Efficiency Enhancing Research Articles

Dynamic Optimized Cleaner Production Strategies to Improve Water Environment and Economic Development in Leather Industrial Parks: A Case Study in Xinji, China

The leather industry has contributed significantly to economic development, but serious water environmental problems have arisen due to manufacturing processes in this industry. The leather industry must implement sustainable development by improving cleaner production capabilities under the Chinese ecological development background. The Xinji industrial park in China has the largest leather production base in which the leather industry is the leading industry that contributes nearly 50% of economic gains. This study investigated optimal cleaner production strategies for the leather industrial park by adopting an improved multi-objective simulation approach integrating the environmentally extended input–output and system dynamics models. Simulations were able to estimate the socio-economic and water environment development of the Xinji industrial park from 2015 to 2025. Adopting cleaner approaches, including production efficiency enhancing, sewage pre-treatment facility construction in leather companies, and reclaimed water recycling, simulation results indicated that, with steady economic growth (optimal 7.7% annual growth rate), it is possible to conserve 18% of the water resources, with an 80 % and 90% reduction for the chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia (NH3-N) water pollutant emission intensity, respectively. The cleaner development path and measures analyzed in this study are of great significance to promote the sustainable development of leather industrial parks.

Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment of Arable Crop Production Technologies Compared to Different Harvesting Work Systems in Short Rotation Energy Plantations

Abstract Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) was developed as a tool for sustainable, decision-supporting environmental management. Applying agricultural sector-LCA in order to achieve both internal (comparative) and external (efficiency enhancing) benefits is a priority. Since the life-cycle assessment of products and processes attracts great interest, applying the method in agriculture is relevant. Our study undertakes a comparative environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) of local arable crop production technologies used for the main cultivated plants: maize, sunflower, lucerne, cereals, and canola (environmental data in the territorial approach calculated on a 1 ha unit and in the quantitative approach calculated on 1 t of produce). We prepared an environmental inventory of the arable crop production technologies, constructed the life-cycle models, and executed the impact assessment. We also compiled an environmental ranking of technologies. In the impact interpretation, we compared the results with the values of short rotation energy plantations in each impact category. We analysed carbon footprints closely. The obtained results help better assess environmental impacts, climate risks, and climate change as they pertain to arable crop production technologies, which advances the selection of appropriate technologies adjusted to environmental sensitivities.

Spectral Narrowing and Efficiency Enhancing in Deep-Red Organic Light Emitting Diode

Spectral Narrowing and Efficiency Enhancing in Deep-Red Organic Light Emitting Diode

Spectral Narrowing and Efficiency Enhancing in Deep-Red Organic Light Emitting Diode

Spectral Narrowing and Efficiency Enhancing in Deep-Red Organic Light Emitting Diode

RANK‐ORDER COMPETITION IN THE VOLUNTARY PROVISION OF IMPURE PUBLIC GOODS

Publicly provided goods often create differential payoffs due to timely or spatial distances of group members. We design and test a provision mechanism which utilizes rank competition to mitigate free‐riding in impure public goods. In our Rank‐Order Voluntary Contribution Mechanism (Rank‐Order‐VCM) group members compete via observable contributions for a larger share of the public good; high contributors receive preferential access (a larger share), while low contributors receive restricted access (a lower share). In a laboratory experiment, Rank‐Order‐VCM elicits median contributions equal to the full endowment throughout the finitely played games with constant groups. In the control treatment, with randomly assigned ranks, the contributions are significantly lower and decline over time. We thus provide evidence of rank competition, in situations where discriminatory access to public goods is possible, being efficiency enhancing. (JELC91, H41)

The Economics of All-Inclusive in Hospitality

We study all-inclusive offerings in hospitality at a mature tourism destination; and we do so as a case of product bundling in competitive markets (accommodation and complementary services). We show that all-inclusive will more likely be part of the equilibrium the more value it creates; namely, when hotel establishments enjoy cost efficiencies with, and tourists a convenience value for, the all-inclusive bundle. In general, however, because of the interdependence in tourist demand generated by the presence of fixed costs at the product level, the market equilibrium may inefficiently include (or lack) the all-inclusive offerings. Moreover, market dynamics may generate a vicious circle where all-inclusive increases over time, thus leaving room for efficiency enhancing regulation.

