Factors influencing motivations and expectations of field trip attendance

This paper examines students’ motivations for participating in field trips and analyses students’ expectations in an attempt to identify the influence of three variables: age, level of education, and previous work experience. Results demonstrate that students’ reasons for participation are diverse, and while the results are specific for the case analysed, they support prior research, suggesting that students develop very positive attitudes and perceptions towards field trips.     

Cost efficiency of Slovenian water distribution utilities: an application of stochastic frontier methods

This study estimates cost inefficiency and economies of scale of Slovenian water distribution utilities over the 1997–2003 period by employing several different stochastic frontier methods. The results indicate that significant cost inefficiencies are present in the utilities. An introduction of incentive-based price regulation scheme might help resolve this problem. However, the inefficiency scores obtained from different cost frontier models are not found to be robust. The levels of inefficiency estimates as well as the rankings depend on the econometric specification of the model. The established lack of robustness can be at least partly explained by different ability of the models to separate unobserved heterogeneity from inefficiency. Newly proposed true fixed effects model (Greene, J Econom 126:269–303, 2005; J Prod Anal 23(1):7–32, 2005) appears to perform better than the conventional panel data models with respect to distinguishing between unobserved heterogeneity and inefficiency. On the other hand, different models produce fairly robust results with respect to estimates of economies of output density, customer density and economies of scale. The optimal size of a company is found to closely corresponds to the sample median. Economies of scale are found in small-sized utilities, while large companies exhibit diseconomies of scale.

The interplay of regulation and other drivers of NGN deployment: A real-world perspective

This paper contributes to the current, lively debate on which factors induce or hinder the deployment of next generation networks (NGNs), where regulatory design plays the key role. As a country with one of the highest levels of fibre deployment, intense infrastructural competition in urban areas and regulated access to both copper and fibre networks, Slovenia is an interesting case to explore using the recent theoretical and empirical findings. First, the impacts of regulation and other factors on investment decisions are explored. Second, the impact of NGN investments on investors' performance is analysed and explained, and we focus on both the investors' business strategies and the demand for NGN services. Third, the regulatory policy in both regimes, namely, before and after the mandated access to fibre was implemented, is discussed and changes are proposed.