The United States pulp and paper industry has experienced significant structural changes over the past twenty-five years, including reductions in the number of pulp and paper mills, lower rates of capacity growth, employment cutbacks, and a loss of market share to foreign competitors. These structural shifts portray an industry that increasingly has difficulty adapting to a more competitive env...

the current study attempted to investigate the mathematical sturcuture of cost function of irrigated wheat crop in kurdistan province. the methodolgy is based on duality assumption. the sample size is 257 farmers for the agricultural year 2011-2012.data was collected byinterviewwith farmers and writing writerquestionnaire.the multistage cluster random sampling used. the results showed that, the...

This paper extends the existing research on real estate investment trust (REIT) operating efficiencies. We estimate stochastic-frontier, panel-data models specifying a translog cost function. The specified model updates the cost frontier with new information as it becomes available over time. The model can identify frontier cost improvements, returns to scale, and cost inefficiencies over time....

Rural-urban differences in the supply of nursing home services are hypothesized to be jointly affected by competitive and regulatory forces, government pohcies, and the cost structure. Study findings indicate that rural services are slightly less accessible and lower in quality. A translog cost share function reveals no difference in the operating cost structure of rural and urban homes. Cost s...

Recent financial liberalization in Taiwan has caused local banks to face major structural changes. This paper examines the cost structure of 36 local banks in Taiwan using the translog cost function and attempts to identify suitable operating strategies for cost reduction and performance improvements. Results indicate scale economies for small and large-sized banks and scope economies for all b...

A production approach based on the translog cost function is used to analyze import demand for wheat differentiated by class and country of origin in the Japanese wheat flour milling industry. Results indicate that US wheat faces strong competition in the Japanese wheat market, but its multiple classes and end-use characteristics enable the US to preserve the largest market share in Japan. © 20...

By means of so-called virtual or shadow prices, short-run factor demands, short-run marginal costs, etc. can be derived from any long-run cost function. The traditional approach (short-run/restricted/conditional/variable cost functions) is criticized, and it is also shown that technological change, scale e!ects, etc. can be added to any cost function by means of disembodied factor-augmenting e$...

this paper is concerned with the estimation of total factor productivity (tfp) growth for the iranian electric utilities during the period 1980-1993 on the basis of panel data. a translog cost function is used which accommodates firm - specific variability through a one - way error component model. the results show that the iranian electricity supply industry experienced increasing returns to s...

The airline industry has undergone significant changes following deregulation more than a decade ago. A prominent development in recent years has been the proliferation of airline alliances. An important question arises: are alliances cost savings or competition reducing? This paper addresses the first part of the question. However, the answer has bearing on the second part as well, since resul...

The present study aims to estimate the marginal cost of potable water supply and analyse implications for more efficient, equitable income-adequate tap tariffs in Tunisia. Furthermore, this article develop a new pricing model water. Pricing by Tunisian utility focuses on setting prices cover average costs, often using designs that increase clogging rates. This results large volume being wasted....