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Cost efficiency measurement in postal delivery networks

Filippini, Massimo ; Koller, Martin

The purpose of this study is to analyze the level of cost efficiency of Swiss Post’s postal delivery units to enable policy makers’ as well as Swiss Post to decide on the reactions to market changes. In particular, we use different panel data models to assess cost efficiency in these units to account for unobserved heterogeneity. The results from applying Mundlak’s formulation to the...

Do opening hours and unobserved heterogeneity affect economies of scale and scope in postal outlets?

Filippini, Massimo ; Koller, Martin ; Trinkner, Urs

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cost structure of Swiss Post’s postal outlets. In particular, the idea is to assess economies of scale and scope in post offices and franchised postal agencies. Information on their optimal size and production structure is of importance from the policy-makers’ point of view because this hypothetical situation may be a basis for calculation of...

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)...

The temporal variation of cost-efficiency in Switzerland’s hospitals : an application of mixed models

Farsi, Mehdi

In: Journal of Productivity Analysis, 2008, p. -

This paper uses a mixed effects model to examine the temporal variation of cost efficiency in Switzerland’s general hospitals. The variations in total costs, the number of empty beds and the length of hospital stays are analyzed using financial data from a sample of 168 hospitals operating from 1998 to 2003, as well as hospitalization records disaggregated to Diagnosis Related Groups....

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

Farsi, Mehdi ; Filippini, Massimo ; Lunati, Diego

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)...

The temporal variation of cost-efficiency in Switzerland’s hospitals : an application of mixed models

Farsi, Mehdi

This paper examines the temporal variation of cost efficiency in Switzerland’s general hospitals. The variation of total costs and the number of empty beds has been analyzed using a sample of 168 hospitals operating from 1998 to 2003. In addition more than 100,000 observations form the inpatient data disaggregated to DRG categories have been used to analyze the variations in the length of...

Cost efficiency in the Swiss gas distribution sector

Farsi, Mehdi ; Filippini, Massimo ; Kuenzle, Michael

In: Energy Economics, 2007, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 64-78

This paper studies the cost structure of gas distribution utilities in Switzerland. Three stochastic frontier models are applied to a panel of 26 companies operating from 1996 to 2000. Efficiency is assumed to be constant over time. The analysis highlights the importance of output characteristics such as customer density and network size. The results suggest that the utilities could slightly...

Efficiency measurement in network industries : application to the Swiss railway companies

Farsi, Mehdi ; Filippini, Massimo ; Greene, William

In: Journal of Regulatory Economics, 2005, vol. 28, no. 1, p. 69-90

The persistence of increasingly high government subsidies in Switzerland’s railroads has led the federal and cantonal authorities to discussing the possibility of high-powered incentive contracts such as those based on cost efficiency benchmarking. Railways are however, characterized by a high degree of unobserved heterogeneity that could bias the efficiency estimates. This paper examines the...

Cost efficiency in regional bus companies : an application of alternative stochastic frontier models

Farsi, Mehdi ; Filippini, Massimo ; Kuenzle, Michael

In: Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, 2006, vol. 40, no. 1, p. 95-118

This paper evaluates cost and scale efficiencies of Switzerland’s regulated rural bus companies operating in regional networks. The adopted methodology can be used in benchmarking analyses applied to incentive regulation systems. Moreover, the estimations can be used to evaluate the bidding offers for the tendering processes predicted by the ongoing reform policies. Since these companies...

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

Farsi, Mehdi ; Filippini, Massimo

This paper explores the cost structure of Swiss hospitals, focusing on differences due to teaching activities and those across different ownership and subsidization types. A stochastic total cost frontier with a Cobb-Douglas functional form has been estimated for a panel of 150 general hospitals over the six-year period from 1998 and 2003. Inpatient cases adjusted by DRG cost weights and...