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Cost Performance (cost + performance)
Selected AbstractsRegulating Public Transit Networks: How do Urban-Intercity Diversification and Speed-up Measures Affect Firms' Cost Performance?ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2004Giovanni Fraquelli In this study we estimate a translogarithmic variable cost function to assess the behaviour of returns to scale and the impact of network characteristics. The analysis is based on a sample of 45 Italian municipal companies observed from 1996 to 1998 and including both specialized and mixed transit operators. Results confirm previous evidence on the existence of natural monopoly in the industry and support a regulation introducing competitive tenders to access to the market. In addition, we provide insights about the advantages associated with urban-intercity diversification and with the improvement of network commercial speed. Cost benefits can then be achieved by promoting mergers between neighbouring firms, so as to create new companies operating on integrated local networks and supplying in combination urban and intercity public transport. Implications of such a strategy for the design of tender mechanisms are also underlined, together with the need for a regulatory policy which takes more care of speed-up measures. [source] Tightest constraint first: An efficient delay sensitive multicast routing algorithmINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Issue 7 2005Gang FengArticle first published online: 1 APR 200 Abstract As a key issue in multicast routing with quality of service (QoS) support, constrained minimum Steiner tree (CMST) problem has been a research focus for more than a decade, and tens of heuristics have been developed to solve this NP-complete problem. Among all the previously proposed algorithms, the bounded shortest path algorithm (BSMA) (IEEE INFOCOM'95 1995; 1:377,385) have been proved to be capable of producing a multicast tree that has on average the lowest cost. However, such an excellent cost performance is accompanied with an extremely high time complexity. Recently, Feng et al. presented an alternative implementation of BSMA, which makes use of the latest research results on the delay-constrained least cost (DCLC) routing problem. Simulations indicate that, in comparison with the original implementation, the alternative implementation has a much lower time complexity with virtually identical cost performance, and it also runs much faster than many renowned heuristics such as KPP (IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking 1993; 1(3):286,292) and CAO (The design and evaluation of routing algorithms for real-time channels. Technical Report ICSI TR-94-024, International Computer Science Institute, University of California at Berkeley, June 1994). In this paper, we propose a brand new heuristic TCF, which is based on an idea called ,tightest constraint first.' TCF runs a DCLC heuristic only once for each destination and therefore has a provably low time complexity. We further propose an iterative heuristic ITCF, which uses TCF to obtain an initial tree and then gradually refines it. Extensive simulations demonstrate that, in the average sense, TCF can achieve a cost performance comparable to or better than that of BSMA, the cost performance of ITCF is even better than that of TCF, TCF runs approximately twice as fast as ITCF, and ITCF runs 2,4 times as fast as the best implementation of BSMA. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] LMI approach to reliable guaranteed cost control with multiple criteria constraints: The actuator faults caseINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBUST AND NONLINEAR CONTROL, Issue 8 2009Dengfeng Zhang Abstract Based on the multi-objective optimization strategy and linear matrix inequality approach, the problem of reliable guaranteed cost control with multiple criteria constraints is investigated for a class of uncertain discrete-time systems subject to actuator faults. A fault model in actuators, which considers outage or partial degradation in independent actuators, is adopted. The quadratic stability is proved to be independent of the disturbance and the upper bound of a quadratic cost index is improved. The reliable feedback controller is designed to minimize the upper bound of the quadratic cost index, place all the closed-loop poles in a specified disk, constrain the H, norm level of the disturbance attenuation into a given range and guarantee the magnitudes of control inputs less than the given bound, as well. Thus, the resulting closed-loop system can provide satisfactory stability, transient behavior, disturbance rejection level and optimized upper bound of the quadratic cost performance despite possible actuator faults. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The policy environment and relative price efficiency of Egyptian private sector manufacturing: 1987/88,1995/96JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS, Issue 4 2007Lullit Getachew We study the impact of policy and institutional constraints, and reforms undertaken to remedy them, on relative price efficiency and cost of the private manufacturing sector of Egypt. We undertake this study using a generalized cost function, which subsumes the standard neoclassical cost function as a special case. This approach allows us to assess the impact of such constraints, which include labor market, energy and financial sector ones, on relative prices and the structure of production, including factor demands, shares and cost. Our findings indicate the presence of substantial distortions in relative prices, and hence on cost, due to the policy environment. We also find improvements in relative price efficiency and cost performance as a result of policy reforms initiated to remove the constraints. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Quality improvement and hospital financial performanceJOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 7 2006Jeffrey A. Alexander The objective of this study was to examine the association between the scope and intensity of Quality improvement (QI) implementation in hospitals and organizational performance. A sample of 1,784 community hospitals was used to assess relationships between QI implementation approach and two hospital-level performance indicators: cash flow and cost per case. Two-stage instrumental variables estimation, in which predicted values (instruments) of eight QI intensity and scope variables plus control (exogenous) variables were used to estimate hospital-level performance indicators. Our results suggest that QI has a measurable impact on global measures of organizational performance and that both control and leaning approaches to QI matter in these settings. Hospitals that implement QI effectively can reasonably expect to improve their financial and cost performance, or at least not place the hospital at risk for investing in quality improvement. These outcomes are specific to QI strategies that emphasize both control and learning. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] FIRM SIZE AND EFFICIENCY IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN MOTOR VEHICLE INDUSTRY,AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC PAPERS, Issue 4 2009LILA J. TRUETT The South African motor vehicle industry has historically been considered a critical industry in the South African economy and the target of numerous government policies designed to protect it and/or increase its international competitiveness. This study examines the cost performance of firms in this industry according to their size, using data categorised by output level. The results are consistent with statistically significant economies of scale at the lowest output levels and a cost inefficiency averaging from about seven to nine per cent for all firms. The findings also suggest that all else equal, the smallest firms and the largest firms have lower unit costs than mid-sized firms. While this work suggests that policies that would give incentives for the smallest firms to increase their scale of operations might help to reduce their unit costs, further investigation needs to be done with respect to why firms in the mid-level size categories appear to be less efficient. [source] | |||||||||||||