Ignacio Contreras

Universidad Pablo de Olavide | UPO · Department of Economy, Cuantitative Methods and Economic History

Sustainable tourism indicators are instruments for measuring tourism sustainability, widely used in the planning and decision-making processes. For this measurement, in recent decades composite indicators have been proposed that provide dynamic evaluations to assess the progress that each destination registers towards more sustainable situations. H...

Composite indicators have proved to be a suitable tool for the evaluation of complex phenomena, by enabling a large amount of information to be concentrated in a unique value. In this paper, a methodology based on geometric aggregation and free-selection of weights is proposed for the evaluation of the educational systems of OECD countries. In an e...

This paper deals with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in centralised settings in which the operating units belong to the same organisation. In such a scenario, a global system-wide perspective may be adopted as regards resource allocation and target setting. In this paper, a new Lexicographic Goal Programming (lexGP) approach is proposed using thre...

This paper aims to assess the sustainability of tourism destinations. To this end, various methodologies have been considered, among which composite indicators constitutes a valuable tool. A non-compensatory methodology has been applied in order to address the problem caused by the compensation of low values in certain indicators of a particular de...

Introduction The active commuting can be defined as the action of displacement to the educational or work centre by way of any non-motorised means of transport, usually by walking or cycling. The aim of this study is to identify and evaluate cognitive and environmental factors for the active commuting. Methods In order to propose a set of beliefs...

En los últimos años ha habido un elevado crecimiento de problemas de salud en las personas, tales como obesidad, sobrepeso, diabetes, etc. Una forma de combatir este problema es el desplazamiento activo. El objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar el efecto de la salud, el confort y la conciencia medioambiental sobre la intención de practicar desplazami...

In this paper, the Spanish public university system is thoroughly analyzed in order to maximize its efficiency. First, the current technical and size efficiency of the different universities is assessed and those that should be split are identified. In a second phase, bearing in mind that it is the regional governments that supervise and control th...

In this paper Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to assess the relative efficiency of a set of decision-making units (DMUs). Each DMU is evaluated on the basis of the ratio of its weighted output (i.e. virtual output) over its weighted input (i.e. virtual input). Conventional DEA models allow each DMU to select the weighting scheme which optim...

This note considers the model developed by Khodabakhshi and Aryavash (Oper Res Int J 17:619–632, 2017); in which the authors propose a new model for cross-efficiency in Data Envelopment Analysis. This procedure proposes the determination of the maximum and the minimum efficiency scores of each unit under the assumption that the sum of the efficienc...

In this paper empirical application to the study about the efficiency of the performance of the educational systems across countries is developed. With the information published in the PISA 2015, Data Envelopment Analysis methodology is considered to evaluate the efficiency in the use of the resources devoted to education by OECD countries. Similar...

In the evaluation of any political strategy, it is essential to carry out the collection and analysis of the available data. The presentation of a complex phenomenon by means of synthetic measures can improve both the political actors’ understanding of the situation and the design of new measures. In this paper, we deal with the problem of the cons...

This study aims to propose an index for measuring tourism destination competitiveness in the Caribbean Region. The application purpose is to fill the absence of Caribbean destinations in international rankings. Thirty three destinations and 27 indicators were considered, grouped into the 4 sub‐indexes of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index...

Cross-efficiency evaluation is a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach that enables the efficiency and ranking of Decision-Making Units (DMUs) to assess the possibility of idiosyncratic weighting schemes. However, the existence of multiple optimal weights in multiplier DEA models implies the non-uniqueness of the cross-efficiency evaluation. Thi...

Purpose Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a mathematical method for the evaluation of the relative efficiency of a set of alternatives, which produces multiple outputs by consuming multiple inputs. Each unit is evaluated on the basis of the weighted output over the weighted input ratio with a free selection of weights and is allowed to select its...

This paper deals with the problem of allocating additional resources in a public university system. Instead of a solution imposed from above, the proposed bargaining approach lets the universities voluntarily agree on a solution that benefits them all. To be realistic the allocation assumes that the universities will keep their current technical ef...

The aim of the present paper is to explore the efficiency of Spanish schools while simultaneously considering data envelopment analysis (DEA) and multivariate analysis. Test scores from the Program for International Assessment reports are used as outputs while the resources of each institution are considered as inputs to the analysis. The methodolo...

Efficiency in a firm is important because it ensures that the economy’s scarce resources are not being wasted. It produces something else of value—profits or the continued existence of the organisation. This work contributes to the literature on efficiency in franchising. Specifically, it is focused on the sector of travel agencies which operate in...

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a nonparametric technique originally conceived for efficiency analysis of a set of units. The main characteristic of DEA-inspired procedures is endogenous determination of weighting vectors, i.e., the weighting vectors are determined as variables of the model. Nevertheless, DEA’s applications have vastly exceeded...

First, we would like to thank Professor Tofallis for having pointed out the advantages of a new DEA-inspired model, which considers a multiplicative aggregation scheme, and for linking his viewpoint with our recent paper on JORS (Blancas et al, 2013).

This paper highlights the complexity of the franchise partner selection process from a franchisee's perspective. The purpose of this article is, firstly, to propose the definition of a system of indicators which include all the relevant information which the potential franchisee should take into consideration when choosing a chain secondly, to obta...

Composite indicators (CIs), constructed on the basis of the 'benefit of the doubt' criterion, are characterized by endogenously determined vectors of weights. In this paper, a new procedure to construct CIs is proposed in an attempt to overcome the main weakness of this family of procedures: the determination of an individual weighting vector for e...