Exchange networks, markets and trust

Network-based transactions are attractive as a system for economic exchange because they give network members greater protection against opportunism and exchange hazards compared to more anonymous market transactions. At the same time, networks restrict the possibilities to exploit economies of scale and other efficiency enhancing properties of markets. When the problem-solving capacity of networks do not make up for the losses generated by not trading with outsiders, trust is important to promote transactions among strangers in the anonymously market. This paper offers an economic analysis of this idea. With the help of a social evolutionary model, it is also demonstrated that mutual trust relations can survive in the anonymous market, even when there is a clear danger of opportunism, and the conventional mechanisms like repetitions and contracts are ruled out.

A Monte Carlo-based dosimetric characterization of Esteya® , an electronic surface brachytherapy unit.

The purpose of this work is threefold: First, to obtain the phase space of an electronic brachytherapy (eBT) system designed for surface skin treatments. Second, to explore the use of some efficiency enhancing (EFEN) strategies in the determination of the phase space. Third, to use the phase space previously obtained to perform a dosimetric characterization of the Esteya eBT system. The Monte Carlo study of the 69.5 kVp x-ray beam of the Esteya® unit (Elekta Brachytherapy, Veenendaal, The Netherlands) was performed with PENELOPE2014. The EFEN strategies included the use of variance reduction techniques and mixed Class II simulations, where transport parameters were fine-tuned. Four source models were studied varying the most relevant parameters characterizing the electron beam impinging the target: the energy spectrum (mono-energetic or Gaussian shaped), and the electron distribution over the focal spot (uniform or Gaussian shaped). Phase spaces obtained were analyzed to detect differences in the calculated data due to the EFEN strategy or the source configuration. Depth dose curves and absorbed dose profiles were obtained for each source model and compared to experimental data previously published. In our EFEN strategy, the interaction forcing variance reduction (VRIF) technique increases efficiency by a factor ~20. Tailoring the transport parameters values (C1 and C2) does not increase the efficiency in a significant way. Applying a universal cutoff energy EABS of 10 keV saves 84% of CPU time while showing negligible impact on the calculated results. Disabling the electron transport by imposing an electron energy cutoff of 70 keV (except for the target) saves an extra 8% (losing in the process 1.2% of the photons). The Gaussian energy source (FWHM = 10%, centered at the nominal kVp, homogeneous electron distribution) shows characteristic K-lines in its energy spectrum, not observed experimentally. The average photon energy using an ideal source (mono-energetic, homogeneous electron distribution) was 36.19 ± 0.09 keV, in agreement with the published measured data of 36.2 ± 0.2 keV. The use of a Gaussian-distributed electron source (mono-energetic) increases the penumbra by 50%, which is closer to the measurement results. The maximum discrepancy of the calculated percent depth dose with the corresponding measured values is 4.5% (at the phantom surface, less than 2% beyond 1 mm depth) and 5% (for the 80% of the field) in the dose profile. Our results agree with the findings published by other authors and are consistent within the expected Type A and B uncertainties. Our results agree with the published measurement results within the reported uncertainties. The observed differences in PDD, dose profiles, and photon spectrum come from three main sources of uncertainty: intermachine variations, measurements, and Monte Carlo calculations. It has been observed that a mono-energetic source with a Gaussian electron distribution over the focal spot is a suitable choice to reproduce the experimental data.

The role of employee incentive pay in the competitiveness of family and non-family firms

Insufficient attention has been paid to the different roles of wage incentives in the competitiveness of family and non-family firms. This paper addresses this issue and uses a sample of listed and non-listed Italian firms for 2007 and 2010 to show that family firms that adopt incentive wages obtain greater gains in competitiveness with respect to non-family firms. Unlike what occurs in non-family firms, the efficiency enhancing effect of incentive wages more than compensates for the premiums paid to employees and enables family firms to achieve significant gains in terms of competitiveness.

