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The productivity of a firm is analyzed in terms of the maximal level of output that can be achieved for a given combination of inputs. This is made possible by estimating the monotone and concave frontier functions using an improved bias-corrected estimator. The bias-corrected estimator is derived by obtaining the asymptotic distribution of the data envelopment analysis estimator and its finite-sample performance is assessed in a simulation study. The proposed estimator is based on consistent estimation of the density function and the second derivative of the production frontier to define the economic efficiency of a firm., 1. INTRODUCTION Suppose that ([X.sub.1], [Y.sub.1]), ..., ([X.sub.n], [Y.sub.n]) are iid with a density f in [R.sup.2]. The support of f is assumed to be of the form [Psi] = [...]

A new method formulated by Charnes, Semple, Song and Thomas for uncertainty situations to model efficient production functions in the context of the airline industry in Latin America is presented. A 'Robustly Efficient Parametric Frontier' in a two-stage approach is used to develop an empirical efficient production function. A key feature of the method is the immediate availability of the marginal tradeoffs of the efficient production function, without the discontinuities of derivatives and numerical instabilities.

A nonparametric based-procedure to calculate ratings for gauging the relative operational competitiveness of a set of production units (PU) was developed using a multi-activity view of the concept of operational competitiveness. A PU transforms resources into outputs of services and goods. Operational competitiveness is a key component of the overall competitiveness of a PU. The procedure was used to gauge the relative operational competitiveness of the personnel in a major chartered bank.

A homothetic production function consists of a linear expansion path matched with a cost function which is characterized by an output variable distinct from the input price vector. However, in a production function with multiple outputs, the equivalence relationship between linear expansion paths and cost function separability is not valid. An input-homothetic model of input correspondences is analyzed to show that it is also ray-homothetic, and hence, will have linear expansion paths. Further analysis prove that homogenous and input-homothetic input correspondences are not linked.

Using a production function model, this paper examines Olson's thesis that political organization contributes to economic decline. The findings confirm that political organizations have a slight negative influence on state income growth rates. However, other variables account for almost 80 percent of the variation across states. This analysis points to the importance of capital markets and business and occupational interests and the utility of the production function approach for explaining growth.

The problem of manufacturing and shipping a product from an origin to a destination facing stochastic demands with a known probability distribution is considered. The production rate and shipment size are treated as decision variables. Profit per unit produced is derived as a function of the production rate and shipment size. An iterative methodology is developed based on the concavity of the profit function on the production rate for the uniform demand distribution case to generate the optimum production/shipping policy. These assumptions are tested via Monte Carlo experiments.

A production model which treats price and production as ex-ante variables as proposed by Karlin and Carr is analyzed to derive a determinate output volume effect given conditions of constant price elasticity of certainty demand and a uniform probability distribution. Simulation techniques are used to extend the impact of demand uncertainty on ouptut and price. The study supports Karlin and Carr's proposal that optimal price is higher than certainty price when demand is not price-elastic.

The von Liebig hypothesis or the law of the minimum for describing crop response to various inputs is validated using nonnested hypothesis tests. Among five alternatives, the von Liebig model with Mitscherlich regimes is shown to be the best interpretation of a sample of experimental data involving corn response to nitrogen and phosphorus. The test results thus widen the scope of application of the von Liebig hypothesis.

A mean variance model is developed to characterize the price efficiency at the firm level in Farrell's model that defines the production frontier. Problems of estimating structural efficiency at the industry level are also discussed. It is shown that the theory of stochastic dominance can be used to compare the efficiency distribution of two or more industries. The model is also proposed for combining the two measures of production and cost.

In this paper we estimate a multiple-output generalization of Berndt and Khaled's Box-Cox cost model to study the cost structure and growth in productivity in Belgian railroad operations. The estimated model includes several commonly used flexible functional forms as special or limiting cases. Empirical results indicate approximately constant returns to scale and an average rate of productivity growth of slightly less than 2% over the sample period. These findings were robust across cost function specifications, casting some doubt on the importance of choosing among flexible functional forms.

This study explores the impact of defence industrial production on the productivity of four Canadian three-digit sic industries. A Tornqvist index of the annual change of total factor productivity is calculated. A defence production innovation stock' is constructed from new data on defence industrial production in Canada between 1961 and 1985. SURE multiple regression analysis shows that military production has a negative impact on total factor productivity for the four industries.

The aggregate production structure of the Greek economy, like that of other semi- and less-developed economies, has not been seriously investigated, despite the fact that such structure is essential in properly explaining stagflation, productivity growth and factor substitution. In this paper a long-run production function that holds on average is estimated; actual output is connected to it through an estimated behavioural utilization equation depending on unexpected demand, cost and inventory changes. Factor productivity growth is also examined, and no conclusive evidence of a secular drop emerges.

The main purpose of this study is to characterize and analyze high technology industrial firms. A technology index is constructed and used to classify firms. The largest concentration of high-tech firms is Israel is found in electronics and transport equipment industries, and the lowest in textiles and clothing. High-tech firms appear to be more productive, more export-oriented, pay higher wages, and earn higher rates of return than low-tech firms. The fact that high-tech firms in Israel are export-oriented is shown to be consistent with the international trade theories of comparative advantage and strategic rent-seeking.

The structural properties of steady states are well understood for multi-sector models, but the comparative dynamics of long-run growth are much less developed. By exploiting duality theory, this paper obtains conclusions about these effects for a small, internationally-trading, economy. Arbitrary numbers of consumption and capital goods, and a very general technology, are admitted. Definite conclusions about the short-run and long-run impact on outputs and factor prices are not always available but often correlations can be established between vectors of parameter changes and endogenous variable changes.

The paper examines the conditions for homothetic separability of a technology which is an aggregate of technologies of individual firms or industries. Given that the primitive (industry or firm) technologies exhibit homothetic separability, we establishe necessary and sufficient conditions for the aggregate (sectoral) technology to also exhibit homothetic separability. These conditions are expressed in terms of the cost functions of the primitive technologies. They may then be utilized to obtain an econometric test for separability of the aggregate technology, using data only on the primitive technologies.

This paper introduces the concept of biconvergence, which is a weak and intuitive topological assumption on the utility function and the production function together. Concerning recursive utility, we show that, given biconvergence, the utility function is the unique admissible solution to Koopman's equation. Concerning dynamic programming, we show that, given biconvergence, the true value function exists, it is the unique admissible solution to Bellman's equation, and it may be calculated numerically as the limit of successive approximations. Finally, we develop an overly strong sufficient condition for biconvergence which substantially weakens the Lipschitz condition used by contraction-mapping techniques.

The proposed solutions to the multi-product batch scheduling problem may be compared in the way they treat the lower bound value for optimal batch quantities that include a factor for batch splitting. Another test for the solutions offerred involves the standardization of demand rates to produce lower bound values that can be compared. Several solutions tested were shown to have unreliable results. Scheduling problems for more than one product involve computations of least cost for production given the material and labor costs per unit.