| 1. |
- Amuakwa-Mensah, Franklin, et al.
(författare)
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Stockpiling and food worries: Changing habits and choices in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic
- 2022
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Ingår i: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. - : Elsevier. - 0038-0121 .- 1873-6041. ; 82 A
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Albeit, governments have instituted strong containment measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns of continuous local spread and economic impact of the virus are impacting global food chains and food security. This paper investigates the effect of concern about the i) local spread and ii) economic impact of COVID-19, on the change in the amount of food and necessities bought in twelve Sub-Sahara African countries. In addition, we examine if these effects are channeled through food worries. The study uses a unique survey dataset by GeoPoll collected in April 2020 (first round) and May 2020 (second round) and employs a multinomial logit and generalized structural equation models. We find significant effect of concern about COVID-19 on change in the package size of food and necessities bought, which is heterogeneous across gender group and rural-urban divide. Our results reveal that concerns of COVID-19 might be promoting stockpiling behavior among females and those with no food worries (due to having sufficient money or resources). This if not properly managed could in the medium to long-term affect the food supply chain, food waste and exacerbate food worries problem especially for already food deprived homes. We discuss the policy implications.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Technical efficiency of Swedish employment offices
- 2014
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Ingår i: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. - : Elsevier. - 0038-0121 .- 1873-6041. ; 48:1, s. 57-64
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper studies technical efficiency for Swedish employment offices between 2004 and 2010. Efficiency is computed using a semi-dynamic DEA-framework. On the input side we include a measure of input quality and we also control for services that are carried out by private contractors. On the output side we are using both intermediate and final outputs. The motivation for using an intermediate output is to take into account the fact that employment offices might have strengthen the possibility for unemployed individuals that remain unemployed to get a job in the forthcoming year. The study identifies an average yearly inefficiency between 7 and 10 percent. It is also observed that the inefficiency is unevenly distributed. To make employment offices more efficient this uneven distribution needs to be considered, otherwise efforts to improve efficiency might instead result in increased inefficiency.
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| 3. |
- Andersson Granberg, Tobias, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of new first response initiatives in emergency services
- 2020
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Ingår i: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 0038-0121 .- 1873-6041. ; 71
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- By training and equipping human resources from other public service sectors than emergency response, to act as first responders, it is possible to reduce the first response times at a low cost. Before launching such an initiative, it is however important to evaluate the potential benefits. In this work, a method for doing this kind of evaluation is developed and applied to a potential initiative, utilizing fire service day personnel as new first responders. By developing a smartphone application and performing an experiment, sending alerts to potential first responders, and combining this with expert reviews of the possible value of their contribution, it is possible to estimate the response time reductions, as well as the monetary benefits of the initiative. The results show that there is a monetary benefit, even with a low number of new first responders, but that it is highly dependent on how quickly they can start travelling towards the emergency site. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
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| 4. |
- de Morais Lima, Priscila
(författare)
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Sanitation and water services: Who is the most efficient provider public or private? Evidences for Brazil
- 2022
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Ingår i: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. - : Elsevier BV. - 0038-0121. ; 79
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study analyzes water supply and sewage services in the 95 largest Brazilian cities, using two techniques for analyzing the efficiency boundaries, DEA and SFA. We estimate the efficiency score between the years 2013-2018. The results show that private providers are more efficient than public providers in the water supply service. For the sewage service, we do not find significant differences between public and private providers. The results demonstrate an increase in the sanitary sewage service scores and some declines throughout the analysis, revealing an attempt to increase efficiency in the sewage sector. In the water supply sector, we do not observe an improvement in efficiency. The study suggests the absence of incentives for higher efficiency, requiring the creation of instruments that promote better performance through these services' regulatory structures.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Kourtit, Karima, et al.
(författare)
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The significance of digital data systems for smart city policy
- 2017
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Ingår i: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC. - 0038-0121 .- 1873-6041. ; 58, s. 13-21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Our planet is gradually moving towards an urbanized world. Modern urban agglomerations tend to turn nowadays into advanced information hubs supporting a smart management of dynamic urban systems. The currently popular notion of 'smart cities' aims to provide a new perspective for sustainable and high-performance strategies of city stakeholders in our 'urban century'. In this context, digital information technology provides a new tool for efficient and effective management and planning of urban space, inter alia in the field of transportation, environment, public facilities or advanced service provision to citizens. This paper aims to offer, first, a concise overview of the emerging opportunities of information and communication technology (ICT) for smart urban policy; digital technology in particular, appears to provide novel pathways for modern planning strategies in smart cities. Against this background, the paper sketches out the complex force field of global urbanisation phenomena and highlights the data and information needs for strategic planning of cities (using inter alia as a framework the so-called 'urban piazza' strategy framework). Secondly, various new decision support tools that are currently emerging and that offer a new promising scope for handling complex urban management issues (for instance, on accessibility, congestion, safety or sustainability) are briefly presented. And finally, the potential of such digital data systems for urban management and policy is concisely illustrated by means of some recent applications in the area of smartphone data systems. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges ahead for urban policy, inter alia by paying attention to institutional and governance aspects of 'big digital data' management in urban systems.
