This note proposes a new decomposition of the Malmquist productivity index to account for changes in plant capacity utilisation. Using a primal, non-parametric specification of technology, the Malmquist index is decomposed into technical efficiency change, variations in plant capacity...

This paper explores a selection of recently proposed bootstrapping techniques to estimate non-parametric convex (DEA) cost frontiers and efficiency scores for transit firms. Using a sample of Norwegian bus operators, the key results can be summarised as follows: (i) the bias implied by...

This article provides a comprehensive survey of the literature on production and cost frontiers for public transit operators, and it evaluates the contributions of frontier analysis to our understanding of the performance of the public transport sector. We first succinctly contrast best practice...

Externalities such as pollution and road congestion are jointly produced by the use of intermediate inputs by firms and the consumption of final goods by households. Remarkably, to cope with such externalities policy proposals often suggest very partial tax reforms. A pertinent example is the...

In this paper we study the welfare effects of a budgetary neutral increase in taxes on car commuters in a model that takes into account the presence of employer-paid parking at the workplace. Results include the following. First, we find that the presence of employer-paid parking substantially...

We study the interaction between pricing, frequency of service and information provision by public transport firms offering scheduled services, and we do so under various regulatory regimes. The model assumes that users can come to the bus stop or rail station at random or they can plan their...

Many firms and organizations compete for customers while at the same time receiving substantial funding from outside sources, such as government subsidies. In this paper, we study the effects of two commonly observed, alternative subsidy systems on the behavior of price-competing firms....