This paper analyses the cost structure of a sample of Italian Local Public Transport (LPT) companies operating in large urban centers and metropolitan areas, with the aim to extend the evidence of some recent studies focused only on small and medium-sized operators. Technological characteristics...

Knowledge on the scale economies drives the incentives of regulators, governments and individual utilities to scale-up or scale-down the scale of operations. This paper considers the returns to scale (RTS) in non-convex frontier models. In particular, we evaluate RTS assumptions in a Free...

Статья посвящена анализу перехода от экономики централизованного планирования к рыночным отношениям, выявлению проблем и разработке необходимых...

The article presents different approaches of a number of authors how to determine the optimal size of agricultural organizations and their nature. There are different methods that were used while searching, including statistical, monographic, constructive and others. The article also presents...

This paper studies the cost structure of Swiss gas distribution utilities. Several econometric models are applied to a panel of 26 companies over 1996–2000. Our main objective is to estimate the optimal size and scale economies of the industry and to study their possible variation with respect...

This paper derives the welfare optimal size and intensity of job search assistance programs in a general equilibrium model where the labor market is affected by search frictions. Both instruments have a priori ambiguous fiscal implications: their direct employment stimulating effects broaden the...

We analyze a simple oligopoly model where firms can engage in cost-reducing R&D. We compare two R&D regimes, that is, R&D competition and R&D cooperation where firms can enter in a Research Joint Venture (RJV). We introduce coordination costs for the RJV and examine how these affect the...