Mohammad Jaforullah

Scale efficiency in the New Zealand dairy industry: a non-parametric approach

The aim in this article is to measure the scale efficiency of the New Zealand dairy industry and to examine the relationship between farm size and technical efficiency. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to a sample of 264 dairy farms. The results suggest that 19 per cent of these farms are operating at optimal scale, 28 per cent at above optimal scale, and 53 per cent at below optimal scale. On average, the optimal size for New Zealand dairy farms is estimated at 83 hectares with a herd of 260 animals. Average technical efficiency is estimated at 89 per cent.

Technical efficiency in the New Zealand dairy industry: A frontier production function approach

The objective of this paper is to investigate farm‐specific technical efficiency levels and the relationship between technical efficiency and farm size in the New Zealand dairy industry. Two types of stochastic frontier production function, translog and Cobb‐Douglas, were estimated using 1991–1992 data on 264 dairy farmers derived from an economic survey conducted by the New Zealand Dairy Board. Three alternative possibilities regarding the distribution of the inefficiency term were considered: half‐normal, truncated normal and exponential. Based on the results of the half‐normal translog frontier model, dairy farm technical efficiency was found to range from 76 to 95 percent, with an average of 90 percent. There was no significant difference in the average technical efficiency levels between large, medium and small farms. The results also suggest that New Zealand dairy farming is characterised by constant returns to scale.

Production technology, elasticity of substitution and technical efficiency of the handloom textile industry of Bangladesh

A number of translog and Cobb-Douglas frontier production models were estimated for the Bangladesh handloom textile industry to investigate its production technology and technical efficiency in production. It was found that the technical efficiency of the industry in producing cloth was only 41%. It was concluded that the industry might improve its technical efficiency by increasing its male/female labour ratio and yarn/capital ratio and decreasing its hired/family labour ratio and labour/capital ratio. The production technology of the industry was found to be characterized by a linearly homogeneous Cobb-Douglas function. The elasticity of substitution between labour and capital for the industry was found to be unity.

The structure of costs and production in New Zealand public hospitals: and application of the transcendental logarithmic vaiable cost funcation

New Zealands public hospitals provide ‘free’ secondary health care to the public through taxation funding. Since these hospitals vary by both size and range of services provided, the possibility of more porductive resource use is of explicit interest. A translog variable cost function is estimated for New Zealand public hospitals using 1987 cross-section data. An analysis of sthe function reveals the marginal costs, short-run and long-run economies of scale and input factor substitution possibilities. Results suggest that a transfer of both patients with less severe conditions and staff from teachin hospitals to say, country hospitals will result in a short-run decareased total cost to the system. The long run economies of scale estimates suggest that efficiency gains could result from downsizing large hospitals, merging smaller hospitals and increasing patient turnover. Partial elasticites of demand indicate the asymmetric nature of factor substitution and the effect of specific inputs, such as nurses, ...

The demand for imported oil: New Zealand's post-deregulation experience

ABSTRACT Oil is the single most important energy source within the New Zealand economy and is also the source of a significant fraction of its greenhouse gas emissions. We model New Zealands demand for imported oil over the period following the deregulation of its market for petroleum products in 1988. The income elasticity estimate we obtain (1.35) is larger than those reported for most countries and indicates that continued economic growth will make the governments emission targets increasingly difficult to achieve. However, we also find demand is sufficiently price-sensitive (−0.46) for fuel taxes to be reasonably effective at curbing oil demand.