To determine whether an industry exhibits constant returns to scale, whether the production fUnction is homothetic, or whether inputs are separabl~ a common approach is to specify a cost function, estimate its parameters using data such as prices and quantities of inputs, and then test the parametric restrictions corresponding to constant returns, a homothetic technology, or separability. Stati...

The single bootstrap already is popular in economics, though the double bootstrap has better convergence properties. We discuss the theory and implementation of the double bootstrap, both with and without the pivotal transformation, and give detailed examples of each. One example is a nonlinear double bootstrap of a Cobb-Douglas production function, and explains the use of Gauss-Newton Regressi...

We describe in this paper a new method for extracting knowledge on Hierarchical Task-Network (HTN) planning problems for speeding up the search. This knowledge is gathered by propagating properties through an AND/OR tree that represents disjunctively all possible decompositions of an HTN planning problem. We show how to use this knowledge during the search process of our GraphHTN planner, to sp...

This is the first study to use stochastic frontier analysis to estimate both the technical and cost efficiency of physician practices. The analysis is based on panel data from 3,126 physician practices for the years 2006 through 2008. We specified the technical and cost frontiers as translog function, using the one-step approach of Battese and Coelli to detect factors that influence the efficie...

This study reports the results of farmers’ production via irrigation resources utilization and efficiency parameters technical allocative by way sustainable environmental economics. The hypothesis is that factors affect in scheme as Data from cross section panel data were used then productivity measurement function are outlined two scenarios: first, report such output elasticity determine ineff...

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...

Standard neo-classical trade theory predicts that trade liberalisation should cause a fall in wage inequality in developing countries through a decrease in the relative demand for skilled labour. Recent studies of a number of developing countries, however, find evidence to the contrary. Using a panel of manufacturing firms in the 1990s we investigate whether skill-biased technological change in...

The United States paper and paperboard industry has experienced significant structural changes over the past twenty-five years, including reductions in the number of mills, lower rates of capacity growth, employment cutbacks, and a loss of market share to foreign competitors. These structural shifts portray an industry that increasingly has difficulty adapting to a more competitive global envir...

This paper investigates ESG from the perspective of changes in input elasticities substitution and complementarity. Rather than compute these cost function, we them Input Distance Function (IDF). Our data are Refinitiv Eikon Datastream database. We focus on US economy due to her global role world hence spillover effects uncertainties rest world. The consist 5,798 companies comprising 38 industr...