1,721,114 research outputs found
Economies of Scale in the Swiss Hydropower Sector
Full text linkThe paper considers the estimation of a translog cost function employing panel data for a sample of 43 Swiss hydropower companies, over the period of 1995-2002. The results of this analysis indicate the existence of economies of scale and density for most output levels. The basic novelty in this paper is the estimation of a cost function for a sample of hydropower companies. In the economic literature no study on the cost structure of the hydropower plants using an econometric approach has been published so far.econometric estimation of costs, economies of scale and density.
Do opening hours and unobserved heterogeneity affect economies of scale and scope in postal outlets?
Full text linkThe purpose of this study is to analyze the cost structure of Swiss Post’s postal outlets. In particular, the idea is to assess economies of scale and scope in post offices and franchised postal agencies. Information on their optimal size and production structure is of importance from the policy-makers’point of view because this hypothetical situation may be a basis for calculation of reimbursements when providing the universal service. Two important novelties are introduced in this study. First, the latent class model accounts for postal outlets with different underlying production technologies, caused by unobserved factors. Second, the cost model includes standby time as an indicator of public service because regulated accessibility and negotiated opening hours that enhance public service frequently lead to opening hours that exceed the time necessary to operate the demand. Overall, this analysis confirms the existence of increasing unexploited economies of scale and scope with falling outputs in the Swiss Post office network. Furthermore, the results for the latent class model point to the existence of unobserved heterogeneity in the industry.economies of scale, economies of scope, postal outlet network, unobserved heterogeneity, latent class model, opening hours, standby time
Cost Efficiency in Regional Bus Companies: An Application of Alternative Stochastic Frontier Models
Full text linkThis paper evaluates cost and scale efficiencies of Switzerland’s regulated bus companies operating in regional networks. The adopted methodology can be used in benchmarking analyses applied to incentive regulation systems. Moreover, the estimations can be used to evaluate the bidding offers for the tendering processes predicted by the ongoing reform policies. Since these companies operate in different regions with various characteristics that are only partially observed, it is crucial for the regulator to distinguish between inefficiency and exogenous heterogeneity that influences the costs. A number of stochastic cost frontier models are applied to a panel of 94 companies over a 12-year period from 1986 to 1997. The main focus lies on the ability of these models to distinguish inefficiency from the unobserved firmspecific heterogeneity in a network industry. The estimation results are compared and the effect of unobserved heterogeneity on inefficiency estimates is analyzed.
Effects of ownership, subsidization and teaching activities on hospital costs in Switzerland
Full text linkThis paper explores the cost structure of Swiss hospitals, focusing on differences due to teaching activities and those across different ownership and subsidization types. A stochastic total cost frontier with a Cobb-Douglas functional form has been estimated for a panel of 150 general hospitals over the six-year period from 1998 and 2003. Inpatient cases adjusted by DRG cost weights and ambulatory revenues are considered as two separate outputs. The adopted econometric specification allows for unobserved heterogeneity across hospitals. The results indicate that the time-invariant unobserved factors could account for considerable cost differences that could be only partly due to inefficiency. The results suggest that teaching activities are an important cost driving factor and hospitals that have a broader range of specialization are relatively more costly. The excess costs of university hospitals can be explained by more extensive teaching activities as well as the relatively high quality of medical units. However, even after controlling for such differences university hospitals have shown a relatively low cost-efficiency especially in the first two or three years of the sample period. The analysis does not provide any evidence of significant efficiency differences across ownership and subsidization categories.general hospitals, teaching hospitals, stochastic frontier, cost efficiency
Economies of scale and efficiency measurement in Switzerland's Nursing homes
Full text linkThis paper examines the cost efficiency in the nursing home industry, an issue of concern to Swiss policy makers because of the explosive growth of national expenditure on elderly care and the aging of the population. A stochastic cost frontier model with a translog function has been applied to a balanced panel data of 1780 observations from 356 nursing homes operating over five years (1998-2002) in Switzerland. We compare the estimation results from different panel data econometric techniques focusing on the various methods of specification of unobserved heterogeneity across firms. In particular, the potential effects of such unobserved factors on the estimation results and their interpretation have been discussed. The paper eventually addresses three empirical issues: (1) the measurement of economies of scale in the nursing home sector, (2) the assessment of the economic performance of the firms by estimating their cost efficiency scores, and (3) the role of unobserved heterogeneity in the estimation process. The findings suggest that the economies of scale are an important potential source of cost reduction in a majority of Swiss nursing homes. Taking the size as given the efficiency performance of most individual units is practically very close to the estimated best practice. Nevertheless, the efficiency estimates suggest that some of the nursing homes can significantly reduce their costs by improving their operations.COST EFFICIENCY, ECONOMIES OF SCALE, NURSING HOMES, STOCHASTIC FRONTIER, PANEL DATA
LUCA CRIVELLI -MASSIMO FILIPPINI -DIEGO LUNATI REGULATION, OWNERSHIP AND EFFICIENCY IN THE SWISS NURSING HOME INDUSTRY Regulation, ownership and efficiency in the Swiss nursing home industry § by Luca CRIVELLI §ª
No full text§ We are grateful to State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) for the financial support for this research. We are also grateful to Chiara Gulfi, Ilaria Mosca and Giampaolo Torricelli for general assistance and suggestions and to the Swiss federal statistical office for delivering the data set for the empirical analysis. Finally, we would also like to thank Karen Ries for proofreading the final version of this paper. The views expressed in this paper are strictly personal. Responsibility for any remaining errors lies solely with the authors. 2 A B S T R A C T Switzerland is a federal State where policy decisions and implementation regarding long-term care regulation are by rights incumbent to the regional and local governments (Canton and Town Council). This situation is in part responsible for the large number of small nursing homes operating in Switzerland. Moreover, long-term care for the elderly is supplied by private for-profit nursing homes, public nursing homes and non-profit nursing homes, respectively. The mixed economy which characterizes the long-term care market raises the interesting issue of the effects that the different regulatory settings and institutional forms can have on costs. The paper will consider an econometric estimation of a stochastic cost frontier using cross-section data for a sample of 835 Swiss nursing homes for elderly people operating in 1998. The results of this analysis are used to examine the relationship between cost efficiency and the alternative institutional and regulation forms
Elements of the Swiss market for electricity
No full textReview of Elements of the Swiss Market for Electricity by MASSIMO FILIPPINI.Recension av Elements of the Swiss Market for Electricity by MASSIMO FILIPPINI.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Efficiency Measurement in Network Industries: Application to the Swiss Railway Companies
Full text linkThis paper examines the performance of several panel data models to measure cost and scale efficiency in network industries. Network industries are characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity, much of which is network-specific and unobserved. The unaccounted-for heterogeneity can create bias in the inefficiency estimates. The stochastic frontier models that include additional firm-specific effects, such as the random-constant frontier model proposed by Greene (2004), can control for unobserved network effects that are random but time-invariant. In cases like railway networks the unobserved heterogeneity is potentially correlated with other exogenous, but observed, factors such as network size and density. In such cases the correlation with explanatory variables may bias the coefficients of the cost function in a random-effects specification. However, these correlations can be integrated into the model using Mundlak’s (1978) formulation. The unobserved network effects and the resulting biases are studied through a comparative study of a series of stochastic frontier models. These models are applied to a panel of 50 railway companies operating over a 13-year period in Switzerland. Different specifications are compared regarding the estimation of both cost frontier coefficients and inefficiency scores.
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