This paper uses the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique tool to explore the efficiency of various sectors in the Spanish economy. The findings demonstrate that Spain's public sector is inefficient in using capital and labour. By contrast, however, the country's finance sector is the most...

Potable water supply in Germany is highly fragmented. A consolidation of the industry could, therefore, lead to lower cost of water supply and price savings for the customers. In this paper we estimate a total cost function for potable water supply based on a unique sample of German water...

This paper argues that regional variation in the efficiency of labor allocation among German manufacturing plants plays a critical role in explaining regional disparities in productivity. In fact, we show that over 50% of the East-West productivity gap is associated with a less efficient labor...