Consumption tax rates targeted at specific sectors are often reformed without empirical knowledge about the efficiency of these policies. This paper sheds light on the efficiency issue, the potential for welfare improving reform, by studying the incidence of value added taxes (VAT) on prices and...

This study measures efficiency differences and productivity changes of Finnish municipalities providing comprehensive school education during 1998-2004 by estimating both production and cost functions. The average inefficiency was approximately 6-10 percent during 1998-2004 based on both...

Agglomeration economies are sought with stochastic frontier methodology to analyse their role in the extraordinary productivity growth of the knowledge-intensive information and communication technology (ICT) equipment industry in Finland. Results suggest that the method, though imprecise, is...

This paper presents a survey of the studies that have investigated productivity and efficiency in the Finnish public sector. The paper outlines methods that have been used in these studies and presents summaries of main finding. In addition suggestions and reflections on how to take quality into...

A new procedure for generating optimal transport strategies has been applied in nine European cities. A public sector objective function which reflects concerns over efficiency, environmental impact, finance and sustainability is specified and a set of policy measures with acceptable ranges on...