A fine rule from a brutish world? An experiment on endogenous punishment institution and trust

By means of a laboratory experiment, we study the impact of the endogenous adoption of a collective punishment mechanism within a one-shot binary trust game. The experiment comprises three games. In the first one, the only equilibrium strategy is not to trust, and not to reciprocate. In the second we exogenously introduce a sanctioning rule that imposes on untrustworthy second-movers a penalty proportional to the number of those who reciprocate trust. This generates a second equilibrium where everybody trusts and reciprocates. In the third game, the collective punishment mechanism is adopted through majority-voting. In line with the theory, we find that the exogenous introduction of the punishment mechanism significantly increases trustworthiness, and to a lesser extent also trust. However, in the third game the majority of subjects vote against it: subjects seem to be unable to endogenously adopt an institution which, when exogenously imposed, proves to be efficiency enhancing.

On the social value of publicly disclosed information and environmental regulation

This paper presents an analysis of environmental policy in imperfectly competitive market with publicly disclosed and privately-held information about costs. We examine the potential asymmetry-reducing role of disclosure and its impact on setting environmental taxes. From a policy perspective, our findings show that disclosure with verifiable reports, is a valuable public good, provides greater transparency in the market, and is generally efficiency enhancing. Results suggest that access to publicly disclosed information enables the fine-tuning of the tax rules towards specific environmental circumstances and improves the ability of the regulator to levy firm-specific environmental taxes. Further, while we do not attempt to analyze the exchange of information process between players, our findings show that, despite its advantages, exogenously disclosed information can be double-edged sword since it may also produce anticompetitive effects by facilitating collusive behavior. Information sharing between firms may occur and thus lead to a superior outcome in terms of industry output and emissions, which undermines environmental policy performance.

Estimating technical efficiency of Turkish hospitals: implications for hospital reform initiatives

BackgroundThe Government of Turkey has initiated a series of major health reforms in 2003 with an objective of increasing access to health care services and improving efficiency of public and private hospitals. This study attempts to understand the technical efficiency of public and private hospitals in Turkey to better guide hospital reform.MethodsWe use data from 1079 public and private hospitals and translog stochastic production frontier was adopted to estimate technical inefficiency of hospitals.ResultsResults indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in the degree of inefficiency of hospitals by geographic location or its level of economic development. Efficiency scores vary significantly across hospital types with Ministry of Health (MoH) General Hospitals being the most efficient followed by MoH teaching hospitals. Better performance of MoH hospitals may be due to successful implementation of 2003 health reforms in Turkey, which intended to improve resource utilization within and across MoH hospitals. Among MoH hospital types, integrated county hospitals were the least efficient. Since the hospital outcome measure did not include the value of medical training, efficiency scores of university hospitals became relatively low. Wide variability of efficiency scores of private general hospitals implies the existence of both highly efficient and inefficient hospitals in the private sector.ConclusionsEfficiency differences of various hospital types can be leveraged to guide future reforms by emphasizing the strengths of general hospitals and improving the referral system from county hospitals to general hospitals. Encouraging resource sharing across hospitals, as being done by the 2011 reforms, should further improve hospital efficiency. Promoting private hospitals may not necessarily be efficiency enhancing due to high variability of private hospitals in terms of efficiency scores. Similarly, implementation of common productivity standards and quality control measures are likely to improve hospital technical efficiency scores further.

Loss analysis and efficiency enhancing method for a unipolar hysteresis‐Controlled single‐phase grid‐connected inverter

This paper compares control schemes using hysteresis control and a conventional triangle‐carrier comparison control to discuss the theoretical efficiency of a grid‐connected inverter. Control schemes for the gird‐connected inverter are actively studied to improve the efficiency and performance of the system. Hysteresis controls are one of the solutions to satisfy these issues. However, the theoretical efficiency under the same performance using conventional carrier comparison method has not been discussed. This paper considers the performance of unipolar and bipolar hysteresis control compared with unipolar and bipolar carrier comparison methods by theoretical calculations, simulations, and experimental results. As a result, we find that unipolar hysteresis control can improve the efficiency of the inverter. © 2018 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

