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Inefficiency in Childcare Production: Evidence from Italian Microdata

Author

Listed:
  • Luigi Brighi

    (Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia)

  • Paolo Silvestri

    (Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia)

Abstract

The paper provides an empirical analysis of production technology in the childcare sector and offers a comparative analysis of inefficiency between public and private day-care centres. Estimates of multi-output production technology and technical inefficiency are obtained in a stochastic frontier model by using cross-section micro-data from a region of northern Italy over the period 2007/8. We find that production exhibits increasing returns to scale and that separability between inputs and outputs is rejected. The average estimate of technical inefficiency is about 10% and public centres are more inefficient than private centres by 4.1% points.

Suggested Citation

  • Luigi Brighi & Paolo Silvestri, 2019. "Inefficiency in Childcare Production: Evidence from Italian Microdata," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 5(1), pages 103-133, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:italej:v:5:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s40797-019-00087-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s40797-019-00087-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Childcare; Technical inefficiency; Stochastic Frontier analysis; Input-distance function;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D - Microeconomics
    • H - Public Economics
    • J - Labor and Demographic Economics

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