Railway reforms: do they influence operating efficiency?

This paper considers railway operations in 23 European countries during 1995–2001, where a series of reform initiatives were launched by the European Commission, and analyses whether these reform initiatives improved the efficiency of the railway systems. Efficiency is measured using Multi-directional Efficiency Analysis, which enables investigation of how railway reforms affect the inefficiencies of specific cost drivers. The main findings are that the reform initiatives generally improve technical efficiency but potentially differently for different cost drivers. Specifically, the paper provides empirical evidence that accounting separation is important for improving the efficiency in the use of both material and staff costs, whereas other reforms only influenced one of these factors.

国内燃料电池电堆技术进展综述

国际氢能与燃料电池汽车大会是国内燃料电池行业举办的国际一流的年度行业盛会,聚集全世界氢能与燃料电池技术的开发者、燃料电池汽车制造商、氢能燃料电池领域投资者和政府政策的制定者,携手促进氢能及燃料电池汽车的商业化发展。本文以第四届氢能与燃料电池汽车大会内容为基础,结合目前行业发展现状对国内燃料电池电堆、膜电极以及双极板的技术进展和发展趋势进行了简要阐述。     

Measuring inefficiency in the Norwegian bus industry using multi-directional efficiency analysis

This paper deals with methods of measuring and analyzing efficiency in the transport industry. The aim of the paper is to introduce and demonstrate the advantages of Multi-directional Efficiency Analysis (MEA) in the case of cost data with limited substitution possibilities. For this purpose we reconsider the Norwegian bus data that has previously been analyzed using econometric models and Data Envelopment Analysis; Jørgensenet al. (1995, 1997) and Odeck and Alkadi (2001). It is shown how, using MEA, it becomes possible to disaggregate inefficiency into different components corresponding to different types of cost generating variables and thereby providing both managers of the bus companies and policy makers with more detailed information on possible improvements in performance.