The penetration of renewable sources into the grid, particularly wind and solar, have been increasing in recent years. As a consequence, there have been serious concerns over reliable and safety operation of power systems. One possible solution, to improve grid stability, is to integrate energy...

Biomass is a geographically dependent renewable resource which can be used for production of fuels and chemicals. This study develops a methodology for determining the suitable locations, optimal sizes and number of biomass-based facilities for a particular region through transport cost...

Authors of past studies focusing on returns to scale in hospitals proffered mixed results. These seemingly contradictory findings have probably arisen due to different methodological approaches (parametric or non parametric), different aggregation levels of analysis (hospital/department/units),...

This paper is devoted to the analysis of transition from centralized planning economy to market relations, revealing of problems and working out of necessary macro proportions in placing of productive forces, integration maintenance between administrative regions and cities. We consider a...

We analyze a simple oligopoly model where firms can engage in cost-reducing R&D. We compare two R&D regimes, that is, R&D competition and R&D cooperation where firms can enter in a Research Joint Venture (RJV). We introduce coordination costs for the RJV and examine how these affect the...

This paper derives the welfare optimal size and intensity of job search assistance programs in a general equilibrium model where the labor market is affected by search frictions. Both instruments have a priori ambiguous fiscal implications: their direct employment stimulating effects broaden the...

Within this analysis we determine the optimal size (that is, with the minimum average cost) of a water supply enterprise and reconsider the matter of scale economies, using sample data from Japanese water supply organizations. After surveying evidence from previous studies of scale economies in...

Knowledge on the scale economies drives the incentives of regulators, governments and individual utilities to scale-up or scale-down the scale of operations. This paper considers the returns to scale (RTS) in non-convex frontier models. In particular, we evaluate RTS assumptions in a Free...