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

Veerle Hennebel, Richard Simper and Marijn Verschelde ()

European Journal of Operational Research, 2017, vol. 262, issue 1, 306-321

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study economies of scale in prisons as the UK has started to build new super-size prisons in order to replace the most outdated prisons.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)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: 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 (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:262:y:2017:i:1:p:306-321

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2017.03.055

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