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Quantity, Quality, and Efficiency for a Partially Super-Additive Cost Function: Connecticut Public Schools Revisited

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Abstract

The dual cost function is partially super-additive when an output quantity bundle of a given quality can be produced at a lower cost by breaking up the output into a number of smaller bundles of the same quality to be produced by several firms instead of the entire bundle being produced by a single firm. In this paper, we build on Maindiratta's concept of size efficiency and propose a nonparametric method using mixed integer programming to measure cost efficiency allowing for partial super-additivity of the cost function. The proposed method is applied to data from Connecticut public school districts for the years 1980–81 through 1983–84.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269-1063, U.S.A.

    Subhash C. Ray

  2. Dept. of Economics, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, 13699, U.S.A.

    Kankana Mukherjee

Authors
  1. Subhash C. Ray
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  2. Kankana Mukherjee
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Ray, S.C., Mukherjee, K. Quantity, Quality, and Efficiency for a Partially Super-Additive Cost Function: Connecticut Public Schools Revisited. Journal of Productivity Analysis 10, 47–62 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018322023051

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