be coincident to a certain extent, especially in what concerns the identification of worst performers. The productivity change of Portuguese universities in the period 2003-2005 was also explored using Malmquist indices.
- A DEA approach to the relative efficiency of portuguese public universitiesPublication . Afonso, António; Santos, MarianaWe employ Data Envelopment Analysis, to estimate efficiency scores for Portuguese public universities. The input measures are constructed from the number of teachers and from universities' spending while the output measures are based on the undergraduate success rate and on the number of doctoral dissertations. Using frontier analysis we are able to separate universities that might qualify, as "performing well" from those where some improvement might be possible. This could imply a better allocation by the universities of the usually scarce public financial resources available to tertiary education by the universities.
- Efficiency analysis of maintenance and outage repair in electricity distributionPublication . Weyman-Jones, Thomas; Boucinha, Júlia; lnácio, Catarina FeteiraFor several years electricity distribution companies have been using efficiency and productivity analysis in the form of data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis to analyse their operations. This reflects both market forces and responses to regulatory incentives. However we show that there is a significant difference in purpose and implementation between public regulatory benchmarking and internal company benchmarking. In this paper we use a variety of data envelopment analysis models to examine data on maintenance and outage repair on the electricity distribution system during 2004 -2005 in Portugal. In particular we examine the relationship between orientated and non-orientated models, and radial and non-radial analysis. We develop performance measures for the regional electricity networks operated in Portugal by EDP Distribuição, and we discover very close relationships among the performance rankings under different models, fulfilling widely-used consistency conditions for performance modeling. The paper uses the experience of this company example to draw some lessons about how performance measurement can be implemented within a company, in contrast to the usual objective of regulatory benchmarking procedures.
- Economic performance of portuguese companies 1989-1999 : a DEA studyPublication . Tice, Julian H.; Moreira, António C.; Sarrico, Cláudia S.The magazine Exame 500 publishes each year a listing of the top 500 companies by sales volume, along with accompanying financial indicators. This rich data set is underutilized in the analysis performed by Exame 500, rankings and relative performance being assessed in a naïve fashion. This study seeks to provide an enhanced view of the sectoral performance of the Portuguese economy in the period 1989- 1999 using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEAl technique. Additionally, the relative performance of national to foreign-owned companies and public to private companies is assessed. An analysis of the results seeks to understand why certain sectors perform better than others, and how national/ foreign ownership and public/ private objectives matter. The results are interpreted with particular reference to the economic background of the period. Some final comments are presented discussing the usefulness of DEA and possible revisions of the technique as well as other limitations of the study.
- Using data envelopment analysis to screen the possibility of a fair globalizationPublication . Thore, Sten; Tarverdyan, RuzannaThe International Labor Office, an arm of the UN based in Geneva, has as its goal to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Since 1999, the ILO has conducted a series of studies of the effects of globalization.In 2004, the organization posed the challenge of tempering the perceived effects of globalization, aiming for A Fair Globalization. Fair rules on trade and finance need to be put in place benefiting men and women in rich and poor countries alike. Using standard economic terms, A Fair Globalization may be seen as the output of a generalized input-output function, dependent upon variables of both economic performance and economic and social policy. Using data envelopment analysis, we fit a piece-wise linear frontier to observations for 72 countries from all continents. Inefficient countries reveal conditions of lacking fairness.