This paper explores an intermediate route between the Fisher and the Malmquist productivity indexes so as to minimize data requirements and assumptions about economic behavior of production units and their production technology. Assuming quantity data of inputs and outputs and the behavioral...

Electricity distribution is a natural local monopoly. In many countries, the regulators of this sector apply frontier methods such as data envelopment analysis (DEA) or stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to estimate the efficient cost of operation. In Finland, a new StoNED method was adopted in...

We discuss the nonparametric approach to profit efficiency analysis at the firm and industry levels in the absence of complete price information. Two new insights are developed. First, we measure profit inefficiency in monetary terms using absolute shadow prices. Second, we evaluate all firms...

Sustainability is a complex multidimensional concept that entails economic, environmental, and social aspects. The sustainable value (SV) method developed by F. Figge and T. Hahn [Ecol. Econ. 48(2004) 173-187] is one of the most promising attempts to measure sustainability performance of firms....

Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus have a dual role as inputs to crop production and as pollutants to water, air, and soil. The nutrient surplus measures are frequently used as indicators of environmental performance or eco-efficiency at micro level of individual farms and at macro levels...

Agriculture and agricultural policy in Finland and Norway have shared many common features in the past, except that Finland joined the European Union in 1995. In this article, we examine profitability and productivity dynamics in Finnish and Norwegian farms during the period 1991 to 2008. Our...

Targeted environmental policies for farmlands may improve the cost efficiency of conservation programmes if one can identify those farms that produce public goods with the least cost. We derive shadow values of producing crop diversity for a sample of Finnish conventional and organic crop farms...