关于医院规模经济的实证分析

规模发展已经成为当今医院在市场竞争中的一种主要手段。运用超越对数成本函数,选取了某区域15家三级甲等医院2002—2006年的数据,估算出了医院的规模经济系数。计量结果显示,增加劳动力投入和资本投入均不能带来规模经济,该样本中的医院均处于规模不经济状态。此外还就医院的规模不经济问题进行原因分析和提出若干建议。     

An analysis of exotic wagers in a parimutuel setting

In US horse racing, there is increasing emphasis placed on the creation of exotic wagers - those bets beyond the standard win, place and show. Bets on multiple races that typically do not result in a winner for several days are of particular interest to the industry. The growing carryover pool helps attract people to the racetrack in a way similar to a growing carryover in the lottery attracts more people to participate. This article examines several multiple race bets and provides a framework for their comparative analysis. The results of the analysis will help racetrack management decide if a proposed bet is appropriate for their particular track. This analysis shows a tradeoff between the difficulty of winning the bet versus the amount of the ultimate payoff. If a bet is too easy to win, then the carryover pool will never reach an attractive level. If the bet is too difficult to win, then the bettors will lose interest before the carryover pool is able to grow sufficiently large. The amount of money wagered daily is an important consideration in determining the appropriate type of exotic wager to implement.     

Economies of scale and mechanization in Chinese corn and wheat production

ABSTRACT

As the growth in Chinese farm productivity slowed down between 2000 and 2010, modernizing agriculture has become a priority of the Chinese government. Given the important role of mechanization and land reform policies in that context, this study investigates farm production in China with a specific emphasis on the potential role of mechanization as well as land and farm consolidation. A production function is estimated using farm household data on corn and wheat production in the Shandong and Hebei provinces. The results allowed us to explore the potential economies of scale across a range of farm size, the impact of land fragmentation, and assess the impact of machinery usage. Our findings suggest that, taken in isolation, the prospect for efficiency gains from mechanization and land reforms appears limited.     

Choice of the empirical definition of zero in the translog multiproduct cost functional form

The translog cost function is valuable to researchers for empirical analysis in themodelling of indirect cost and profit functions. A flaw of the functional form is in themodelling of zero output values. This study examined the impacts of empirical definition of zero output values on price elasticities, economies of scope and scale, using the translog cost function. Estimation of a system of cost and factor share equations with regularity condition imposed was conducted. Results show that the choice of default values affects policy recommendations.     

Economies of scope and scale in the Norwegian electricity industry

An important issue for multi-product firms to consider is economies of scope, i.e., whether there is any benefit from producing two or more products, or whether specializing in producing only one product would be less costly. We examined the economies of scope for Norwegian electricity companies because policy makers have decided to force companies that both generates and distributes electricity to split their operations into two companies, one engaged in generation only and the other in distribution only. We set out to test the validity of the policy makers decision on unbundling generation and distribution. Using data from Norwegian electricity companies for the period 2004–2014, we found evidence of economies of scope, meaning that policy makers’ insistence on separating generation and distribution companies will have increased costs. We also found evidence of economies of scale, meaning that there are cost savings in expanding outputs. Our findings provide important information to consider in future policy decisions in the Norwegian electricity industry, probably with implications for other countries.     

Economies of scale and gender discrimination in transition: the case of the Republic of Tajikistan

This article tests for economies of scale and for evidence of discrimination based on gender lines in intra-household consumption allocations using data from the Living Standards Survey in the Republic of Tajikistan (TLSS). Overall results support the existence of household economies of scale in Tajikistan; however, empirical evidence supporting boy–girl discrimination is limited despite anecdotal evidence otherwise.     

Economies of scale in Norwegian electricity distribution: a quantile regression approach

In this article, we investigate scale economies in Norwegian electricity distribution companies using a quantile regression approach. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to apply this estimation technique when analysing scale economies. We estimate the cost elasticities of the two output components: network length and number of customers, to calculate returns to scale. Our results show large potential of scale economies, particularly for the smallest companies. We also find that returns to scale is increasing over time. These findings have important implications for policymakers when they are deciding the structure of the industry in the future.     

