講演題目：Cost efficiency of recycling and waste disposal in Japan
講演概要：Using stochastic cost frontier models, this paper investigates recycling cost efficiency for 1,717 municipalities in Japan for the period 2011-2015. Our major findings are as follows: The cost-minimizing recycling rate is 7.9%, in more detail, 8.5% for organized and 6.9% for non-organized municipalities whereas the actual mean recycling rate is 22% and the policy target is 27%. The cost per waste ton can be reduced from 35,135 yen (approximately 439 USD) to 29,370 yen (367 USD), excluding the inefficiency. Furthermore, changing recycling rates from 22% to 7.9%, the cost would be reduced to 25,864 yen (323 dollar). From the viewpoint of financial cost, the policy implication of this study is that recycling rate in Japan is too high. Cooperation of adjacent municipalities and outsourcing private companies of waste collection reduce waste management cost. More segmentation of recyclables, e.g., from bin to colored and non-colored bins, contributes to cost saving. The collection frequency of glass is a cost-rising factors. Increases in the collection frequencies of paper, metal, and PET bottle reduce collection cost for non-organized municipalities.
講演2（14:00 — 15:30）
講演者 ：志村 裕久 氏（創価大学）
講演題目：Measuring the loan efficiency of Japanese regional banks and its strategic implication – Analysis of Kanto-region based consolidation
講演概要：The slow lending growth and the zero interest policy have exerted an adverse impact on the profitability of the lending business in Japan. This paper utilizes a loan efficiency model and data of the deposits, loans, and net interest income in Kanto region, in Japan, to provide new insight on the current status of regional bank’s loan efficiency and profitability. While some researchers analyzed the lending efficiency and profitability separately, the uniqueness of the proposed framework which is based on two-stage data envelopment analysis, is to simultaneously incorporate these two criteria into one model and solve for the relative efficiency of individual banks. The proposed approach utilizes efficient frontiers and a set of benchmarks for both the bank’s ability to convert deposits into loans (loan efficiency) and its capacity to profit from the loans (loan profitability). Hence, the model allows measuring the relative inefficiency of the individual bank compared to its benchmark. Lending efficiency conveys the idea of how efficiently a bank grants a loan given its bank’s deposits, and profitability expresses how effectively a bank profits from the loans given the total amount of loans granted. For each factor, a score relative to the industry benchmark is calculated. This method allows to measure the loan efficiency for each bank relative to the banking industry as a whole and to investigate the corporate behavior in this domain. Based on the results from the Kanto region, the model provides insights regarding the opportunities to complement its weaknesses among observed consolidation cases.
