Is there a prison size dilemma? An empirical analysis of output-specific economies of scale

Veerle Hennebel (), Richard Simper () and Marijn Verschelde ()
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Veerle Hennebel: KU Leuven

No 2016-EQM-09, Working Papers from IESEG School of Management

Abstract: We advocate a nonparametric multi-output framework to estimate output-specific economies of scale and we apply this model to male prisons in England and Wales over the sample period 2009-2012. To estimate output-specific returns to scale in prisons, we consider not only the cost-per-place, but also qualitative outputs such as purposeful out-of-cell activity and successful reintegration. Furthermore, we introduce environmental heterogeneity using the characteristics of the prison(ers). England and Wales offers a unique example to study economies of scale in prisons as the UK has started to build new super-size prisons in order to replace the most outdated prisons.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis; economies of scale; multi-output production; UK penology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff
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Related works:
Journal Article: Is there a prison size dilemma? An empirical analysis of output-specific economies of scale (2017)
Working Paper: Is there a prison size dilemma? An empirical analysis of output-specific economies of scale (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ies:wpaper:e201609

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