Zhongfei Chen

Has the medical reform improved the cost efficiency of Chinese hospitals

n Abstractn n After three decades of reform, the medical care system in China has experienced significant changes. However, the present research has not made a tentative evaluation of it to justify further reform. This paper analyses the cost efficiency of Chinese hospitals in 31 provinces during the period from 2002 to 2011 and adopts a Bayesian stochastic frontier model taking account of the identified heterogeneity according to the background of Chinese medical system reform, including the coastal location, 3A class hospital proportion, public subsidies and medical insurance reforms. It finds that the public subsidies and medical insurance reforms have improved the cost efficiency of Chinese hospitals, while the coastal location and 3A class hospital proportion have decreased the cost efficiency of Chinese hospitals. Therefore, these results imply that it will be beneficial for Chinese medical system to optimize the fiscal subsidies of public hospitals, encourage the entrance of private hospitals, improve the medical insurance coverage and set up the pre-triage system.n n

Efficiency in Nigerian ports: handling imprecise data with a two-stage fuzzy approach

ABSTRACT This article is focused on assessing the efficiency of six major Nigerian ports from 2007 to 2013 by applying a two-stage fuzzy-based methodology adequate to handle imprecise data. More precisely, fuzzy data envelopment analysis models for traditional assumptions with respect to scale returns are employed to assess the productivity of Nigerian ports over the course of time. In the second stage, fuzzy regressions based on different rule-based systems are used to predict the relationship of a set of contextual variables on port efficiency. These contextual variables are related to different aspects of port service level, berth utilization, accessibility, cargo type, and operator type. The results reveal the impact of operator and cargo type on efficiency levels. Policy implications for Nigerian ports are derived.

Housing Sales in Urban Beijing

In the housing market, new properties sometimes experience delays before they are sold. Such delays reflect the preferences of buyers in respect of the homes’ characteristics. Therefore, it is important for managerial purposes to identify the causes of housing sales delays. After analysing the delays in sales of housing in Beijing City, China, the principal finding of this study is that delays are largely explained by the dwellings’ characteristics and location. Policy implications of the research findings, particularly those related to means of reducing the delays, are discussed.

Malmquist productivity indexes in Chinese ports: a fuzzy GMSS DEA approach

This research focuses on the productivity assessment of 17 major Chinese ports from 2006–2015. Differently from previous works, a network productive structure formed by two stages was considered. In the first stage, fixed and other assets, altogether with human resources, are used to generate operating costs used as intermediate inputs, while the depreciation/amortisation of such assets is considered as an exogenous output. In the second stage, each port uses these costs generated in the first stage to produce operating profit, while cargo demand is considered as an exogenous input that enters the system. Then, bootstrapped regression trees are used to predict the relationship of a set of contextual variables related to the technology, financial health and location. Results indicate that the former two determine the productivity change of Chinese ports. When the expansion of scale has not jeopardised the financial health, the productivity will increase. Implications are also derived.