1,721,038 research outputs found
Efficiency Analysis of German Electricity Distribution Utilities : Non-Parametric and Parametric Tests
Full text linkThis paper applies parametric and non-parametric and parametric tests to assess the efficiency of electricity distribution companies in Germany. We address traditional issues in electricity sector benchmarking, such as the role of scale effects and optimal utility size, as well as new evidence specific to the situation in Germany This paper applies parametric and non-parametric and parametric tests to asses the efficiency of electricity distribution companies in Germany. We use labor, capital, and peak load capacity as inputs, and units sold and the number of customers as output. The data covers 307 (out of 553) German electricity distribution utilities. We apply a data envelopment analysis (DEA) with constant returns to scale (CRS) as the main productivity analysis technique, whereas stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) with distance function is our verification method. The results suggest that returns to scale play a minor role; only very small utilities have a significant cost advantage. Low customer density is found to affect the efficiency score significantly in the lower third of all observations. Surprisingly, East German utilities feature a higher average efficiency than their West German counterparts. The correlation tests imply a high coherence of the results. --Efficiency analysis,econometric methods,electricity distribution,benchmarking,Germany
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Essays in Applied Economics
Full text linkThis thesis proposes the application of various economic theories and analytical techniques from the fields of energy economics, environmental economics, comparative economic systems and, development economics in the regional context of South and Central Asia. Applying IV estimation in essay one leads to the conclusion that ethnolinguistic diversity instrumented by diversity of ancient civilizations/empires is strongly linked with contemporary development in Afghanistan. Ethnolinguistic diversity induces higher levels of trust and lower levels of individualism. Moreover, it is associated with higher levels of income and lower levels of violence or crime. A robust regression discontinuity design has been used to estimate the impact of historical ethnolinguistic borders on the contemporary economic development of Afghanistan. Pashtuns have the clear advantage over the other ethnolinguistic groups in Afghanistan in terms of level of income and provision of public goods such as safe drinking water and electricity. The Pashtun belt has suffered more violence and crime due to foreign interference in the Pashtun areas. The ethnolinguistic division in Afghanistan in terms of political preferences is obvious by the fact that support for Ashraf Ghani declines significantly when crossing the ethnic and linguistic border into the non-Pashtun areas. Structural equation modeling results reveal that the empires of Achaemenids, Parthians, and, most prominently, Sasanians, categorized as Old Persian, and the empires of Turkic origin left a positive and persistent impact on the contemporary economic development of Afghanistan.
Essay 2 and essay 3 of the dissertation deal with the economics of electricity and sustainable energy. Electricity generation from the use of fossil fuels is one of the largest sources of man-made carbon dioxide emissions in the world. Switching the power industry to the use of renewables such as hydro, solar, and wind energy is an option to deal with the issue of climate change. There are various challenges confronting the world and particularly South Asia in this energy transition towards renewable energy resources. Therefore, there is a necessity to take policy measures that enable electric utilities operating on fossil fuels to reach a technically efficient point where considerable savings in terms of costs and carbon emissions can be made. This has been estimated in the case of Pakistan in essay 2, with a possible reduction of about 34% of carbon emissions and 26% of the cost of power generation from fossil fuels with the use of technically efficient inputs. In essay 3, this thesis explores factors that are impediments to growth of the renewable energy sector by using pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag (PMG ARDL) and the time series autoregressive distributed lag model, as well as by using the analytical tool of SWOT methodology to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to the internal and external environment of development of the renewable energy sector in South Asia. Empirical results suggest that poor economic growth and the depreciating exchange rate are the major barriers to the development of the renewable energy sector of South Asia. SWOT analysis suggests that credit institutions’ lack of interest in financing for renewable energy projects, the poor financial situation of the distribution companies, and inadequate research in the sustainable energy sector are the main obstacles to this development
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Benchmarking and firm heterogeneity in electricity distribution: a latent class analysis of Germany
Full text linkIn January 2009 Germany introduced incentive regulation for the electricity distribution sector based on results obtained from econometric and nonparametric benchmarking analysis. One main problem for the regulator in assigning the relative efficiency scores are unobserved firm-specific factors such as network and technological differences. Comparing the efficiency of different firms usually assumes that they operate under the same production technology, thus unobserved factors might be inappropriately understood as inefficiency. To avoid this type of misspecification in regulatory practice estimation is carried out in two stages: in a first stage observations are classified into two categories according to the size of the network operators. Then separate analyses are conducted for each sub-group. This paper shows how to disentangle the heterogeneity from inefficiency in one step, using a latent class model for stochastic frontiers. As the classification is not based on a priori sample separation criteria it delivers more robust, statistical significant and testable results. Against this backround we analyze the level of technical efficiency of a sample of 200 regional and local German electricity distribution companies for a balanced panel data set (2001-2005). Testing the hypothesis if larger distributors operate under a different technology than smaller ones we assess if a single step latent class model provides new insights to the use of benchmarking approaches within the incentive regulation schemes
Öffentliche Versorgungsunternehmen in Deutschland: Unternehmensstruktur und Produktivität
No full textSince 1998, public firms have had to adapt to a market environment that is very different from the post-war era in Europe. The liberalisation of services of general economic interest across Europe led to competition between public and private providers, while new technologies require infrastructure investment and innovative solutions. In addition, urbanisation and population ageing pose new challenges for local public service provision. Focusing on German energy and water utilities, the dissertation empirically analyses total factor productivity and the cost structure of contemporary public firms for the period 2003 to 2014 based on a structural production framework. First, we evaluate the performance of public firms under competition, estimating firm-level productivity in the electricity retail sector. Second, we study public utilities' internal organisation, analysing the productivity effect of three new public management strategies: corporatisation, partial privatisation, and outsourcing of business activities. Finally, we examine regional disparities in the productivity and costs of public water supply resulting from demographic changes. The empirical analysis uses official microdata on German utilities.Das Marktumfeld, in dem öffentliche Unternehmen in Europa agieren, hat sich seit der Nachkriegszeit stark verändert. Die europaweite Liberalisierung von Dienstleistungen allgemeinen wirtschaftlichen Interesses im Jahr 1998 hat zu Wettbewerb zwischen öffentlichen und privaten Anbietern geführt, und neue Technologien erfordern Infrastrukturinvestitionen und innovative Lösungen. Darüber hinaus ergeben sich für die lokale Daseinsvorsorge neue Herausforderungen aus der Landflucht und der Alterung der Bevölkerung. Die Arbeit konzentriert sich auf deutsche Energie- und Wasserversorgungsunternehmen und analysiert empirisch die Gesamtfaktorproduktivität und die Kostenstruktur für den Zeitraum 2003 bis 2014 auf der Grundlage eines strukturökonometrischen Modells. Zunächst wird die Leistung öffentlicher Versorgungsunternehmen im Wettbewerbsumfeld untersucht, wofür die Unternehmensproduktivität im Stromeinzelhandel geschätzt wird. Zweitens wird die Organisationsstruktur öffentlicher Versorgungsunternehmen analysiert und die Auswirkungen von drei Strategien des New Public Managements auf die Unternehmensproduktivität untersucht: formale Privatisierung, Teilprivatisierung und die Auslagerung von Geschäftsaktivitäten. Abschließend werden regionale Disparitäten in der Produktivität und den Kosten der öffentlichen Wasserversorgung untersucht, die sich aus demografischen Veränderungen ergeben. Die empirische Analyse verwendet amtliche Mikrodaten zu deutschen Versorgungsunternehmen für den Zeitraum 2003 bis 2014
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