This study investigated various factors explaining the technical, allocative and cost efficiency of Finnish hospitals using parametric frontier models and nonparametric DEA models. DEA scores were correlated to the same set of variables as efficiency scores by stochastic frontier models. Specialization, specialization in expensive DRGs, sufficiently high proportion of resident physicians and in...

The model shows how a regulated monopolist’s price should change as random cost and demand parameters are revealed. The regulator has a Ramsey-type problem. With a linear tariff a trade-off between allocative efficiency and risk sharing typically exists. The attitudes of the consumer and the firm to both income and price risk determine how the price should move. Sufficient conditions are found ...

If n colluding oligopolists all have the cost function C(qi) = c qi, then it will not be possible to uniquely allocate among the firms the monopoly output that maximizes their joint profit. Similarly, if all plants of an n-plant firm have the cost function C(qi) = c qi, then it will not be possible to uniquely allocate the firm’s optimal output among the n plants. This paper identifies the nece...

Strategic delegation to an independent regulator with a pure consumer standard improves dynamic regulation by mitigating ratchet effects associated with short term contracting. A consumer standard alleviates the regulator’s myopic temptation to raise output after learning the firm is inefficient. Anticipating this tougher regulatory behavior, efficient firms find cost exaggeration less attracti...

Allocative inefficiencies in online auction markets can result in the loss of revenues for sellers. It can also cause frustration for buyers who fail to win an item despite placing bids higher than other winners. The main contention of this work is that allocative inefficiencies present arbitrage opportunities, though not strictly in the traditional financial market sense, where risk-free profi...