This note illustrates the potential impact of the specification of a convex production technology on establishing minimal costs compared to the use of a non-convex technology when benchmarking electricity distributors. This methodological reflection is mainly motivated by recent engineering...

The purpose of this contribution is to highlight an underexplored property of the directional distance function, a recently introduced generalization of the Shephard distance function. It diagnoses in detail the economic conditions under which infeasibilities may occur for the case of...

Generalizing earlier approximation results, we establish exact relations between the Luenberger productivity indicator and the Malmquist productivity index under rather mild assumptions. Furthermore, we show that similar exact relations can be established between the Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen...

There are two total factor productivity indices available in the literature based on a primal notion of the technology. In a ratio tradition, these are the Malmquist and the HicksMoorsteen productivity indices. In a difference perspective, the Luenberger and Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen...

This paper explores a selection of recently proposed bootstrapping techniques to estimate non-parametric convex (DEA) cost frontiers and efficiency scores for transit firms. Using a sample of Norwegian bus operators, the key results can be summarised as follows: (i) the bias implied by...

This contribution provides a way to de?ne and compute a tangency notion of economic capacity based upon the relation between the various directional distance functions and the pro?t and cost functions using non-parametric technologies. A new result relating pro?t and cost function-based tangency...

This paper explores a selection of recently proposed bootstrapping techniques to estimate non-parametric convex (DEA) cost frontiers and efficiency scores for transit firms. Using a sample of Norwegian bus operators, the key results can be summarized as follows: (i) the bias implied by...

Markowitz portfolio theory (1952) has induced research into the efficiency of portfolio management. This paper studies existing nonparametric efficiency measurement approaches for single period portfolio selection from a theoretical perspective and generalises currently used efficiency measures...