The Douglas-Rachford algorithm is widely used in sparse signal processing for minimizing a sum of two convex functions. In this paper, we consider the case where one of the functions is weakly convex but the other is strongly convex so that the sum is convex. We provide a condition that ensures the convergence of the same Douglas-Rachford iterations, provided that the strongly convex function i...

in this paper, productivity of and demand for water throughout eqlid’s sugar beet growers in 1385 were investigated. to address the objective 100 growers were selected using two-stage cluster sampling, then required dataset was obtained by interviewing and completing questionnaire. in order to study factors affecting sugar beet production, cobb-douglas production function was applied. based on ...

This paper models dairy farms in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, emphasising the complexities unique to this multi-product industry. Net and gross output approaches to measuring production are discussed and then tested using panel data from 37 dairy farms in KwaZulu-Natal from 1999 and 2007. Production functions for the three outputs: milk production, animals and farm-produced feed, are fitted as ...

the technical efficiency involved in cocoa production in cross river state was estimated using the stochastic frontier production function analysis. the effects of some selected socio- economic characteristics of the farmers on the efficiency indices were also estimated. the study relied upon primary data generated from interviewing cocoa farmers using a set of structured questionnaire. a multi...

In this paper, we present a cooperative model of a hierarchically structured firm to study wage differences between different levels in such a firm. We consider a class of wage functions that are based on marginal contributions to production. It turns out that the wage of a manager is always at least as high as the wage of its subordinates. On the other hand, the wage of a manager never exceeds...

It should now become obvious the our profit and cost functions derived from production functions, and demand functions derived from utility functions are all homogeneous functions. Using these functions offers us ease of interpretation of key economic ideas. Consider the following idea related to production functions, the returns to scale. Let f(x) be the production function. Then if it were ho...

Gambling is one of the fastest growing service industries. Unfortunately, there have been no studies of total factor productivity (TFP) in this sector. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap, based on an analysis of U.K. establishment-level data. These data are derived from the Annual Respondents Database (ARD) file, constructed by the U.K. Office for National Statistics, consisting of i...

We consider the case of production units arranged into a number of groups. All units within a group choose output-input combinations from the same production possibilities set, which is represented by a stochastic frontier model. The metafrontier is the envelope (over groups) of the group-specific frontiers. We are interested in the unit’s inefficiency relative to its group-specific frontier, b...

The stochastic frontier model used for continuous dependent variables is extended to accommodate output measured as a discrete ordinal outcome variable. Conditional on the inefficiency error, the assumptions of the ordered probit model are adopted for the log of output. Bayesian estimation utilizing a Gibbs sampler with data augmentation is applied to a convenient re-parameterisation of the mod...