This chapter applies a new variant of the data envelopment analysis model to examine the performance of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. The findings show a significant heterogeneity in the cost efficiency scores over the course of 19 years. A decline in performance after 1994–1995...

We propose a new scheme for measuring scale elasticity of production based on a new cost efficiency model developed in Tone (2002). Comparing our model with classical model we establish the superiority of our model over the latter based on the premise that the classical estimates of cost...

In this contribution, first the concept of returns to growth (RTG) of a high-tech firm facing hyper-competition in the new economy is introduced by describing a proportional relationship between growth in inputs and growth in outputs using the growth efficiency (GE) model of Sengupta (2002)....

This paper applies a new variant of data envelopment analysis model to examine the performance of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. The findings show a significant heterogeneity visible in the cost efficiency scores within 19 years. The decline in performance after 1994-95 can be taken...

There are increasing concerns about how increase in congestion can adversely affect output as well as about the relative benefit-cost ratio or return on investment associated with alternative projects or policies to address those problems. Regardless of what policy strategies are used to address...

This paper critically re-examines the concept of returns to scale vis-à-vis economies of scale since the writings of Adam Smith by relating the former to the concept of production unit and the latter to the concept of firm. Though to date some valuable progress has been made exploring the...

The phrase \add them up and divide by two (Tashite Ni De Waru, in Japanese)" is an established maxim in Japanese society, and has its historical roots in Japanese culture. This means adopting a middle course between two competing proposals in order to avoid a conflict. In the spirit of Max Weber...

This contribution is an attempt to make an exhaustive critical review of various possible estimation methods of scale economies in a non-parametric data envelopment analysis approach. Three types of technology structure - piecewise linear, piecewise log-linear, and FDH - are found to be adopted...

Estimation of efficiency of firms in a non-competitive market characterized by heterogeneous inputs and outputs along with their varying prices is questionable when factor-based technology sets are used in data envelopment analysis (DEA). In this scenario, a value-based technology becomes an...

This paper briefly reviews the existing methods of capacity utilization in nonparametric framework from economic perspectives, and then suggests an alternative in the light of limitations therein. In the spirit of work by Coelli et al. [Coelli, T.J., Grifell-Tatje, E., Perelman, S., 2002....