It is stylized that productivity and input size should relate positively and monotonically in the long run. In this paper, I present a theory that unifies the role of demand and production to investigate conditions that make this relation a bell-shape. Under the optimality assumption and when...

This paper derives a number of theoretical results in the context of estimating returns to scale, technical progress and monopolistic markups when there are multiple outputs and/or multiple inputs. The choice between value added versus gross output in the estimation of returns to scale is also...

By relaxing the two assumptions of constant returns to scale and perfect competition in the product market used by Solow (1957), this paper identifies a new decomposition of economic and productivity growth. The sources of economic growth are; adjusted economies of scales effect, weighted sum of...

This paper reviews and applies some recently proposed methods for separating total factor productivity (TFP) growth into contributions from technical progress and returns to scale, allowing for imperfectly competitive markets. The methods are applied to New Zealand data, using a recently...

While using detailed firm-level data from the private business sector, this study identifies two empirical puzzles: (i) returns-to-scale (RTS) parameter estimates rise at higher levels of data aggregation, and (ii) estimates from the firm level suggest decreasing returns to scale. The analysis...

Convex output set is a common hypothesis in production theory and especially in empirical applications. This often seems to be taken for granted without any reference to returns to scale. However increasing returns to scale have implied a necessary and fundamental revision of general equilibrium...

In this paper we argue that the emergence of the dominant model of university organization, which is characterized by a large agglomeration of (often loosely affiliated) many small research groups, might have an economic explanation that relates to the features of the scientific production...

In this paper, I extend the Olley-Pakes (1996) estimation method to the CES production function with biased technical change. The new semi-parametric approach allows consistent estimation of the degree of returns to scale, the elasticity of substitution, and the bias in technical change....

There is a general presumption in urban economics that average commuting costs are increasing in city size. By analogy, it might be supposed that other spatial costs, such as distribution costs for utility services or access costs to schools and hospitals, will have the same characteristic....

A pesar del rápido crecimiento y del dinamismo del sector privado de enseñanza superior se sabe poco todavía de la realidad del mismo. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar desde una perspectiva comparada la estructura de los costes de las universidades públicas y privadas en relación...