Privatization,market competition,international attractiveness,management tenure and hotel performance: Evidence from Slovenia

This paper tests several hypothesis related to the impact of privatization, market competition, management tenure and international attractiveness on the cost efficiency of tourist hotels. We measure efficiency using the innovative Bayesian frontier methodology. The data involve a sample of Slovenian hotels which operate in a highly dynamic environment. From the results, it is clear that hotel efficiency is positively related to privatization and international attractiveness, and negatively related to longer management tenure. No significant link, on the other hand, is found between market competition and hotel efficiency. Further discussions of these findings and related managerial implications are provided.     

Bootstrapped scale efficiency measures of UK airports

This paper introduces the bootstrapping methodology to analyse and test the scale efficiency of airports. The results from a sample of 27 small and large UK airports indicate that most large airports are scale efficient or operating in a region of decreasing returns to scale, while most small airports are operating in a region of increasing returns to scale. We relate the results to the current industry trends and provide directions for future research.     

Alternative Solutions to Underinvestment, Under Equity and Credit Rationing

We compare alternative solutions to underinvestment (UI) problems in firms subject to limited access to equity markets, interest ceilings, and constraints on the volume of debt. Collaterals (assets or compensating balances) and credit insurance ('regular' or 'outcome' insurance whereby the premium is paid at the end of the insurance period) are compared on the basis to their costs and their effective use of financial sources. It is shown that when there is no moral hazard problem, credit insurance is the most effective instrument. Otherwise, 'outcome' insurance program is the most effective one.     

Improving the accuracy of DEA efficiency analysis: a bootstrap application to the health care foodservice industry

This article analyses the efficiency of health care foodservice operations and its determinants using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) bootstrapping approach. The purpose of using the bootstrapping approach is two-fold: first, to obtain the bias corrected estimates and the confidence intervals of DEA-efficiency scores and second, to overcome the correlation problem of DEA-efficiency scores and to provide consistent inferences in explaining the determinants of health care foodservice efficiency. The approach was implemented on a sample of 89 health care foodservice operations. The results showed the presence of inefficiency in the sample, with an average efficiency level of 72.6%. Further, the results from analysing the determinants of health care foodservice operations provided policy implication regarding the factors that might improve the efficiency of health care foodservice operations.     

Are U.S. airlines really in crisis?

This study reflects on the technical efficiency of U.S. airlines using a Bayesian random stochastic frontier model. Inferences from the Bayesian estimation indicate that the random model fits the data well and outperforms the traditional stochastic frontier model. The technical efficiency results indicate that U.S. airlines are operating at a declining efficiency rate with an average of 69.02% in 2007. Results from returns to scale are also in line with the efficiency results. More specific discussions on the current industry trends and other contributions of this study are presented and discussed.     

The evolution of exchange

Stochastic stability is applied to the problem of exchange. We analyze the stochastic stability of two dynamic trading processes in a simple housing market. In both models, traders meet in pairs at random and exchange their houses when trade is mutually beneficial, but occasionally they make mistakes. The models differ in the probability of mistakes. When all mistakes are equally likely, the set of stochastically stable allocations contains the set of efficient allocations. When more serious mistakes are less likely, the stochastically stable states are those allocations, always efficient, with the lowest envy level.     

The Global Disconnect: The Role of Transactional Distance and Scale Economies in Gravity Equations

Recent empirical analyses show that asset flows can be modelled by the same 'gravity' equations that trade economists have used so successfully for the past few decades. This is something of a surprise. Trade economists do not yet have a unified theory of why gravity models should work‐and the situation is worse for asset flows. Reasonable theories would predict that greater distance between countries should generate more asset flows rather than less as the econometric results seem to consistently show. In this paper we discuss how host and source country GDPs, language, and distance the core explanatory variables in the traditional gravity models‐fare in trade and asset flows estimations. While the 'distance puzzle' is not resolved, it is considerably reduced by going beyond consideration of physical distance to concepts of transactional distance and scale economies.