This book surveys the state-of-the-art in efficiency and productivity analysis, examining advances in the analytical foundations and empirical applications. The analytical techniques developed in this book for efficiency provide alternative ways of defining optimum outcome sets, typically as a (technical) production frontier or as an (economic) cost, revenue or profit frontier, and alternative ways of measuring efficiency relative to an appropriate frontier. Simultaneously, the analytical techniques developed for efficiency analysis extend directly to productivity analysis, thereby providing alternative methods for estimating productivity levels, and productivity change through time or productivity variation across producers. This book includes chapters using data envelopment analysis (DEA) or stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) as quantitative techniques capable of measuring efficiency and productivity. Across the book’s 15 chapters, it broadly extends into popular application areas including agriculture, banking and finance, and municipal performance, and relatively new application areas including corporate social responsibility, the value of intangible assets, land consolidation, and the measurement of economic well-being. The chapters also cover topics such as permutation tests for production frontier shifts, new indices of total factor productivity, and also randomized controlled trials and production frontiers.

This book grows from a conference on the state of the art and recent advances in Efficiency and Productivity. Papers were commissioned from leading researchers in the field, and include eight explorations into the analytical foundations of efficiency and productivity analysis. Chapters on modeling advances include reverse directional distance function, a new method for estimating technological production possibilities, a new distance function called a loss distance function, an analysis of productivity and price recovery indices, the relation of technical efficiency measures to productivity measures, the implications for benchmarking and target setting of imposing weight restrictions on DEA models, weight restrictions in a regulatory setting, and the Principle of Least Action. Chapters on empirical applications include a study of innovative firms that use innovation inputs to produce innovation outputs, a study of the impact of potential “coopetition” or cooperation among competitors on the financial performance of European automobile plants, using SFA to estimate the eco-efficiency of dairy farms in Spain, a DEA bankruptcy prediction model, a combined stochastic cost frontier analysis model/mixture hazard model, the evolution of energy intensity in nine Spanish manufacturing industries, and the productivity of US farmers as they age.

The volume examines the state-of-the-art of productivity and efficiency analysis. It brings together a selection of the best papers from the 10th North American Productivity Workshop. By analyzing world-wide perspectives on challenges that local economies and institutions may face when changes in productivity are observed, readers can quickly assess the impact of productivity measurement, productivity growth, dynamics of productivity change, measures of labor productivity, measures of technical efficiency in different sectors, frontier analysis, measures of performance, industry instability and spillover effects. The contributions in this volume focus on the theory and application of economics, econometrics, statistics, management science and operational research related to problems in the areas of productivity and efficiency measurement. Popular techniques and methodologies including stochastic frontier analysis and data envelopment analysis are represented. Chapters also cover broader issues related to measuring, understanding, incentivizing and improving the productivity and performance of firms, public services, and industries.

A key resource and framework for assessing the performance of competing entities, including forecasting models Advances in DEA Theory and Applications provides a much-needed framework for assessing the performance of competing entities with special emphasis on forecasting models. It helps readers to determine the most appropriate methodology in order to make the most accurate decisions for implementation. Written by a noted expert in the field, this text provides a review of the latest advances in DEA theory and applications to the field of forecasting. Designed for use by anyone involved in research in the field of forecasting or in another application area where forecasting drives decision making, this text can be applied to a wide range of contexts, including education, health care, banking, armed forces, auditing, market research, retail outlets, organizational effectiveness, transportation, public housing, and manufacturing. This vital resource: Explores the latest developments in DEA frameworks for the performance evaluation of entities such as public or private organizational branches or departments, economic sectors, technologies, and stocks Presents a novel area of application for DEA; namely, the performance evaluation of forecasting models Promotes the use of DEA to assess the performance of forecasting models in a wide area of applications Provides rich, detailed examples and case studies Advances in DEA Theory and Applications includes information on a balanced benchmarking tool that is designed to help organizations examine their assumptions about their productivity and performance.

