<Para ID="Par1">A random effects stochastic frontier variable cost function is estimated for the Erie Canal and nine interconnected lateral canals in New York, covering the period 1837–1881. Variable costs are 50 % above least cost for the Erie and 42 % above across all the 10 canals. Inefficiency does not...</para>

A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) cost minimization model is employed to estimate the cost to thrift institutions of achieving a rating of ‘outstanding’ under the anti-redlining Community Reinvestment Act, which is viewed as an act of voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). There is...

The mathematical programming technique Data Envelopment Analysis is used to test the famous hypothesis of Averch and Johnson that utility regulation leads to overuse of capital because the regulated firm earns a return s greater than its cost of capital r, an implicit capital subsidy resulting...

A stochastic frontier cost function indicates that the annual cost of complying with the anti-redlining Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is $171,000 per thrift institution, roughly 2.3 percent of variable costs. But compliance cost is significantly less than the estimated 21 percent cost...

This paper tests the hypothesis that an increase in the supply of public housing causes a substantially offsetting decline in the quantity supplied of competing private units. The statistical results offer little by way of confirmation of this view.A comparative statics model of the rental...

This paper derives the type of tax system (progressive, proportional or regressive) required by different marginal income utility functions to satisfy the equal absolute and equal proportional sacrifice of utility among taxpayers. The context is that in which the rules were originally...

Seventy–five small, municipal water systems are analyzed to determine if they employ the least–cost long–run capital stock, and if they minimize cost given the observed level of capital. The social cost of capital exceeds the estimated return on investment by more than four times, and...