This paper proposes an approach to specify and estimate multiple input, multiple output production frontiers and technical efficiency using a stochastic ray frontier production model A possible model extension is to incorporate a technical efficiency effects model to allow estimation of the...

This paper proposes a generalization of the single output stochastic production frontier model. The generalization allows estimation of production frontiers and distance functions (technical efficiency) for multiple output technologies using cross section or panel data on inputs and outputs.

Two changes happened in 1998 that affect pension planning in a Swedish municipality. In the first place, there were changes in laws that affect accounting for pensions: Accrued pension rights that have been earned from 1998 have to be entered as a liability in the balance sheet. Pension rights...

Recent empirical growth literature suggests that cultural factors play a decisive role in economic development, while empirical evidence for their impact on government activity remains scant. In this paper, we conjecture based on Weber’s Protestant Ethics that ‚Protestant values’ such as...

We examine the role of government for growth in 64 industrialized and developing countries, considering both expenditure and financing aspects of government. Recognizing that there are differences between the two country groups leading to severe heteroskedasticity, we use weighted least squared...

Is the role of government different in poor countries? We examine the government's role for growth in 40 LDCs with low infrastructure levels and limited access to capital. We consider both expenditure and financing aspects of government activity, but cannot conclude that governments in LDCs...

This paper shows that the bootstrap algorithm for average technical efficiency by Atkinson and Wilson (1995) should be applied with great care for the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) estimator if the production frontier is stochastic. A stochastic frontier implies that the DEA estimator is...

The effect of economic variables on the probability of being absent is studied using panel data for a sample of 1,056 blue collar workers covering day-to-day data for the time period of one year (1991), in all 365,565 observations. Also, the effect of a reform in the sickness insurance on worker...

In this paper we test for existence of cointegration between health expenditure and GDP using data from 19 OECD countries for the period 1960-1995. Country-by-country and panel results based on the Johansen multivariate likelihood-based inference and a new panel test for cointegration rank are...

This paper investigates the effects of different health systems on cost efficiency in inpatient health care among the OECD countries. The results indicate that public contract systems are less efficient and that public integrated health systems are more efficient than public reimbursement systems.