Estimating Public Library Efficiency Using Stochastic Frontiers

Jeffrey Andrew Hemmeter
Additional contact information
Jeffrey Andrew Hemmeter: Social Security Administration, Baltimore

Public Finance Review, 2006, vol. 34, issue 3, 328-348

Abstract: This article uses public libraries to analyze public sector cost-efficiency. The growth of large bookstores and the Internet in recent years may have motivated libraries to behave in a more cost-efficient manner. Alternatively, monitoring of libraries may have decreased as patrons shift away from library use, increasing inefficiency. Using a stochastic cost frontier, the level of cost-inefficiency is estimated and analyzed. The results suggest that competition, regardless of the source, does not have a large effect on cost-efficiency. Local government spending decreases inefficiency in smaller libraries, consistent with the monitoring role governments can have on public spending.

Keywords: efficiency; public sector competition; publicly provided private goods; stochastic frontiers; libraries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1091142105284844 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:34:y:2006:i:3:p:328-348

DOI: 10.1177/1091142105284844

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Public Finance Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().