ADVANCED FERMENTATION AND CELL TECHNOLOGY A comprehensive and up-to-date reference covering both conventional and novel industrial fermentation technologies and their applications Fermentation and cell culture technologies encompass more than the conventional microbial and enzyme systems used in the agri-food, biochemical, bioenergy and pharmaceutical industries. New technologies such as genetic engineering, systems biology, protein engineering, and mammalian cell and plant cell systems are expanding rapidly, as is the demand for sustainable production of bioingredients, drugs, bioenergy and biomaterials. As the growing biobased economy drives innovation, industrial practitioners, instructors, researchers, and students must keep pace with the development and application of novel fermentation processes and a variety of cell technologies. Advanced Fermentation and Cell Technology provides a balanced and comprehensive overview of the microbial, mammalian, and plant cell technologies used by the modern biochemical process industry to develop new and improved processes and products. This authoritative volume covers the essential features of advanced fermentation and cell technology, and highlights the interaction of food fermentation and cell culture biopharmaceutical actives. Detailed chapters, organized into five sections, cover microbial cell technology, animal and plant cell technology, safety issues of new biotechnologies, and applications of microbial fermentation to food products, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Written by an internationally-recognized expert in food biotechnology, this comprehensive volume: Covers both conventional and novel industrial fermentation technologies and their applications in a range of industries Discusses current progress in novel fermentation, cell culture, commercial recombinant bioproducts technologies Includes overviews of the global market size of bioproducts and the fundamentals of cell technology Highlights the importance of sustainability, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), quality assurance, and regulatory practices Explores microbial cell technology and culture tools and techniques such as genome shuffling and recombinant DNA technology, RNA interference and CRISPR technology, molecular thermodynamics, protein engineering, proteomics and bioinformatics, and synthetic biology Advanced Fermentation and Cell Technology is an ideal resource for students of food science, biotechnology, microbiology, agricultural sciences, biochemical engineering, and biochemistry, and is a valuable reference for food scientists, researchers, and technologists throughout the food industry, particularly the dairy, bakery, and fermented beverage sectors.

The Chinese Research Institute of Construction Management (CRIOCM) in collaboration with Shenzhen University (SZU) proudly invites all academics, researchers and professionals to participate in the CRIOCM 2012, the 17th International Symposium on "Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate." We will uphold and preserve the idea and tradition of pragmatism and innovation, to offer an excellent academic and communication platform for academics and professionals to exchange information on the latest developments in real estate and construction management.

Economic efficiency analysis has received considerable worldwide attention in the last few decades, with Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) establishing themselves as the two dominant approaches in the literature. This book, by combining cutting-edge theoretical research on DEA and SFA with attractive real-world applications, offers a valuable asset for professors, students, researchers, and professionals working in all branches of economic efficiency analysis, as well as those concerned with the corresponding economic policies. The book is divided into three parts, the first of which is devoted to basic concepts, making the content self-contained. The second is devoted to DEA, and the third to SFA. The topics covered in Part 2 range from stochastic DEA to multidirectional dynamic inefficiency analysis, including directional distance functions, the elimination and choice translating algorithm, benefit-of-the-doubt composite indicators, and internal benchmarking for efficiency evaluations. Part 3 also includes exciting and cutting-edge theoretical research on e.g. robustness, nonparametric stochastic frontier models, hierarchical panel data models, and estimation methods like corrected ordinary least squares and maximum entropy.

This book unifies and extends the definition and measurement of economic efficiency and its use as a real-life benchmarking technique for actual organizations. Analytically, the book relies on the economic theory of duality as guiding framework. Empirically, it shows how the alternative models can be implemented by way of Data Envelopment Analysis. An accompanying software programmed in the open-source Julia language is used to solve the models. The package is a self-contained set of functions that can be used for individual learning and instruction. The source code, associated documentation, and replication notebooks are available online. The book discusses the concept of economic efficiency at the firm level, comparing observed to optimal economic performance, and its decomposition according to technical and allocative criteria. Depending on the underlying technical efficiency measure, economic efficiency can be decomposed multiplicatively or additively. Part I of the book deals with the classic multiplicative approach that decomposes cost and revenue efficiency based on radial distance functions. Subsequently, the book examines how these partial approaches can be expanded to the notion of profitability efficiency, considering both the input and output dimensions of the firm, and relying on the generalized distance function for the measurement of technical efficiency. Part II is devoted to the recent additive framework related to the decomposition of economic inefficiency defined in terms of cost, revenue, and profit. The book presents economic models for the Russell and enhanced graph Russell measures, the weighted additive distance function, the directional distance function, the modified directional distance function, and the Hölder distance function. Each model is presented in a separate chapter. New approaches that qualify and generalize previous results are also introduced in the last chapters, including the reverse directional distance function and the general direct approach. The book concludes by highlighting the importance of benchmarking economic efficiency for all business stakeholders and recalling the main conclusions obtained from many years of research on this topic. The book offers different alternatives to measure economic efficiency based on a set of desirable properties and advises on the choice of specific economic efficiency models.

Complex systems are pervasive in many areas of science. With the increasing requirement for high levels of system performance, complex systems has become an important area of research due to its role in many industries. Advances in System Dynamics and Control provides emerging research on the applications in the field of control and analysis for complex systems, with a special emphasis on how to solve various control design and observer design problems, nonlinear systems, interconnected systems, and singular systems. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as adaptive control, artificial neural network, and synchronization, this book is an important resource for engineers, professionals, and researchers interested in applying new computational and mathematical tools for solving the complicated problems of mathematical modeling, simulation, and control.