Super efficiency evaluations are introduced along the lines of the potential improvements approach in Bogetoft and Hougaard (1999). Both a reference selection and a related super efficiency index is defined. The new (potential slack) super efficiency index is compared to a Farrell-based super...

We consider how to organize the processing and marketing of an agricultural product when farming costs are known only by the individual farmers. We show that when marginal costs are un-correlated and the market for final goods is competitive, the socially optimal production levels may be...

We introduce simple production economic models to estimate the potential gains from mergers. We decompose the gains into technical efficiency, size (scale) and harmony (mix) gains, and we discuss alternative ways to capture these gains. We propose to approximate the production processes using...

In Denmark, many small-scale forest owners are affiliated to local district offices of The Danish Forestry Extension Service. Increasing economic pressure has caused a search for more efficiency in the Service, including potential reorganisation. In this paper, the efficiency of the different...