SELECTED FIRM CHARACTERISTICS AND FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION EFFICIENCY OF DEPOSIT TAKING SAVING AND CREDIT CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN KENYA

There has been growing concerns over the financial soundness of SACCOs with a few having collapsed in the recent past. Empirical evidence indicates that there exists a strong association between efficiency and stability of financial institutions and that an efficient banking sector is better able to withstand negative shocks in case of financial crises. The study first sought to evaluate the financial intermediation efficiency of deposit taking SACCOs (DTSs) and subsequently determine the relationship between selected firm characteristics and financial intermediation efficiency. Specifically, the relationship between asset quality, income diversification, profitability & size and financial intermediation efficiency was assessed. A balanced panel data for 103 DTSs over the period 2011-2014 was collected and analyzed using a two staged methodology. In the first stage, efficiency scores were generated using data envelopment analysis (DEA). DEA Computer Program Version 2.1 was used to generate the efficiency scores. In the second stage, firm characteristics were regressed on the efficiency scores using fixed effects panel regression model. The bias corrected efficiency score were used instead of conventional DEA scores and incorporated into EViews version 8 for regression analysis. Fixed effect model with robust standard errors was used for analysis. The study revealed that asset quality had a direct relationship with intermediation efficiency. This implies that as the asset quality improves, efficiency of a DTS increases. Diversification was found to be hurting efficiency. More profitable DTSs were found to be more efficient indicating that profitability is efficiency enhancing. The results also revealed a positive relationship between size and efficiency. The study recommends that managers and policy makers should concentrate on how to improve the managerial efficiency and also increase the size of SACCOs. Policy framework should also be directed towards encouraging DTSs to consolidate their operations and limit their diversification into noninterest income.

Reciprocity and resistance to change: An experimental study

Many uncertain organizational changes fail because of resistance by employees. This paper studies the circumstances under which acceptance to change occurs. We propose that reciprocity towards the employer helps to increase change approval. Subjects in our experiment play a combination of a gift exchange and a threshold contribution game. In each group, one employer chooses a wage and then five employees decide on their effort. A ‘reform’ is adopted if the employees exert at least a minimum threshold of effort. The reform is efficiency enhancing but also raises inequality among employees. We find that uncertainty over payoffs does not necessarily lead to resistance. The likelihood of reform approval is especially high if the employer is able to trigger reciprocal behavior in employees by offering a fair wage, which confirms our hypothesis.

Labor Market Regulations in the Context of Structural Transformation

This paper constructs a theoretical model to study labor market regulations in developing countries within the context of structural transformation. When workers are risk averse and the market for insurance against labor income risk is missing, regulations that provide insurance to workers (such as severance payments) are efficiency enhancing and promote structural transformation. However, regulations that simply create barriers to the dismissal of workers not only impede structural transformation, they also end up reducing the welfare of workers. The implications of some other issues like general regulatory burden, weak state capacity, and minimum wage regulations are analyzed as well. The paper provides some empirical evidence broadly consistent with the theoretical results using cross-country data. While dismissal regulations increase the share of informal employment, severance payments to workers do not.

Reallocation and the Role of Firm Composition Effects on Aggregate Wage Dynamics

Aggregate wages display little cyclicality compared to what a standard model would predict. Wage rigidities are an obvious candidate but a recent strand of the literature has emphasized the need to take into account the growing importance of worker composition effects during downturns. With reference to the Italian case we document that also firm composition effects increasingly matter in explaining the aggregate wage dynamics, i.e. aggregate wage growth has been lifted up by the increase in the employment weight of high wage firms. To the extent that this reallocation occurs towards more productive firms, the composition effects may also reflect an efficiency enhancing mechanism. We use a newly available dataset based on social security records covering the universe of Italian employers be-tween 1990 and 2013 and employ a standard measure of allocative efficiency on wages paid across firms. We show that this measure has improved over time since prior to the recent downturn and that it is aligned, at the sectoral level, with measures of productivity growth and market openness to competition. We then focus on the recent downturn and find that large firms were able to adjust wages more than small firms, and that small firms instead adjusted employment to a larger extent. Finally, we document that the continued improvement in the measure of allocative efficiency over this period correlates positively with measures of economic activity (evolution of employment and value added) across sectors.

