Evaluation of the Italian transport infrastructures: A technical and economic efficiency analysis

Environmental and Economic-oriented Transport Efficiency: The Role of Climate Change Mitigation Technology

Transport sector is a vital aspect of economic and environment. However, it drastically contributes desirable and undesirable outputs to the economy and the environment due to its rapid development. Thus, transport efficiency related to the economy and the environment needs to be measured. Unlike existing studies that investigate environmental and economic impacts separately, this study analyzes the joint effect of economic and environmental factors. Furthermore, the role of transport-related climate change mitigation technology is also investigated using five inputs and three outputs for the period 2000 to 2020 for 35 OECD countries. This study employs two approaches: first, data envelopment analysis based on slack-based measure (DEA-SBM), and second, an advanced econometric method, i.e., cross-sectional dependence autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL). DEA-SBM shows that all countries are efficient-related economic and environmental effects through the transport sector. CS-ARDL shows that transport-related climate change mitigation technology has a remarkable impact on efficiency levels. Moreover, the joint effect of environmental research and development and climate change mitigation technologies adversely impacts transport efficiency. Climate change mitigation technology related to air has a higher impact than railway and road on economic and environmental transport efficiency. Findings suggest that countries should focus on policy implications regarding transport inputs and desirable and undesirable outputs.

Nexus Between Economic Efficiency, Healthcare, and Environmental Expenditures: A Perspective of BRI Countries

Public health and the environment are the most essential pillars, and play a vital role in the economy. In order to better public health, the economic and environmental atmosphere must be stable and clean, respectively. Thus, this paper emphasizes on nexus between economic, public health, and the environment. Therefore, the objective of this paper is whether healthcare and environmental expenditures affect economic efficiency and vice versa. So, this study evaluates the performance of the country's economic efficiency and investigates the effect of healthcare and environmental expenditures for 62 Belt and Road Initiative countries for the period from 1996 to 2020. Suitable input-output variables are employed under the framework of DEA-window and Malmquist Index Productivity, and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). In addition, this study estimates the relationship between economic efficiency, healthcare, and environmental expenditures by fixed and random effects models. Therefore, the analytical outcomes reveal that countries are economically efficient. On the contrary, SFA estimation concludes that countries are found to be inefficient, because higher variation is exists in efficiency change compared to technological efficiency change and total factor productivity change on average. In addition, it is worth notable that healthcare and environmental expenditures improve the country's economic efficiency. Furthermore, public health is also influenced by economic efficiency. Thus, this study suggests that countries should better utilize given resources and invest a specific portion of national income in order to improve economic efficiency.

Multiple-Criteria Decision Analysis Using TOPSIS and WSA Method for Quality of Life: The Case of Slovakia Regions

Quality of life can be expressed as a highly subjective measure of happiness, which is an important part of many financial and non-financial decisions. The issue of quality of life, namely its quantification, is a current topic, evidenced by a number of literary sources in both foreign and domestic literature. The paper deals with this issue in the conditions of the Slovak Republic and studies the quality of life for each region of Slovakia with respect to the given indicators. In this paper, we deal with the use of the methods of multi-criteria analysis in evaluating the quality of life in Slovakia. The aim of this paper is to highlight that it is important to monitor the level of quality of life at the regional level and that one of the indicators influencing the quality of life in the region may be its location in relation to neighboring countries.

How Does Railway Respond to the Spread of COVID-19? Countermeasure Analysis and Evaluation Around the World

The global COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the development of many aspects all over the world. As an important part of public services, rail transit requires effective response countermeasures to control the spread of COVID-19. Considering the current development of the epidemic situation, this article discusses the characteristics of COVID-19 transmission and identifies vulnerable areas to target in order to prevent and control the spread of the epidemic in the rail transit system. Countermeasures adopted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are analyzed in terms of external and internal categories, which were classified into six groups: passenger service, case care, information, staff, equipment and operation management. An evaluation architecture was also constructed, which was established from the perspective of effectiveness, economic efficiency, acceptability, privacy and so on. The effect of implementing the measures was evaluated by a social survey, and their advantages and shortcomings were analyzed, which can be used to guide future epidemic prevention and control for rail transit systems around the world. It is important to formulate a reasonable work schedule according to local conditions, providing a reference for rapid response to future public health emergencies of international concern.