This paper shows how one can infer the nature of local returns to scale at the input- or output-oriented efficient projection of a technically inefficient input-output bundle, when the input- and output-oriented measures of efficiency differ.

The boundaries of the firm and the ownership of the firm have been two of the main themes of the economics of organization over the past several decades. In this paper, I develop a general multi-party framework that integrates the ownership of the firm into the property-rights approach to the...

Over the past decades Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has emerged as an important nonparametric method of evaluating performance of decision making units through benchmarking. Although developed primarily for measuring technical efficiency, DEA is now applied extensively for measuring scale...

The input-output bundle of an efficient decision making unit (DMU) is located at a specific point on the frontier of the production possibility set. Returns to Scale (RTS) at this point can be unequivocally characterized. For an inefficient DMU, however, the input- and output-oriented...

This paper uses both the non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the econometric method of Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to study the production technology and cost efficiency of the U.S. dental care industry using practice level data. The American Dental Association...

In this paper we offer a simple exposition of the neoclassical production theoretic foundations of Data Envelopment Analysis. The concepts of technical efficiency (both input- and output-oriented), scale efficiency, and cost efficiency are explained and the corresponding DEA models are described...

Potential home buyers may initiate contact with a real estate agent by asking to see a particular advertised house. This paper asks whether an agent's response to such a request depends on the race of the potential buyer or on whether the house is located in an integrated neighborhood. We build...

Increasing levels of segregation in American schools raises the question: do home buyers pay for test scores or demographic composition? This paper uses Connecticut panel data spanning eleven years from 1994 to 2004 to ascertain the relationship between property values and explanatory variables...

In my recent experimental research of wholesale electricity auctions, I discovered that the complex structure of the offers leaves a lot of room for strategic behavior, which consequently leads to anti- competitive and inefficient outcomes in the market. A specific feature of these complex-offer...

A Payment Cost Minimization (PCM) auction has been proposed as an alternative to the Offer Cost Minimization (OCM) auction to be used in wholesale electric power markets with the intention to lower the procurement cost of electricity. Efficiency concerns about this proposal have relied on the...