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Università della Svizzera italiana

Resource rent taxation and benchmarking : a new perspective for the Swiss hydropower sector

Banfi, Silvia ; Filippini, Massimo ; Svizzera

The electricity generation in Switzerland is mainly based on hydropower (55% of total production). The exploitation of water in the hydropower sector can generate significant so-called resource rents. These are defined by the surplus return above the value of capital, labor, materials and energy used to exploit hydropower. In Switzerland, hydropower producers pay to the State a fixed fee per...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Unobserved heterogeneity and international benchmarking in public transport

Cullmann, Astrid ; Farsi, Mehdi ; Filippini, Massimo

We analyze the technical efficiency of German and Swiss urban public transport companies by means of SFA. In transport networks we might face different network structures or complexities, not observed, but influencing the production process. The unobserved factors are typically modeled as separable factors. However, we argue that the entire production process is organized around different network...

Università della Svizzera italiana

An empirical analysis of child care demand in Switzerland

Banfi, Silvia ; Farsi, Mehdi ; Filippini, Massimo

In: Annals of public and cooperative economics, 2009, vol. 80, no. 1, p. 37-66

This paper analyzes the demand of Swiss families for child care facilities. A choice experiment is used to study the effects of the facilities’ characteristics as well as socio-economic factors on the selected child care mode. The experimental data are analyzed using a discrete choice model with multinomial logit specification. The results suggest that the demand for extra-familial day care...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Benchmarking and regulation in the electricity distribution sector

Mehdi, Farsi ; Fetz, Aurelio ; Filippini, Massimo

In: Servizi pubblici: nuove tendenze nella regolamentazione nella produzione e nel finanziamento, 2007, p. 159-176

In the last two decades electricity distribution sector have witnessed a wave of regulatory reforms aimed at improving efficiency through incentive regulation. Most of these regulation schemes use benchmarking namely measuring a company’s efficiency and rewarding them accordingly. The reliability of efficiency estimates is crucial for an effective implementation of those incentive mechanisms. A...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Effects of ownership, subsidization and teaching activities on hospital costs in Switzerland

Farsi, Mehdi ; Filippini, Massimo

In: Health economics, 2008, vol. 17, no. 3, p. 335-350

This paper explores the cost structure of Swiss hospitals, focusing on differences due to teaching activities and those related to ownership and subsidization types. A stochastic total cost frontier with a Cobb-Douglas functional form has been estimated for a panel of 148 general hospitals over the six-year period from 1998 to 2003. Inpatient cases adjusted by DRG cost weights and ambulatory...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Economies of scale and efficiency measurement in Switzerland's nursing homes

Farsi, Mehdi ; Filippini, Massimo ; Lunati, Diego

In: Swiss journal of economics and statistics, 2008, vol. 144, no. 3, p. 359-378

This paper examines the cost efficiency in the nursing home industry, an issue of concern to Swiss policy makers because of the explosive growth of national expenditure on elderly care and the aging of the population. A stochastic cost frontier model with a translog function has been applied to a balanced panel data of 1780 observations from 356 nursing homes operating over five years (1998-2002)...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Economies of scale and scope in multi-utilities

Farsi, Mehdi ; Fetz, Aurelio ; Filippini, Massimo

In: Energy journal, 2008, vol. 29, no. 4, p. 123-143

This paper explores the economies of scale and scope in the electricity, gas and water utilities. These issues have a crucial importance in the actual policy debates about unbundling the integrated utilities into separate entities, a policy which has often been supported by the ongoing reforms in the deregulation of network industries. This paper argues that the potential improvements in...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Cost efficiency of Slovenian water distribution utilities : an application of stochastic frontier methods

Filippini, Massimo ; Hrovatin, Nevenka ; Zorić, Jelena

In: Journal of productivity analysis, 2008, vol. 29, no. 2, p. 169-182

This study estimates cost inefficiency and economies of scale of Slovenian water distribution utilities over the 1997-2003 period by employing several different stochastic frontier methods. The results indicate that significant cost inefficiencies are present in the utilities. An introduction of incentive-based price regulation scheme might help resolve this problem. However, the inefficiency...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Economies of scale and scope in local public transportation

Farsi, Mehdi ; Fetz, Aurelio ; Filippini, Massimo

In: Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, 2007, vol. 41, no. 3, p. 345-361

This paper analyzes the cost structure of the Swiss urban public transport sector in order to assess scale and scope economies. A multi-output cost function has been estimated for a panel data set of companies operating trolley-bus, motor-bus and tramway systems. The results suggest increasing returns to scale and economies of scope. This analysis has important policy implications in view of the...