Although it has its defenders,1 command-and-control environmental regulation has been criticised for being economically inefficient and for relying on the effectiveness of the regulator and its staff.2 Scholars have claimed that traditional command-and-control methods of dealing with pollution, involving the use of uniform technology standards, operate in a fragmented manner with the inefficien...

In this paper, a new method is proposed for the production of MWCNTs/PVC (multi-walled carbon nanotubes/ polyvinyl chloride) nanocomposites. In this method, a spray is used to produce layers of carbon nanotubes within a PVC matrix. Various parameters influence the production of the nanocomposite and its mechanical properties. These parameters are studied separately and the effect of each of par...

In 1996, the World Health Organization declared violence a major and growing public health problem across the world. In Spain, despite the growing incidence of reports of deaths and abuse due to intimate partners violence; the emergent data on school-based violence among children and adolescents; the persisting political violence and the tragic experience of the 11-M attacks in Madrid; a clear ...

This paper presents a methodology for estimating an index of technological change using firm-level data in a stochastic frontier production function model that takes into account time-varying technical inefficiency. In contrast to the Solow divisia index approach, econometric estimation of the index with panel data allows the researcher to separate technical progress from the stochastic measure...

The study analyzed the technical efficiency of female cassava farmers in Surulere Local Government Area Oyo State, Nigeria. specifically determined respondents, examined factors affecting and estimated profitability area. showed that majority were their active year, most literate, married, had 4 – 6 members, experienced they small scale farmers. also variable representing farm size, agrochemica...

in order to restrain the potential of wind energy, the first step is to determine the wind energy potential. in this study the wind data was used from the three-hour frequency recording of 10-year period (2002-2011). to predict the occurrence probability of each wind speed, the two-parameter weibull function was used. the goodness of fit test by chi-square test showed that the wind speed distri...

The objective of this study was to determine the economic efficiency of resource utilization in broiler production farms using a nonparametric production function, data envelopment analysis (DEA). Data for the analysis were collected from a cross section of 44 farmers using a multi-stage sampling procedure. In DEA models the farmers that produce their level of output with the least amount of in...

This study presents an empirical analysis of the cost efficiency of a sample of Swiss multi-utilities operating in the distribution of electricity, natural gas and water. The multi-utilities that operate in different sectors are characterized by a strong unobserved heterogeneity. Therefore the measurement of their performance poses an important challenge for the regulators. The purpose of this ...