This paper examines the impact of being an innovator on firm productivity in Taiwan. Using a panel of 48794 firms observed over the 1997-2003 period, and distributed across 23 industries, we compute TFP by estimating Translog production functions with conventional K, L, E, M inputs. We evaluate the impact of being an innovator on TFP using propensity score matching. The rationale is that, over ...

This paper analyzes short-run interfuel substitution between fossil fuels in West European power generation. The problem is studied within a restricted translog cost model, which is estimated by pooling time-series data across eight countries in West Europe. The empirical results indicate that interfuel substitution in existing power plants is substantial, especially that between oil and gas. T...

The goal of this essay is to examine estimates of individual bank X-efficiency across time. First, we estimate a translog flexible function specification of bank efficiency during the period 1988-1997. Then, we estimate a time-series/cross-sectional model with independent variables that reflect business cycle and monetary policy conditions that may affect bank performance. Like Calomiris and Ma...

This paper compares two second-generation dynamic energy demand models, a translog Ž . Ž . TL and a general Leontief GL , in the study of price elasticities and factor substitutions of nine Swedish manufacturing industries: food, textiles, wood, paper, printing, chemicals, non-metallic minerals, base metals and machinery. Several model specifications are tested with likelihood ratio test. There...

This paper is the first to investigate both the technical and cost efficiency of more than 1500 German general hospitals. More specifically, it deals with the question how hospital efficiency varies with ownership, patient structure, and other exogenous factors, which are neither inputs to nor outputs of the production process. The empirical results for the years from 2001 to 2003 indicate that...

This study investigates the water demand of Indian manufacturing plants. It adopts an input distance function approach and approximates it by a translog form. Duality between cost function and input distance function is exploited to retrieve information concerning substitutability and the shadow price of water. The model is estimated, using linear programming approach, on a sample of 92 firms o...

In order to reduce SO2 emissions to less than 2.5 lbs/mBtu as mandated by the Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA) of 1990, power companies mainly using higher sulfur content coal as fuel supplies have to find their alternatives to reduce SO2 emissions. The purpose of the study is to assess the extent of economies of scale in coal delivery. The network of coal flow consists of production sites, consu...

This paper investigates whether the efficiency effect of product market dispersion is a function of the infrastructural and policy environment. We hypothesize that more developed transportation and communication infrastructure and lower government regulation may reduce transaction costs, intensifying the competition associated with a given market structure, and we use data from the recently lib...