Adsorption efficiency enhancing of electrospun polycaprolactone nanofibers towards acidic polar drugs through the incorporation of a composite of graphene oxide nanosheets and Al30 polyoxocations: a comparative study

The main objective of this study focuses on exploration of the feasibility of Al30 polyoxocations for preparation of a novel sorbent material for a solid-phase extraction (SPE) method by selective adsorption and extraction of a class of compounds considering the type of interactions involved in the adsorption process. Accordingly, first Al30 polyoxocations were synthesized and their composite was prepared with graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets as a suitable substrate to be introduced as a SPE sorbent material. Then, the prepared composite was incorporated into polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers via electrospinning to present an alternative sorbent for SPE-based on a GO/Al30 nanocomposite (GO/Al30 NC) creating no need for filtering or centrifuging steps. Intercalation of Al30 polyoxocations into the GO layers and the incorporation of GO/Al30 NC into PCL nanofibers was successfully confirmed through FE-SEM, TEM, EDX, XRD, BET, TGA, IR spectroscopy, and zeta potential determination. For investigating the types of probable interactions involved in the adsorption process of different compounds on the proposed sorbents, four statin drugs, cholesterol-lowering agents with various polarity and ionization properties, were selected as model analytes. Factors affecting the extraction efficiency of dispersive SPE and immersed SPE methods using GO/Al30 NC and GO/Al30 NC-PCL nanofibers, respectively, were investigated and optimized. Under optimal conditions, acceptable analytical figures of merit were obtained for both SPE methods. A comparison of extraction efficiencies of the target drugs by the two proposed sorbents, as well as GO nanosheets and PCL nanofibers, was accomplished to study the types of interactions as well as the adsorption mechanism. The results revealed that GO/Al30 NC, having many polar and anion exchange sites caused by Al30 polyoxocations, is a good selective sorbent for acidic polar compounds which their extraction by nonpolar sorbents is not desirable. Additionally, GO/Al30 NC-PCL nanofibers exhibited extraction capability for a wide range of compounds from acidic polar to nonpolar and nonionizable ones.

Zr-doped TiO2 as a thermostabilizer in plasmon-enhanced dye-sensitized solar cells

Harvesting solar energy is a promising solution toward meeting the world’s ever-growing energy demand. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are hybrid organic–inorganic solar cells with tremendous potential for commercial application, but they are plagued by inefficiency due to their poor sunlight absorption. Plasmonic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been shown to enhance the absorptive properties of DSSCs, but their plasmonic resonance can cause thermal damage resulting in cell deterioration. Hence, the influence of Zr-doped TiO2 on the efficiency of plasmon-enhanced DSSCs was studied, showing that 5 mol.% Zr-doping of the photoactive TiO2 material can improve the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs by 44%. By examining three different DSSC designs, it became clear that the efficiency enhancing effect of Zr strongly depends on the proximity of the Zr-doped material to the plasmonic AgNPs.

Macroeconomic Effects of Entrepreneurship from an International Perspective

At the panel level, formed of 33 European economies based on resource efficiency enhancers or innovation-driven factors, the present study followed causal relationships between the conditions of economic efficiency ensuring framework and different macroeconomic effects of entrepreneurship, mediated by the entrepreneurial behavior, with delays up to five years. Research findings highlighted that a national efficiency enhancing framework acts as stimulant for the entrepreneurial behavior of nascent entrepreneurs and new small and medium-sized business owners, while a superior level of entrepreneurial behavior generates simultaneous and/or medium-term favorable effects on the growth of gross domestic product, exports, imports and employment, therefore assuring, besides immediate growth, sustainable economic and social progress in the analyzed countries. The causal relationships identified are consistent with the results of other empirical studies in the field.