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| 7. |
- Malefors, Christopher, et al.
(författare)
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Food waste reduction and economic savings in times of crisis: The potential of machine learning methods to plan guest attendance in Swedish public catering during the Covid-19 pandemic
- 2022
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Ingår i: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. - : Elsevier BV. - 0038-0121. ; 82
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Food waste is a significant problem within public catering establishments in any normal situation. During spring 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic placed the public catering system under greater pressure, revealing weaknesses within the system and generation of food waste due to rapidly changing consumption patterns. In times of crisis, it is especially important to conserve resources and allocate existing resources to areas where they can be of most use, but this poses significant challenges. This study evaluated the potential of a forecasting model to predict guest attendance during the start and throughout the pandemic. This was done by collecting data on guest attendance in Swedish school and preschool catering establishments before and during the pandemic, and using a machine learning approach to predict future guest attendance based on historical data. Comparison of various learning methods revealed that random forest produced more accurate forecasts than a simple artificial neural network, with conditional mean absolute prediction error of <0.15 for the trained dataset. Economic savings were obtained by forecasting compared with a no-plan scenario, supporting selection of the random forest approach for effective forecasting of meal planning. Overall, the results obtained using forecasting models for meal planning in times of crisis confirmed their usefulness. Continuous use can improve estimates for the test period, due to the agile and flexible nature of these models. This is particularly important when guest attendance is unpredictable, so that production planning can be optimized to reduce food waste and contribute to a more sustainable and resilient food system.
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| 8. |
- Matinrad, Niki, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Optimal pre-dispatch task assignment of volunteers in daily emergency response
- 2023
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Ingår i: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC. - 0038-0121 .- 1873-6041. ; 87
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In emergency response volunteer programs, volunteers in the vicinity of an emergency are alerted via their mobile phones to the scene of the event to perform a specific task. Tasks are usually assigned based on predetermined rules disregarding real-world uncertainties. In this paper, we consider some of these uncertainties and propose an optimization model for the dispatch of volunteers to emergencies, where all task assignments must be done before dispatch. This means that each volunteer must be given a task before knowing whether (s)he is available. The model becomes computationally demanding for large problem instances; therefore, we develop a simple greedy heuristic for the problem and ensure that it can produce high quality solutions by comparing it to the exact model. While the model is for a general emergency, we test it for the case of volunteers responding to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) incidents. We compare the results of the model to the dispatch strategies used in two ongoing volunteer programs in Sweden and in the Netherlands and use simulation to validate the results. The results show that the model most often outperforms the currently used strategies; however, the computational run times, even for the heuristic, are too high to be operationally useful for large problem instances. Thus, it should be possible to improve the outcome using optimization-based task assignments strategies, but a fast solution method is needed for such strategies to be practically useable.
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| 9. |
- Mattsson, Pontus, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Potential efficiency effects of merging the Swedish district courts
- 2019
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Ingår i: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. - : Elsevier. - 0038-0121 .- 1873-6041. ; 67, s. 58-68
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Swedish district courts have undergone a substantial restructuring process in which the main reform has been to merge. As a result, the number of district courts has declined from 95 in 2000 to only 48 in 2009. All main arguments that support merging concern enhancements of efficiency. However, it has not yet been explicitly examined whether the mergers have the potential to increase efficiency ex ante. Thus, the expectation concerning higher efficiency was built on a subjective view. This paper investigates whether the mergers can be rationalized from a production economic point of view. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to compute a production frontier where the conducted mergers are incorporated to identify the potential ex ante gains. Furthermore, the overall potential is decomposed into learning, scale, and harmony to investigate the source of the potential gain, e.g., an effect of adjusting to best practice or a pure merging effect such as scale. The results show diverse potentials, i.e., a number of mergers did not have the potential to gain in efficiency while others could gain substantially. A conclusion based on the analysis is that the potential production economic effects should be investigated before merger decisions are made in the future. This is also likely to be true beyond the Swedish district courts.
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| 10. |
- Pardo Martínez, Clara Inez
(författare)
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An analysis of eco-efficiency in energy use and CO2 emissions in the Swedish service industries
- 2013
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Ingår i: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. - : Elsevier BV. - 0038-0121 .- 1873-6041. ; 47:2, s. 120-130
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study determines the trends in energy efficiency and CO2 emissions of the Swedish service sector using data at the 2-digit level of aggregation for the Swedish service industry over the period 1993-2008, this empirical study examines eco-efficiency in terms of energy efficiency and CO2 emissions based on a number of models. The results show that Swedish service industries increased energy consumption and CO2 emissions during the sample period, whereas energy and CO2 emission intensities have shown a decrease in recent years. Eco-efficiency models based on the Malmquist data envelopment analysis model suggest that Swedish service industries have an excellent potential to increase energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. Second-stage panel data techniques show that energy taxes, investments and labour productive have a significant and positive influence on energy and CO2 emission intensities implying that increasing these variables lead to higher energy efficiency and lower CO2 emission intensity. This analysis demonstrates the importance of designing and applying adequate energy policies that encourage better energy use and management in this industrial sector for the goal of achieving a low carbon economy.
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