Efficiency measurement in public transport requires an adequate account of unobserved network characteristics that are typically modeled as factors separable from the production process. This paper proposes a panel data model that allows for nonseparable firm-specific heterogeneity in an input distance function. The proposed model is applied to a sample of German and Swiss urban transit compani...

There is a general perception, based upon casual observation and some systematic empirica! study, that public enterprises are inefllcient.! This paper takes this to be true, and is concerned with the problem of providing a rigorous analysis and explanation of this inefficiency.2 Privatisation, which, in the U.K. at least has received its primary impetus from political and ideological motivarion...

We look at a different security property one might require of encryption, namely one-way security. The notion is natural and seems like a minimal requirement on an encryption scheme. It makes sense for both symmetric and public-key encryption schemes. To make the discussion more concrete, we look at the so-called “textbook” variant of the RSA encryption, and see how to pick keys in relation to ...

This paper aims to estimate a translog stochastic frontier production function in the analysis of a panel of 150 mixed Catalan farms in the period 1989-1993, in order to attempt to measure and explain variation in technical inefficiency scores with a one-stage approach. The model uses gross value added as the output aggregate measure. Total employment, fixed capital, current assets, specific co...

population growth and the needs for protein and dairy products has urged policy makers to pay attention to efficiency policies in the livestock sector. the objective of this study is to survey the factors affecting the income of milk production, to calculate cattlemen’s technical efficiency and to determine the factors affecting the technical efficiency in the northern khorasan province. the re...

Abstract This paper addresses the efficiency measurement of firms composed by multiple components, and assessed at different decision levels. In particular it develops models for three levels decision/production: subunit (production division/process), DMU (firm) industry (system). For each level, inefficiency is measured using a directional distance function developed measures are contrasted wi...

This study empirically examines the association between hospital inefficiency and the decision to introduce electronic medical records (EMR) and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) in a national sample of U.S. general hospitals in urban areas in 2006. The main research question is whether the presence of hospital cost inefficiency or other factors driving inefficiency in the production pr...