The deep economic modifications suffered by the State of Ceará, in the last two decades, have been increasing the consumption of production factors, among them, water and energy, essential to most productive activities. However, as the supply of both inputs, in the region, is limited, a...

There is a growing recognition in the economic development literature that one of the major impediments to growth and development in the next will be access to water. In recognition of this emerging problem, the present research aims to provide a formal link between water consumption and...

The paper assesses the sustainability of investment in various economic sectors, with the aim of minimizing resource use and generation of emissions. The broad development focus of the paper and the potential for the proposed methodology to be applied in many different countries make it a useful...

The directional distance function model is a generalization of the radial model in data envelopment analysis (DEA). The directional distance function model is appropriate for dealing with cases where undesirable outputs exist. However, it is not a units-invariant measure of efficiency, which...

This study examines the efficiency of banking systems in seventeen OECD countries over the period 1999-2009. For the purpose of our analysis we introduce a window-based version of two relational two-stage DEA models. Furthermore, we apply different versions of the additive and the multiplicative...

Since Lėon Walras neoclassical economists hold an inalterable belief in a unique and stable equilibrium for the economic system, which remains to this day unobservable. Yet that belief is the corner stone of other theories such as the ‘Efficient Market Hypothesis’ as well as the philosophy...

A company’s performance significantly depends on how well a company manages its finances keeping in view the short term hurdles and long term goals. One objective of financial statement analysis is to determine firm value. Research suggests that a firm’s value is a function of the...

This study aims to assess the microfinance institutions’ (MFIs’) efficiency in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) after the reforms that were undertaken in the industry. Given the complementary role between MFIs and banks (where MFIs reach the population that the banks...

Super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (SE-DEA) models are expressions of the traditional DEA models featuring the exclusion of the unit under evaluation from the reference set. The SE-DEA models have been applied in various cases such as sensitivity and stability analysis, measurement of...

This paper specifies and interprets those direct relations which exist between the dual concepts of complete controllabil-ity/observability (Kalman, 1960), on the one hand, and the con-cept of the regular technique of production (Schefold, 1971), on the other. Specifically, it shows, first, that...