Households as well as community water-supply systems for utilisation of underground aquifers are massive consumers of energy. Prevailing energy crisis and focus of the government on demand-side energy policies (i.e., energy conservation) in Pakistan raises need of using energy efficient...

This study aims to review and assess (i) the sources and uses of funds of state universities and colleges (SUCs); (ii) the impact of the application normative funding formula (NFF) for SUCs; and (iii) the utilization of the Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF) with the end in view of...

This study provides an analysis of Italian water utilities to determine the effects on their efficiency of certain relevant variables that have been broadly discussed in the existing literature. We reviewed the annual financial statements of 43 Italian water utility companies and obtained other...

This paper uses a panel data set of microfinance institutions (MFI) across the world to compare several identification strategies of cost efficiency and economies of scale. Concretely, we contrast the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and...

Using the stochastic metafrontier framework of Battese et al. (J Prod Anal 21:91–103, <CitationRef CitationID="CR5">2004</CitationRef>), this study proposes to compare and measure the cost efficiency and cost frontier gap between the banking industry in Taiwan and China. It further identifies environmental variables that determine...</citationref>

In this paper, we analyze economies of scale for German mutual fund complexes. Using 2002-2005 data of 41 investment management companies, we specify a hedonic translog cost function. Applying a fixed effects regression on a one-way error component model there is clear evidence of significant...

This study aims to review and assess (i) the sources and uses of funds of state universities and colleges (SUCs); (ii) the impact of the application normative funding formula (NFF) for SUCs; and (iii) the utilization of the Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF) with the end in view of...

This paper uses a panel data set of microfinance institutions (MFI) across the world to compare several identification strategies of cost efficiency and economies of scale. Concretely, we contrast the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and...

This paper examines the cost efficiency in the nursing home industry, an issue of concern to Swiss policy makers because of the explosive growth of national expenditure on elderly care and the aging of the population. A stochastic cost frontier model has been applied to a panel of 1780...

Contemporary studies of cost efficiency in the insurance industry have predominantly focused on large economies. This paper investigates scale economies and cost efficiency in the Irish life insurance industry by using the translog cost function and distribution-free method. Increasing returns...