The transport of dangerous goods by trucks requires special conditions for rest areas. By considering the set of existing service areas, the present work develops a procedure for selecting the subgroup of the most suitable service areas for modification in order to provide a service to dangerous-goods transporters. Under multiple criteria, a new DE...

Several automakers have expressed their intention to start commercializing hydrogen vehicles on a larger scale by 2015. This commercialization requires efficient roll-out of hydrogen fueling stations, with prior identification of the areas most suitable for their establishment. Suitability of the different areas will be determined by several supply...

Cross-efficiency evaluation is an extension of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) that permits not only the determination of a ranking of Decision Making Units (DMUs) but also the elimination of unrealistic weighting schemes, thereby rescinding the necessity for the inclusion of individual judgements in the models. The main deficiency of the procedure...

Firms often face the problem of deciding how to share scarce resources between a set of candidate projects and simultaneously schedule them; that is, how to choose a project portfolio. Usually, this decision-making process is carried out in groups, and all the individuals' preferences have to be considered simultaneously to determine an acceptable...

This paper deals with the problem of aggregating individual preferences in order to obtain a social order. In particular, a preference aggregation procedure is proposed for those cases in which the decision-makers express their preferences by means of a ranking of alternatives. Among the most commonly applied methods for this purpose are those base...

Among the most commonly applied methods for the aggregation of individual preferences, weighted scoring rules associate each alternative with a weighted sum of votes received and then rank them in terms of this aggregate value. Some authors have argued that it is not possible to fairly evaluate a set of alternatives by only considering an externall...

In this paper we propose a preference aggregation procedure for those cases in which the decision-makers express their preferences by means of a ranking of alternatives. Among the most applied methods for this purpose are those inspired by the Borda–Kendall rule, which attach to each alternative an aggregated value of the votes received in the diff...

In this paper a preference aggregation procedure is proposed for those cases in which decision-makers express their preferences by means of a ranking of alternatives. Among the most commonly applied methods for this purpose are those based on distance measures between individual and collective preferences, which look for the solution that minimizes...

The objective of the paper is to propose procedures to construct global ranking of a set of alternatives in situations in which each member of a group is able to provide imprecise information on his/her preferences about the relative importance of the criteria that have to be taken into account. We first propose an approach based on the assumption...

Insurance companies have to take risk and cost into account when pricing car insurance policies in order to design new products to cover the risk of private use of cars. In this paper we use data from 80,000 car insurance policies in order to assess, once risk and cost have been taken into account, the policies that generate the highest returns for...

Insurance companies have to take risk and cost into account when pricing car insurance policies that cover the risk of private use of cars. In this paper we use data from 80 000 car insurance policies in order to assess, once risk and cost have been taken into account, the combinations of risk that generate the highest returns for the company under...

More than 60% of olive-growing farms in Andalusia (Spain) would have negative returns without European agricultural subsidies. Agenda 2000 criteria imply that agricultural subsidies currently play the role of enhancing the production quality and the environmental and social values of agriculture. Although the necessity of the modulation of subsidie...

Insurance companies have to take risk and cost into account when pricing car insurance policies in order to design new products to cover the risk of private use of cars. In this paper we use data from 80,000 car insurance policies in order to assess, once risk and cost have been taken into account, the policies that generate the highest returns for...

La situación actual del sector del seguro del automóvil exige a las compañías aseguradoras diseñar productos cada vez más ajustados al tipo de cliente al que se dirige. En el presente trabajo analizamos los 80.000 registros ofrecidos por una entidad aseguradora con una importante cuota en el mercado español. Tras identificar una serie de perfiles e...

In this paper we propose a procedure for multicriteria collective decision-making problems. It is especially suitable for situations in which each member of a group offers imprecise information on his/her preferences about the relative importance of the criteria that have to be taken into account to obtain a ranking of a set of alternatives. In a f...

This paper addresses multiple criteria group decision making problems where each group member offers imprecise information on his/her preferences about the criteria. In particular we study the inclusion of this partial information in the decision problem when the individuals’ preferences do not provide a vector of common criteria weights and a comp...

The transition to a hydrogen economy requires appropriate regional planning to take advantage of the each region potential. This paper deals with a first phase of this process, which consists of satisfying around 10% of the energy demand for transport in Spain by 2010 through renewable energy sources. Planning has been carried out via a multiobject...

This work applies the non-parametric technique of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to conduct a multicriteria comparison of some existing and under development technologies in the automotive sector. The results indicate that some of the technologies under development, such as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, can be classified as efficient when evaluated...

The lack of sustainability of the current Spanish energy system makes it necessary to study the adoption of alternative energy models. One of these is what is known as the hydrogen economy. In this paper, we aim to plan, for the case of Spain, an initial phase for transition to this energy model making use of the potential offered by each Spanish r...

We deal with the problem of the evaluation of a set of alternatives when they are measured by values in different rank positions of an ordinal scale. We propose a class of indices to evaluate the alternatives where we give each alternative the opportunity to rank as high as possible assuming only certain conditions on the weights that represent the...

Con la reforma mejicana de julio de 1997 se culminaba un proceso de reformas iniciado en Chile en 1981 por el que los principales países latinoamericanos han optado por sistemas de pensiones basados en la capitalización individual, cediendo la gestión de los fondos destinados a financiar el retiro a entidades privadas que actúan bajo competencia. E...

The objective of the paper is to propose procedures to construct global rankings of alternatives in situations in which each member of a group is able to provide imprecise or partial information on his/her preferences about the relative importance of the criteria that have to be taken into account. We first propose an approach based on the assumpti...