Duality Theory of production imposes a number of simplifying assumptions regarding the production technology, including various maintained convexity assumptions. Emphasizing the technological information content of alternative models, this paper challenges some widely held views on the role of convexity. The role of convexity in Duality Theory is asymmetric: While convexity is of importance in ...

The aim of this work is to introduce a new econometric methodology for multioutput production frontiers. In the context of a system of frontier equations, we use a flexible multivariate distribution for the inefficiency error term. This multivariate distribution is constructed through a copula function which allows for separate modelling of the marginal inefficiency distributions and the depend...

This study compares activity-based costing (ABC) model and traditional costing method in Malaysia. Activity based costing (ABC) which was developed into the manufacturing/service sectors in Malaysia. It calculates the cost and performance of activities, resources and cost objects. It can be considered as an alternative model to Traditional Cost-based accounting systems. In this study the result...

This paper proposes a simple model that possibly explains the productivity slowdown observed in Japan during the 1990s. Under a forbearance policy by the government toward nonperforming loans, one keeping insolvent firms afloat, other economic agents become exposed to a higher risk of not being paid by their customers (payment uncertainty). It is shown that the payment uncertainty, working thro...

This paper examines the response of U.S. manufacturing industries and plants to changes in trade costs using a unique new dataset on industry-level tariff and transportation rates. Our results lend support to recent heterogeneous-firm models of international trade that predict a reallocation of economic activity towards high-productivity firms as trade costs fall. We find that industries experi...

This paper investigates the short-term costs and benefits of apprenticeship training in Germany. It calls into question the popular stylised fact that apprenticeship training always leads to net costs during the apprenticeship period. We analyse the impact of the proportion of different occupational groups of apprentices on firm performance. We use representative matched employer–employee panel...

The US industrial sector displays heterogeneity among firms on the basis of their size: smaller firms exhibit a higher profit rate, lower survival probability and difficulty in accessing the capital market. A simple theoretical model that generates these features based on private information regarding managerial actions at firm-level production is developed and tested. Using a large panel of pu...

This study presents an empirical analysis of the cost efficiency of a sample of Swiss multi-utilities operating in the distribution of electricity, natural gas and water. The multi-utilities that operate in different sectors are characterized by a strong unobserved heterogeneity. Therefore the measurement of their performance poses an important challenge for the regulators. The purpose of this ...

Based on a sample of about 600 state enterprises from 1980 to 1994, this paper investigates the productivity performance of SOEs using Data Envelopment Analysis and a Malmquist index. Our empirical results show that the average technical efficiency was low for these firms. Considerable productivity growth was found, but it was accomplished mainly through technical progress rather than through e...

It is shown that the core of a non-atomic glove-market game which is defined as the minimum of finitely many non-atomic probability measures is a von Neumann Morgenstern stable set. This result is used to characterize some stable sets of large games which have a decreasing returns to scale property. We also study exact non-atomic glove-market games. In particular we show that in a glove-market ...