我国财产保险公司范围经济效应的实证检验与真伪性分析

我国自1996年实施产寿分业经营以来,保险公司数量急剧增加,财险业务中车险的比重不断上升,呈现出“一险独大”的市场状况。运用超越对数成本函数,对国内20家具有代表性的财险公司2005-2012年的范围经济状况进行检验发现,以保费为基础的检验结果与以总资产为基础的检验结果存在着很大差异,意味着我国财险公司的范围经济效应存在着“真伪性”。对此,通过对财务数据、业务结构、业务规模等数据的分析,鉴别了我国财险公司范围经济效应的“真、伪”性。     

Economies of scale and scope in the European banking sector

In this article, using the data of 2008, we try to describe the impact of scale and product differentiation in 282 European banks. While evidence of the economies of scale is less clear, the results obtained using a translogarithmic function system show that significant economies of scope do exist even for new banking products like derivatives.

高校规模经济下财务风险控制初探

随着高等教育由精英化到普及化,这种规模经济带来的扩张态势,使高校财务风险日益显现。怎样识别、规避、防范以至排除风险是高校财务工作的重心。文章结合高校工作的实际情况,在分析高校财务风险现实表现上,有针对性的提出控制措施,旨在通过这种控制措施来保障高校财务工作的顺利进行,以期达到良性循环的效果。     

International Economies of Scale and the Gains from Trade

In this paper, we present a two-country trade model with external economies of scale that emerge on an international level but are partially localized in each country. First, we show that the larger country exports the good produced in an industry with external economies of scale in the trading equilibrium. Second, we investigate the welfare effects of trade for the following two cases: (I) the case where external economies are completely localized in autarky; (II) the case where external economies are internationally effective in autarky. In case (II), it is shown that trade can be welfare-decreasing for both countries.     

A Fourier analysis of the US dairy industry

Measurement of economies of scale and scope is particularly important for predicting growth and product diversification. However, estimates are useful only to the extent the underlying production technology is modelled accurately. This study measures economies of scale and scope in the rapidly changing US dairy industry with a Fourier flexible cost function, which provides a global approximation of the unknown function. We use the high quality national Agricultural and Resource Management Survey (ARMS) survey data. We find economies of scale at most firm sizes and persistent economies of scope across firm sizes in this industry, which is counter to estimates from two Diewert‐flexible functional forms.     

Economies of density, scale and scope in the water supply and sewerage sector: a study of four developing and transition economies

Using panel data, we estimate measures of density, scale and scope economies in four countries that differ substantially in their levels of economic development and in their piped water and sewerage coverage: Brazil, Moldova, Romania and Vietnam. We find evidence of economies of scale in Moldova, Romania and Vietnam. In Brazil, we cannot reject the null hypothesis of constant returns to scale. The results of this study show that the cost structure of water and sewerage utilities varies significantly within and between countries and over time.      

Economies of scale in the US computer industry: An empirical investigation using data envelopment analysis

Up to recently, economists have had no good tools to measure the returns to scale of individual corporations in an industry. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a linear programming technique for determining the efficiency frontier (the envelope) to the inputs and outputs of a collection of individual corporations or other productive units. While DEA offers an avenue for calculating the returns to scale of individual corporations, the approach has been riddled by mathematical complications arising from the possibility of alternate optima. The present paper develops theory for calculating the entire range of these alternate optima. Furthermore, in a quite ambitions empirical application, DEA is employed to determine the time path of returns to scale of all publicly held U.S. computer companies over the time period 1980–1991. For the great majority of companies, a unique time path is obtained; only in less than 4 percent of the linear programming calculations is an entire range of alternate optima obtained. The results indicate that the computer industry was polarized into two camps: large aging corporations with decreasing returns to scale, and swarms of small upstart companies with advanced technology exhibiting increasing returns to scale.     

