IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revind/v46y2015i2p169-182.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public Enterprise Efficiency: The Case of the New York Canals

Author

Listed:
  • Donald Vitaliano

Abstract

A random effects stochastic frontier variable cost function is estimated for the Erie Canal and nine interconnected lateral canals in New York, covering the period 1837–1881. Variable costs are 50 % above least cost for the Erie and 42 % above across all the 10 canals. Inefficiency does not vary over time in response to numerous changes in canal administrative structures and personnel or the advent of railroads. The canal system was plagued by documented waste, fraud and mismanagement throughout its history. A privatized, price capped Erie Canal was proposed in 1817, but rejected on political grounds. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Donald Vitaliano, 2015. "Public Enterprise Efficiency: The Case of the New York Canals," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 46(2), pages 169-182, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:46:y:2015:i:2:p:169-182
    DOI: 10.1007/s11151-014-9448-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11151-014-9448-6
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11151-014-9448-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vining, Aidan R & Boardman, Anthony E, 1992. "Ownership versus Competition: Efficiency in Public Enterprise," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 205-239, March.
    2. Stanley Engerman & Kenneth L. Sokoloff, 2004. "Digging the Dirt at Public Expense: Governance in the Building of the Erie Canal and Other Public Works," NBER Working Papers 10965, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Vitaliano, Donald F., 2005. "Estimation of the Return on Capital in Municipal Water Systems," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 58(4), pages 685-696, December.
    4. Braeutigam, Ronald R. & Daughety, Andrew F., 1983. "On the estimation of returns to scale using variable cost functions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 25-31.
    5. Smith, Walter B., 1963. "Wage Rates on the Erie Canal, 1828–1881," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 298-311, September.
    6. Greene, William, 2005. "Reconsidering heterogeneity in panel data estimators of the stochastic frontier model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 269-303, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ajayi, Victor & Weyman-Jones, Thomas & Glass, Anthony, 2017. "Cost efficiency and electricity market structure: A case study of OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 283-291.
    2. Trigo Gamarra, Lucinda, 2008. "The effects of liberalization and deregulation on the performance of financial institutions: The case of the German life insurance market," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 93, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    3. Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov & Zhang, Shanshan, 2016. "Industrial energy demand and energy efficiency – Evidence from Sweden," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 130-152.
    4. Do, Manh Hung & Nguyen, Trung Thanh & Grote, Ulrike, 2023. "Land consolidation, rice production, and agricultural transformation: Evidence from household panel data for Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 157-173.
    5. Jan Kluge & Sarah Lappöhn & Kerstin Plank, 2023. "Predictors of TFP growth in European countries," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 109-140, February.
    6. Koetter Michael, 2008. "An Assessment of Bank Merger Success in Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 232-264, May.
    7. Raushan Bokusheva & Lukáš Čechura & Subal C. Kumbhakar, 2023. "Estimating persistent and transient technical efficiency and their determinants in the presence of heterogeneity and endogeneity," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(2), pages 450-472, June.
    8. Kutlu, Levent & Sickles, Robin & Tsionas, Mike G., 2019. "Heterogeneous Decision-Making and Market Power," Working Papers 19-008, Rice University, Department of Economics.
    9. Bahta, S. & Temoso, O. & Mekonnen, D. & Malope, P. & Staal, S., 2018. "Technical efficiency of beef production in agricultural districts of Botswana: A Latent Class Stochastic Frontier Model Approach," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277207, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Bozec, Richard, 2004. "L’analyse comparative de la performance entre les entreprises publiques et les entreprises privées : le problème de mesure et son impact sur les résultats," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 80(4), pages 619-654, Décembre.
    11. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Williams, Jonathan, 2013. "The random parameters stochastic frontier cost function and the effectiveness of public policy: Evidence from bank restructuring in Mexico," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 98-108.
    12. Rodriguez-Alvarez, Ana & Llorca, Manuel & Jamasb, Tooraj, 2021. "Alleviating energy poverty in Europe: Front-runners and laggards," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    13. Kui-Wai Li & Tung Liu & Lihong Yun, 2007. "Technology Progress, Efficiency, and Scale of Economy in Post-reform China," Working Papers 200701, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2007.
    14. Ceyhun Elgin & Selman Çakır, 2015. "Technological progress and scientific indicators: a panel data analysis," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 263-281, April.
    15. Victor Moutinho & Mara Madaleno, 2021. "Assessing Eco-Efficiency in Asian and African Countries Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    16. Abiodun Adegboye & Olawale Daniel Akinyele, 2022. "Assessing the determinants of government spending efficiency in Africa," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    17. Boardman, Anthony E. & Shapiro, Daniel M. & Vining, Aidan R., 1997. "The role of agency costs in explaining the superior performance of foreign MNE subsidiaries," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 295-317, June.
    18. Michael Böheim, 2011. "The Privatisation of Public Assets as an Economic Policy Instrument: Private versus Public Ownership of Companies – Empirical Evidence and Considerations for Industrial Location Policy," Austrian Economic Quarterly, WIFO, vol. 16(4), pages 244-255, December.
    19. Galina Besstremyannaya, 2011. "Managerial performance and cost efficiency of Japanese local public hospitals: A latent class stochastic frontier model," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(S1), pages 19-34, September.
    20. William C. Horrace & Hyunseok Jung & Yi Yang, 2023. "The conditional mode in parametric frontier models," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 333-343, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cost efficiency; Erie canal; Public enterprise; R5; D24; N7; C1; H110; H4;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R5 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • N7 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services
    • C1 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:46:y:2015:i:2:p:169-182. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.