The paper reports about a case study in algebraic specification. It describes TransLog, a transformation tool for pure Prolog programs. TransLog supports the interactive transformation of (a part of) a program. Six transformation steps are supported: unfolding, folding, goal definition, argument permutation (an instance of goal replacement), goal switching and definition elimination. As much as...

In order to reduce SO2 emissions to less than 2.5 lbs/mBtu as mandated by the Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA) of 1990, power companies mainly using higher sulfur content coal as fuel supplies have to find their alternatives to reduce SO2 emissions. The purpose of the study is to assess the extent of economies of scale in coal delivery. The network of coal flow consists of production sites, consu...

The factors behind the increase in the relative wages of skilled workers in developing countries are still not well understood. The authors use data from Peru to analyze the determinants of withinindustry share of skilled workers. They use a translog cost function for gross output and are therefore able to incorporate the effects of materials, both domestic and imported, in addition to capital....

The present study aims to estimate the marginal cost of potable water supply and analyse implications for more efficient, equitable income-adequate tap tariffs in Tunisia. Furthermore, this article develop a new pricing model water. Pricing by Tunisian utility focuses on setting prices cover average costs, often using designs that increase clogging rates. This results large volume being wasted....

Quality of service is of major economic significance in natural monopoly infrastructure industries. In this paper we present an efficiency analysis of electricity distribution networks from seven European countries. We apply the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) method on multi-output translog input distance function models to estimate cost efficiency and scale economies. We show that introduc...

This paper considers an econometric approach to measuring substitutability of three types of energy, i.e. crude oil, electricity and diesel with capital and labour in the manufacturing sector of Greek industry during the period 1970]1990. A general dynamic framework is developed under the assumption that the structure of the production process is weakly separable in capital, labour and energy a...

This study aims to measure the production capacity and capacity utilization in pharmaceutical industry. The capacity utilization is the ratio of actual production level to the potential production level which shows the gap between real production and production capacity. Method: Through econometric methods, the short-run translog cost function is estimated with the cost share function of produ...

this paper is concerned with the estimation of total factor productivity (tfp) growth for the iranian electric utilities during the period 1980-1993 on the basis of panel data. a translog cost function is used which accommodates firm - specific variability through a one - way error component model. the results show that the iranian electricity supply industry experienced increasing returns to s...