Economies of scale and the optimality of rotational dynamics in forestry

Forest harvesting is traditionally analyzed in terms of the Faustmann rotation model. This paper considers the identification of optimal forest harvest regimes using jump controls. This approach enables the structural assumptions of clear-cut technology and identical cycles in perpetuity which are imposed in a Faustmann model to be relaxed. Jump control models permit investigation of the biological and economic conditions which favour continuous growth management regimes as opposed to clear-cut harvest regimes. A numerical solution approach to the jump control model is presented. The link between the harvest cost function and the optimal biomass path is analyzed. Economies of scale are shown to generate rotational harvest as optimal policies.      

Technical and scale efficiencies of meat goat farms in the USA

This study determines i) scale and technical efficiencies, ii) marginal productive contributions for inputs and outputs and iii) efficiency drivers of meat goat farms in the USA. We estimate an input distance function (IDF) using a stochastic production frontier (SPF) technique. The average technical efficiency (TE) for the USA meat goat whole farm was 0.74. The operator education level, percentage of annual net farm income from the goat operation, regional differences and holding of an off farm job are the efficiency drivers of USA meat goat farms. We find increasing returns to scale (RTS) for USA meat goat farms. Our results suggest that USA meat goat farms can be scale efficient if their optimal size of operation is greater than approximately 64 goats or greater than 40 breeding does. Empirical Monte Carlo (MC) simulation techniques show the consistency of finite-sample properties for the input distance function.     

Economies of scale and trade policy: The median voter model revisited

Why do some political economy models perform so poorly in predicting actual trade policy? Do scale economies provide the missing puzzle to our understanding of the anti-trade bias? By integrating economies of scale in production, this paper theoretically reinstates the median voter model as in Mayer [Mayer, W. (1984). Endogenous tariff formation. The American Economic Review, 74, 970–985] as a suitable political economy model in predicting trade policy. The modified model generates the scope for the anti-trade bias and predicts that sometimes economic, rather than political, considerations may lead to restrictive trade.     

Efficiency Measurement in Network Industries: Application to the Swiss Railway Companies

The persistence of increasingly high government subsidies in Switzerland’s railroads has led the federal and cantonal authorities to discussing the possibility of high-powered incentive contracts such as those based on cost efficiency benchmarking. Railways are however, characterized by a high degree of unobserved heterogeneity that could bias the efficiency estimates. This paper examines the performance of several panel data models to measure cost efficiency in network industries. The unobserved firm-specific effects and the resulting biases are studied through a comparative study of several stochastic frontier models, applied to a panel of 50 railway companies operating over a 13-year period.* The authors wish to thank Michael Crew and two anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions. Aurelio Fetz provided an excellent assistance, which is gratefully acknowledged. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors.This revised version was published in June 2005 with corrections in the author affiliations.     

乡村旅游规模化经营研究——基于“天目村农家乐”的调查

以天目村农家乐为例进行实证研究,试图运用生产三阶段理论和规模报酬理论,分别从短期和长期两方面对该村的农家乐经营阶段进行判断,结果显示,天目村农家乐目前处于从最初的很小的生产规模开始逐步扩大的时期,面临规模报酬递增的阶段。因此,解决天目村乃至整个中国乡村旅游的规模化经营问题已迫在眉睫。     

征税成本领先性假设与中国税务组织结构优化——兼析中国国税、地税机构是否存在合并趋势

本文从征税成本领先性假设出发探讨了中国税务组织结构的优化问题 ,并分析了社会各界广泛关注的中国国税、地税机构是否存在合并趋势的问题。本文在对中国现行税务组织机构运行绩效考察的基础上 ,发现中国征税成本曲线呈抛物线状 ,表明中国征税成本正呈递减趋势。以此为出发点 ,本文详细论证了中国国税、地税机构不存在合并的趋势 ,相反 ,分设更为彻底却是今后的发展趋势 ,得出了与一般看法不同的结论 ,并对优化中国税务组织结构提出了政策建议