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Im Mittelpunkt des Dissertationsprojekts steht die Frage, welche Bedeutung das Ladekapazitätswachstum bei den vier klassischen Verkehrsträgern (Schiffs-, Luft-, Eisenbahn- und Straßenverkehr) hat und wie sich die einzelnen Verkehrsträger insbesondere hinsichtlich der Nutzung von Skaleneffekten entwickelt haben sowie welche Entwicklungsperspektiven für die einzelnen Verkehrsträger in einer langfristigen Perspektive vorliegen. Das ist insofern bedeutend, als dass Skaleneffekte im Verkehr als eine besonders wichtige Quelle für sinkende oder zumindest relativ konstante Transportkosten im Personen- und im Güterverkehr gesehen werden. Nach einer Untersuchung der vier klassischen Verkehrsträger wird konkret anhand des Straßengüterverkehrs untersucht, welche Auswirkungen eine Erweiterung der erlaubten Fahrzeugdimensionen über die derzeit gültigen Werte hinaus hätte. Diese Untersuchung wird für Deutschland konkret durchgeführt, da dort derzeit ein konkreter Diskurs über die Zulassung größerer Straßengüterkraftfahrzeuge geführt wird. Dabei wird eine gesamtwirtschaftliche Perspektive eingenommen und es werden die intra- und intermodalen Auswirkungen untersucht. (Autorenref.)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-164). / Microfiche. / ix, 164 leaves, bound 29 cm

Ever since introduced and rolled out on the market during the 1950's and 1960's the supermarket format of grocery retail stores has played an important role in the grocery retail sector in Sweden, as well as in other countries. Although the sector in Sweden has evolved into a sector harbouring various store formats, the supermarket remains the major one - about half of the total volume of sales currently goes through supermarkets. Issues referring to the economic performance of supermarkets, and its antecedents, are thus of interest not only to retailers, but also to consumers as well as to society, overall. This study contributes to previous research by explicitly addressing bottom-line performance of supermarkets, and by bridging different fields of research. With the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm as theoretical underpinning, a cross-sectional design is developed for the study, comprising the economic performance of 168 supermarkets. By pooling data from various sources a unique database is developed, providing prerequisites for a comprehensive investigation into the effects of scale of operation, local market conditions, and supermarket conduct on various aspects of supermarket performance, all the way to bottom-line profitability performance.   The results show that profitability performance of supermarkets is a consequence of a complex network of relationships between various aspects of economic performance, scale of operation, local market conditions and supermarket conduct. The profit margin, i.e. the span between gross margin and operating costs%, turns out as the major determinant of profitability performance. The profit margin, in turn, is found related to productivity, which in turn is found related to the volume of sales. Scale of operation and local market conditions are found working themselves into profitability performance, via conduct and various aspects of economic performance. However, neither scale nor favorable local market conditions turns out as the determinant of high rather than low profitability performance. Among the most as well as among least profitable, there are small and large supermarkets, facing local markets of favorable as well as unfavorable conditions. Rather, the dividing line between the low vs. highly profitable lies in the interplay between market conditions and conduct. Results from analyses of internal and external characteristics of the least and most profitable show important dissimilarities referring to their interplay with local market conditions. As such, the study provides important implications for retailers, from a strategical, tactical, as well as operational perspective. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Sydney, [2004?]. / Title from title screen (viewed 30 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy to the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Zugl.: Eichstätt, Ingolstadt, Universiẗat, Diss., 2005.

Thesis (Civ.E)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1981 / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaves 126-129. / by Dimitrios Andreou Tsamboulas. / Civ.E

