Benchmarking by means of applying the DEA model is appearing as an interesting alternative for regulators under the new regimes for electricity distributors. A sample of large electricity distribution utilities from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands for the year 1997 is studied by assuming a common production frontier for all countries. The peers supporting the benchmark frontier are from all countries. New indexes describing cross country connections between peers and their i nefficient units are developed, as well as productivity measurements between units from different countries.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Frisch Centre Terms of use: Documents in Frode LindsethThe Norwegian Directorate of Taxes Abstract: The performance of local tax offices of Norway is studied over a three-year period using Data Envelopment Efficiency analysis and calculating Malmquist productivity indices. One input, labour, is used, and six output categories of the main service activities carried out by tax offices are specified. A bootstrap approach recently developed for DEA models is applied to establish confidence intervals for the individual indices enabling an identification of units that have either significant productivity decline or growth, or no change. A specially developed graphic display gives a visual test and grouping into the three possible categories. Looking at change in labour use and productivity change together the productivity development of individual offices is classified into the four categories efficient labour increase, efficient labour savings, inefficient labour savings and inefficient labour increase.Key words: Tax office, Malmquist productivity index, DEA, bootstrap JEL classification: C60, D24, L89 * The paper is written within a project, undertaken by the Frisch Centre for the Directorate of Taxes, on evaluating whether a recent reorganisation of the Directorate leads to a more efficient use of resources.2

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Previous issues of the memo-series are available in a PDF® format at: http://www.sv.uio.no/econ/english/research/unpublished-works/working-papers/ Abstract: Studies of productivity growth of institutions of higher education is of interest for two main reasons; education is an important factor for productivity growth of the economy, and in countries where higher education is funded by the public sector accountability of resource use is of key interest. Educational services consist of teaching, research and the "third mission" of dissemination of knowledge to the society at large. A bootstrapped Malmquist productivity change index is used to calculate productivity development for Norwegian institutions of higher education over the 10 year period 2004-2013. The confidence intervals from bootstrapping allow part of the uncertainty of point estimates stemming from sample variation to be revealed. The main result is that the majority of institutions have had a positive productivity growth over the total period. However, when comparing with growth in labour input the impact on productivity vary a lot. Terms of use: Documents in

Interior and exterior peer, Active peer and self-evaluator, DEA, Referencing zone, Nursing homes, C44, C61, D24, I19, L32,

The paper is based on a report (Førsund et al., 2005) of the project 'Productivity studies in the Norwegian tax administration' by the Frisch Centre for the Directorate of Taxes.The performance of local tax offices of Norway is studied over a three-year period applying Data Envelopment Efficiency analysis and a Malmquist productivity index. The estimates are bias-corrected using a bootstrap approach recently developed for DEA models. The results show that bias correction and the construction of confidence intervals give a quite different picture without bootstrapping. A set of best practice offices is identified for future work on finding explanations for good performance. The productivity development of individual offices is classified into the four categories: productivity improving cost increase, productivity improving cost savings, productivity decreasing cost savings and productivity decreasing cost increase.

Rapporten analyserer den samfunnsøkonomiske lønnsomheten av universell utforming. Det vurderes hvilke nytte-og kostnadsvirkninger som bør inngå i eventuelle samfunnsøkonomiske lønnsomhetsanalyser. Rapporten viser at det kan vaere vanskelig å tallfeste nyttekomponenter både pga. at det er vanskelig eller umulig å måle noen av effektene og manglende data når det gjelder komponenter som i prinsippet kan måles. Når det gjelder måling av kostnadskomponentene er problemene knyttet til at enhetspriser ved anbud ikke er offentlige. Det bør utføres undersøkelser som gir et bedre grunnlag for å tallfeste nytte-og kostnadsvirkningene som det er mulig å måle.

In recent years, Building Information Models have become commonplace in building profession. The extensive use and increasing experience with BIM models offers new perspectives and potentials for design and planning. A recent stakeholder study conducted by the authors of this paper show that in practice models are no longer solely observed as culmination of knowledge in a 3d representation of future built structures, but as a source of information in itself. Experienced users of BIM want to Find Information within a model or across a set of these and Compare models in order to evaluate states of a model, differences in separate models or models from different point of time. Current BIM tools support both modes only in a rudimentary form. This paper discusses current modes of information query within and across BIM models, shows beneficial scenarios for building and planning practice through customised queries and exemplifies these on the base of a scripted tool. This customized approach is used to test approaches for a machine-based assessment of Level of detail and BIM-readiness in BIM models.

Digitalization is forging its path in the architecture, construction, engineering, operation (AECO) industry. This trend demands not only solutions for data governance but also sophisticated cyber-physical systems with a high variety of stakeholder background and very complex requirements. Existing approaches to general requirements engineering ignore the context of the AECO industry. This makes it harder for the software engineers usually lacking the knowledge of the industry context to elicit, analyze and structure the requirements and to effectively communicate with AECO professionals. To live up to that task, we present an approach and a tool for collecting AECOspecific software requirements with the aim to foster reuse and leverage domain knowledge. We introduce a common scenario space, propose a novel choice of an ubiquitous language wellsuited for this particular industry and develop a systematic way to refine the scenario ontologies based on the exploration of the scenario space. The viability of our approach is demonstrated on an ontology of 20 practical scenarios from a large project aiming to develop a digital twin of a construction site.