Technical efficiency and productivity analysis of the Italian prison system: a methodological comparison

Giovanni Cesaroni and Aldo Lamberti

International Journal of Business Performance Management, 2014, vol. 15, issue 4, 329-350

Abstract: The paper presents a rigorous frontier-analysis of technical efficiency, returns to scale and the composition of productivity growth of the Italian prison system over the period 2003-2005. The study tries to fill some gaps in the literature on the subject, which mainly suffers from both small-samples applications and the lack of direct comparison between parametric and non-parametric methods. The data-panel considered accounts for almost 80% of the inmates population. Methodological analysis of the differences in their estimated results seems to argue in favour of the data envelopment models (DEA), as a better fit of a 'complex' estimated production-technology. Technical inefficiency ranks high, ranging on average from 25% to 30%. Conversely, scale inefficiency is moderate. Over the period, productivity grows by nearly 3%, with the main contribution provided by technical change (+3.17%). Finally, the analysis shows that a negative statistical correlation occurs between overcrowding and non-parametric technical efficiency.

Keywords: prison service; Italy; nonparametric technical efficiency; productivity growth; stochastic frontiers; data envelopment analysis; DEA; Malmquist productivity indexes; penal systems; prison systems; SFA; stochastic frontier analysis; technical inefficiency; scale inefficiency; technical change; prison overcrowding. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijbpma:v:15:y:2014:i:4:p:329-350

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