When benchmarking production units by non-parametric methods like data envelopment analysis (DEA), an assumption has to be made about the returns to scale of the underlying technology. Moreover, it is often also relevant to compare the frontiers across samples of producers. Until now, no exact...

Simar and Wilson (J. Econometrics, 2007) provided a statistical model that can rationalize two-stage estimation of technical efficiency in nonparametric settings. Two-stage estimation has been widely used, but requires a strong assumption: the second-stage environmental variables cannot affect...

Estimating efficiencies of higher education institutions (HEIs) has become a central area of research in efficiency analysis literature, particularly during the last two decades. Although the number of efficiency analysis researches in higher education has risen, comparative research estimating...

Nonparametric methods have been widely used for assessing the performance of organizations in the private and public sector. The most popular ones are based on envelopment estimators, like the FDH or DEA estimators, that estimate the attainable sets and its efficient boundary by enveloping the...

This paper is concerned with significance testing of the effects of exogenous determinants upon the one-sided deviation term of a semiparametric stochastic frontier model. Two nonparametric significance tests for all or a subset of the determinants of inefficiency are proposed. The proposed...

The field of production frontier estimation is divided between the parametric Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and the deterministic, nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This paper explores an amalgam of DEA and SFA that melds a nonparametric frontier with a stochastic composite...

This article examines the empirical performance of alternative frontier estimators' ability to replicate a known underlying technology and economic measures such as multi-product and product-specific economies of scale, and economies of scope. A cross sectional Monte Carlo procedure to simulate...