The international liner shipping industry has been undergoing major structural changes caused by a number of factors. Liner companies have responded to these challenges by engaging in mergers and acquisitions and by forming global strategic alliances. Many of these organizational changes have reportedly been undertaken to achieve, among other things, economies of scale. This paper systematically addresses two questions — whether there are economies of scale in international liner shipping, and if so, what are the implications of those economies for industry structure. To determine whether scale advantages exist, George Stigler's "Survivorship Principle" is used with current data in three phases. All three phases of the study show that increasing returns to scale are present. In each application of the survivorship test, small and medium sized firms experienced significant decline in their share of the industry's capacity, while the largest firms continued to gain market share over the 20-year test period. The existence of economies of scale at both the firm and plant level is most pronounced during the shorter 1987-1997 period, subsequent to significant regulatory changes. The study empirically verifies that economies of scale in liner shipping have been increasing in response to technology-driven productivity growth, regulatory changes, and higher world-wide trade flows. The pursuit of economies of scale also appears to be contributing to the consolidation occurring in the industry today via both mergers and acquisitions, and the formation of global strategic alliances. Lastly, the study discusses the implications of economies of scale on firm structure within the context of current industry economics, and evaluates business strategies presently being pursued. / Master of Arts

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / Allen M. Featherstone / Estimation of cost functions can provide useful economic information to producers, economists, and policy makers. From the estimation of a cost function, it is possible to calculate cost efficiency, economies of scope, and economies of scale. Economic theory specifies the cost function as a frontier since firms cannot operate at lower cost than the cost minimizing input/output bundle. However, traditional parametric estimation techniques often violate economic theory using two sided-error systems. The stochastic frontier method has allowed the estimation of a frontier but continues to restrict the technology through functional assumption. Nonparametric frontier estimation is an alternative approach to estimate a cost frontier by enveloping the data which by its construct, conforms to economic theory. This research expands the economic information available by deriving multi-product scale economies and product-specific scale economies from the nonparametric approach. It also tests its ability to accurately recover these important economic measures under different assumptions of the cost function, and cost inefficiency distributions. Next, this new method is compared to other methods used to estimate cost functions and associated economic measures including a two-sided error system, stochastic frontier method, and an OLS model restricting the errors to take on only positive values. Finally, the nonparametric approach with the new measures is applied to a sample of Kansas farms. The nonparametric approach is able to closely estimate economies of scale and scope from estimation of a cost frontier. Comparison reveals that the nonparametric approach is closer to the “true” economic measures than some parametric methods and that it is better able to extrapolate out of sample when there are no zero output firms. Finally, the nonparametric approach shows that potential cost savings from economies of scale and economies of scope exist for small Kansas farms. However, cost savings from economies of scale become exhausted when farms exceed gross annual revenues of $500k, while economies of scope also diminish as farms grow larger. Results also show from annual frontier estimations that estimates of economies of scale, scope, and cost efficiency have remained relatively stable from 2002 to 2011.

藉由觀察台灣共同基金的費用與規模，探討台灣的共同基金是否存在規模經濟的現象，實證結果發現，個別基金的費用與規模之間，並無顯著的規模經濟；而基金家族底下的總資產在台幣四千到七千萬時，有顯著的規模經濟現象；透過logit模型，發現基金成立的年限、報酬、以及標準差對基金的規模經濟都有顯著的正面影響；採用Fixed-effect模型，基金成立的年限及報酬，仍對基金的規模經濟都有顯著的正面影響。 / All mutual funds typically pay their regular and recurring, fund-wide operating expenses out of fund assets, rather than by imposing separate fees and charges on investors. Investors using performance evaluation as a selection criterion may be misleading due to the volatility of investment returns. It is obscured to identify whether the fund’s performance is because of the superior return or just good luck. However, mutual fund expenses are stable and can be used as an assessment of the variation in efficiency levels across various mutual fund size groupings when we took the individual mutual funds or mutual fund families as the unit of investigation. This study uncovers that no significant differences exist across individual mutual fund size categories. By utilizing the family dollar size as the base unit of analysis, the result is similar. But there are distinctions in the analysis of mutual fund-specific elasticities when the fund family size is between NT$40-70 million dollars. However, mutual fund-specific elasticities are revealed to differ in a statically significant level across mutual fund investment objective categories. By applying the logistic regression, the results indicate that age, return, and standard deviation have statistically significant positive effects on the economies of scale. By applying the fixed-effect model and making the intercepts vary with various mutual funds family, our results are stable and consistent. Mutual funds’ age or return demonstrates positive effect on the scale of economies.