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.     

自然垄断的"三位一体"理论

传统自然垄断理论是建立在规模经济、范围经济和成本劣加性基础之上的，本文认为社会总价值或总效用和社会净收益的优加性是比成本劣加性更好地定义自然垄断的概念，并在对规模经济、范围经济和网络经济重新定义的基础上，从规模经济、范围经济、网络经济“三位一体”角度重新解释了自然垄断概念，提出了自然垄断的“三位一体”理论，为自然垄断产业规制及其改革奠定理论和实证基础。     

The Implications of Rybczynski’s Theorem for Government Spending,Learning by Doing,and Labor Mobility

The evolution of a small open economy or region with labor mobility and dynamic scale economies in the high-tech sector is analyzed using the neoclassical 2×2-model. Government services are inputs to private production and influence specialization according to Rybczynskis theorem. This effect is reinforced by dynamic scale economies. Empirically observed differences in regional development and specialization are explained by diverging government policies and/or history-dependent factors. Despite of diverging wage rates, diversified regions and regions specialized in low-tech production may coexist with a common level of per capita incomes.     

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.     

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。     

规模经济不需要行政性进入壁垒的保护

我国的很多垄断性产业处于市场内生性的结构性进入壁垒和政府设置壁垒的双重保护下。政府设置进入壁垒的原因被认为是保护在位企业的规模经济。本文的分析表明,这类企业的规模本身就构成了进入壁垒,并不需要行政性壁垒的保护。为弱化行政性进入壁垒下企业内生的低效率,有必要放松乃至解除行政性壁垒,但这并不必然导致竞争性低效率。     

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.     

中国汽车行业市场结构分析及启示

本文分析了中国汽车行业的市场结构的现状,认为我国汽车工业存在着这样的问题：中小企业众多、达不到规模经济,主导企业“大而全”、国际竞争力不强。文章接着分析了这些问题产生的原因,并提出了一些政策建议：加强主导产业的专业化生产,规制地方政府行为,加快产业内整合和重组等。     

区域要素规模效率及其影响因素的效应机理研究

利用随机前沿超越对数生产函数对我国区域要素规模效率的时变趋势、地域差异进行研究,并通过非效率函数对其宏观影响因素的效应进行了分析。总体看来,考虑影响因素后的效率估计值更为准确：1986—2005年的时变效率在外部环境因素变革的冲击下虽出现了波动情况,但总体上均呈现上升趋势;东部与中西部的效率变化趋势一致,但进入1990年代后东部的平均效率增长速度明显要快于中西部,且效率的东西部推移逐步扩大;另一方面,东西部区域内部的差异均呈现收敛趋势,且东部比中西部区域要显著的多。城市化、工业化、专业化、创新活动、人口素质等因素在不同地域不同发展时期对于效率均体现出不同的影响效应,因而,针对不同地区、发展阶段特征和区域特质其区域政策和发展模式的选择也要有所侧重。     

银行跨国并购的风险分析

银行跨国并购是世纪之交国际银行业的重要现象。本文在银行跨国并购成本收益分析的基础上, 重点探讨了银行跨国并购各个阶段的风险, 分析了银行跨国并购的合理性的一面。同时指出： 只有成功地规避银行跨国并购各个阶段的风险, 银行跨国并购才能够取得成功。     

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.