This paper analyzes the relationship between the comparative advantages of bank branches and the trade area environment. Bank branches are points of sale whose trade environment influences their activities and performance. Comparative advantages are defined, for each output mix, by the strict...

In this paper, we apply a standard model of performance evaluation to the retail banking industry. In this framework, the global economic performance is broken down into technical efficiency related to the optimal use of resources and price efficiency related to the optimal choice of a...

We extend the standard frontier efficiency models (data envelopment analysis [DEA] and stochastic frontier analysis [SFA]) by allowing the “decision making units” (DMUs) whose performances are assessed to consist of two different levels within hierarchical organizations. Generally, the lower...

In this paper, the Free Coordination Hull (FCH) approach developed by Green and Cook (2004) is combined with the Free Disposal Hull (FDH) model to detect potential gains from specialization. As a non-convex approach that allows both directly observed and summed decision making units (DMUs) to...

Hospital productivity has been a research topic for over two decades. We expand on this research to include measures of dis/economies of scope. By using the Free Coordination Hull (FCH) we are able to determine if hospitals in our sample can become more efficient if they provide more services...

The duality between measures of economic and technical efficiency has been extensively studied in the productive efficiency analysis. This duality ensures a meaningful interpretation of technical efficiency as economic efficiency evaluated at the most favorable shadow prices. This paper...

Tunisian’s public hospitals have been often deemed inefficiency, yet unfortunately no empirical study has demonstrated the breadth and/or depth of this inefficiency. To address this issue, we develop a non parametric methodology to measure efficiency at patient level for five cardiology wards....