We analyze models of product differentiation with perfect price discrimination and free entry. Although perfect price discrimination ensures efficient output decisions given product characteristics, coordination failures may prevent efficiency in the choice of product characteristics. More...

This paper develops and analyses a dynamic model, which combines both the adoption and the industry evolution theories. We model the decision of adoption, learning entry and exit of firms. These decisions depend on the interaction of technology characteristics (effectiveness, machinery and...

In this paper we describe the successful application of a sophisticated Operations Research model and the corresponding solution techniques for scheduling the 6,500+ drivers and conductors of the Dutch railway operator NS Reizigers (Netherlands Railways). In 2001 the drivers and conductors were...

This paper studies the accounting performance measure, profit efficiency and investor valuation of 1,262 Chinese firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2001 to 2010. Profit efficiency is defined as the ratio of actual profit realized to the optimal profit described by...

This present study analyses a stringent and current problem of the economy which resides from the measurements of the proportion of production which lead to the growth of the amount of waste resulted from production and influence its efficiency. The first part of the study tries to point out the...

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) was the first efficiency expert, the original time-and-motion man -- the father of scientific management, the inventor of a system that became known, inevitably enough, as Taylorism. "In the past the man has been first. In the future the System will be...

Firms communicate product quality attributes to consumers through a variety of channels, such as pricing, advertising, releases of research reports and test results, or warranties and returns policies. The conceptualization of the economics of such communication is that it takes on one of two...

Quality of service is of major economic significance in natural monopoly infrastructure industries but is generally not reflected in efficiency analysis. In this paper we present an efficiency analysis of electricity distribution networks using a sample of about 500 electricity distribution...

There are legal grounds to hear competitors in merger control proceedings, and competitor involvement has gained significance. To what extent this is economically sensible is our question. The competition authority applies some welfare standard while the competitor cares about its own profit. In...

In this paper we analyze the welfare properties of the set of Drèze equilibria for economies with incomplete markets and firms. The well known fact that a Drèze equilibrium need not be constrained Pareto optimal is often attributed to a lack of coordination between firms. We show that there...