Measuring the Economic Efficiency of Producing Rural Road Services
研究美国中西部乡镇官员生产低流量农村道路服务的经济效率，发现超过50%的成本因投入使用效率低下而不必要，且较大辖区效率更高，84.5%的乡镇呈现规模报酬递增，建议合并生产责任以节省成本。
Abstract The research reported here examines the ability of a sample of Midwest township officials to produce low‐volume rural road services in an economically efficient manner. Farrell‐type measures of input use and scale efficiency are reported. Results suggest that over 50% of costs may be unnecessarily incurred because of input use inefficiency. Correlation between output measures and the efficiency measures suggests that larger jurisdictions are more efficient than smaller jurisdictions. In addition, 84.5% of the townships exhibit technology characterized by increasing returns to scale. These results suggest that jurisdictional consolidation of production‐related responsibilities may yield substantial cost savings.