Economic Performance Of System Research Articles

Multiple objective analysis of long-term development strategies for a national economy

A new approach to investigating public decision problems is suggested. The use of the approach is illustrated via analysis of long-term development strategies for a national economy. The approach presented is based on the Generalized Reachable Sets (GRS) method developed by one of the authors. The method itself is quite universal and can be used for many purposes. When an economic system's performance indicators (objectives) are given, the GRS method provides a tool for multiobjective evaluation of the system's potential possibilities. In this paper the GRS method is applied to the investigation of a simple model describing transition from an ‘old’ polluting technology to a ‘modern’ clean technology by taking into account levels of consumption, pollution and unemployment.

Assessing Performance and Standards in Education and Training: a British view in comparative perspective

contribution of human capital to the productivity and competitiveness of national economies in a global environment, where flexibility and rapid response to markets are at a premium. This relatively new emphasis on human capital contrasts with the accepted wisdom of the neo-classical model which emphasised the investment in fixed capital equipment and largely ignored human capital. This increased interest has led economists to widen their studies of education beyond traditional 'rate of return' studies to examining how education systems themselves function. Inevitably, they brought to the study of education systems the paradigms and conceptual framework which had been developed within their own discipline to study the performance of economic systems. The application of these simple but powerful analytical tools-for example the quantification of output based upon standard measures of performance as a prior condition of input/output analysis-has given rise to some disquiet in educational disciplines which stress the humanistic-and essentially unquantifiable-contribution of education to human civilisation. Britain,* like any other advanced industrialised nation, has no alternative but to seek to remain competitive in the global market place in order to generate the resources necessary to preserve its own essential standards and values. In the same way, the smaller microcosm of education must accept and come to terms with its role as a prime contributor to economic success if the resources necessary to maintain a humane and civilising education system are to be generated. Nor should this coming-to-terms simply imply an uneasy co-existence of the humanist and the scientific tradition of educational enquiry. Social scientists from the discipline of economics must be aware of the necessary limits of measurement and quantification; 'humanists' must realise that educational aims and ideals can and should be questioned on grounds of efficiency and competitiveness in the same way that any other allocation of scarce resources is normally scrutinised. In 1981, a study published by the independent National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) identified low levels of skill in the British labour force as the factor which could most convincingly explain the failure of Britain to match German productivity levels in industrial manufacturing (Prais, 1981a). That study laid the founda

Measures and meaning in comparisons of wealth equlality

How communities distribute wealth is one aspect for judging the performance of economic systems. Many inequality measures exist. Precentiles, Gini coefficients, and statistical pattern measures each rest on different concepts about what equality and inequality mean. Wealth distribution data from 55 communities are compared relative to Gini coefficient, kurtosis, and coefficient of variation. These data show no community with perfect equality. Most communities have some inequality. The general pattern is for wealth inequality to increase with the development of market and mechanized industrial economies.

Recent trends in flexible automated manufacturing

In recent years, an important change in developing and implementing manufacturing systems can be observed in all industrialized countries. Due to intense international competition and the growth of personnel costs, companies are forced to use systems with a higher level of automation. At the same time, an increasing number of product variation—caused by adapting the products to customer requirements—demand more flexibility of machine tools and manufacturing systems. Basic types of computer-controlled flexible automated manufacturing systems will be shown and characterized by their special ranges of application. A planning procedure is presented which includes selecting a suitable systems structure such as; transfer line or flexible manufacturing system or automated manufacturing cell, and for determinating every single machine tool within the system. Examples of several new computer-controlled manufacturing systems which have been planned by the above planning procedure are presented with special regard to the evaluation of the system's economic performance. Finally, some rules are given for measuring the economic performance of automated manufacturing or assembly systems including automation of the handling functions.

Performance and Instability in Military and Nonmilitary Regime Systems

The analysis of military regimes, as opposed to military coups, has attracted comparatively little attention. This paper examines whether the political, military, and economic performance of systems which have experienced a military regime differs from the performance of systems which have not. The comparison between the performance of these two types of system is then used to examine the validity of the occurrence of a military regime as an indicator of instability. The population consists of all independent countries of the world. The time span examined is 1961–70. The comparison is made across a number of political, military, and economic variables. The basic comparison is elaborated by introducing controls for GNP, area, number of coups, and duration of the military regime. While the controls show a number of variations, the main summary finding is that it is easy to differentiate military and non-military regime systems in political terms, but not in military and economic terms. This finding seriously questions the utility of the occurrence of a military regime as an indicator of instability.