The paper examines efficiency, productivity and scale economies in the U.S. property-liability insurance industry. Productivity change is analyzed using Malmquist indices, and efficiency is estimated using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The results indicate that the majority of firms below...

This paper examines how efficiency dynamics of Islamic and conventional banks compare and how they are converging across different countries. We employ both parametric and non-parametric methods to analyse a panel of Islamic and conventional banks from 23 countries during the period 1999 to...

Electricity distribution network is a prime example of a natural local monopoly. In many countries, electricity distribution is regulated by the government. In Finland, the regulator estimates the efficient cost frontier using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis...

Technical, allocative and economic efficiency measures are derived for a sample of swine producers in Hawaii using the parametric stochastic efficiency decomposition technique and nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA). Efficiency measures obtained from the two frontier approaches are...

The paper examines the macroeconomic performance of 25 transition economies using a comparable dataset. In order to see whether the transition to the market based economy increased economic efficiency, technical progress, and total factor productivity, we estimate efficiency measures for the...

This paper applies a new variant of data envelopment analysis model to examine the performance of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. The findings show a significant heterogeneity visible in the cost efficiency scores within 19 years. The decline in performance after 1994-95 can be taken...

Using Bayesian Monte Carlo methods, we augment a stochastic distance function measure of bank efficiency and productivity growth with indicators of capitalization, return and risk. Our novel Multiple Indicator-Multiple Cause (MIMIC) style model generates more precise estimates of policy relevant...

The field of production frontier estimation is divided between the parametric Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and the deterministic, nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This paper explores an amalgam of DEA and SFA that melds a nonparametric frontier with a stochastic composite...

In this paper we show how both the choice of specific constraints on input and output weights (in accordance with health care policy-makers' preferences) and the consideration of exogenous variables outside the control of hospital management (and linked to past policy-makers' decisions) can...