Multi-product cost functions: An application to the production characteristics of secondary education in Flanders

Mike Smet ()

No 1998043, Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: This study estimates two multi-product cost functions for the entire population of 773 Flemish secondary schools supplying a six year study program. From the estimated parameters of a quadratic and a generalised translog cost function the degree of ray and product specific (dis)economies of scale as well as the degree of (dis)economies of scope is determined. The paper also describes how marginal costs ans costs elasticities can be derived. Three major study fields can be distinguished. Students loads in each of these study fields are used as output variables. Evidence is found for ray economies of scale and global economies of scope. Especially in technical education product specific economies of scale could be realised. Cost savings by supplying two study fields jointly (pairwise scope effects) are also considerable.

JEL-codes: H52 I21 L31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18
Date: 1998-12-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://sites.uclouvain.be/econ/DP/REL/1998043.pdf (application/pdf)

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:ctl:louvre:1998043

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) Place Montesquieu 3, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sebastien SCHILLINGS ().