A new method for estimating a relative scale function is derived which does not require the specification or estimation of the firm's cost function. The method is applied to a panel of Canadian trust companies for the years 1985–1988. Results show that the industry scale function is convex...

An econometric model of Canada's five largest banks is estimated using time series data from 1976 to 1996. The principal findings are that chartered bank technology is characterized by increasing returns to scale. Scale efficiency is sufficiently large to offset the consequences of reduced...

Using data from a sample of households in 1994 we find that Danish household labour allocation choices are best described by a collective model in which decisions are made cooperatively. Individual preferences are similar but there are important differences due to the differences in educational...

Results based on a sample of Canadian households challenge the findings of most studies which show significant negative effects of schooling on the fertility of women under the age of 45. This is due to the application of methods to an optimization model which distinguish between those...