The purpose of the paper is to study inefficiency in the production technology of the childcare service and to carry out a comparative analysis of public and private day-care centres. An empirical analysis on cross-section micro-data from a region of northern Italy has been conducted by using an input-distance function with a translog specification. Estimates of the multi-output production technology and input-oriented technical inefficiency are obtained in a stochastic frontier model with a half-normally distributed one-sided error. Heteroscedasticity has been modelled to investigate the determinants of inefficiency and estimate their marginal e ects. We find that production exhibits increasing returns with an estimated elasticity of scale of 1.21. Separability between inputs and outputs is rejected at a 5% level of significance. The average estimate of technical inefficiency is 10% and public centres are more ine cient than private centres by 4.1 percentage points. The proportion of part-time children and the presence of mixed-age classrooms are significant determinants of inefficiency which equally a ect both public and private centres.

Brighi, L. e P., Silvestri. "Inefficiency in Childcare Production. Evidence from Italian Microdata" Working paper, CAPPAPERS, Dipartimento di Economia Marco Biagi - Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, 2016.

Inefficiency in Childcare Production. Evidence from Italian Microdata

Brighi,L.;Silvestri,P.
2016

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to study inefficiency in the production technology of the childcare service and to carry out a comparative analysis of public and private day-care centres. An empirical analysis on cross-section micro-data from a region of northern Italy has been conducted by using an input-distance function with a translog specification. Estimates of the multi-output production technology and input-oriented technical inefficiency are obtained in a stochastic frontier model with a half-normally distributed one-sided error. Heteroscedasticity has been modelled to investigate the determinants of inefficiency and estimate their marginal e ects. We find that production exhibits increasing returns with an estimated elasticity of scale of 1.21. Separability between inputs and outputs is rejected at a 5% level of significance. The average estimate of technical inefficiency is 10% and public centres are more ine cient than private centres by 4.1 percentage points. The proportion of part-time children and the presence of mixed-age classrooms are significant determinants of inefficiency which equally a ect both public and private centres.
2016
Marzo
Brighi, L.; Silvestri, P.
Brighi, L. e P., Silvestri. "Inefficiency in Childcare Production. Evidence from Italian Microdata" Working paper, CAPPAPERS, Dipartimento di Economia Marco Biagi - Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, 2016.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11380/1300518
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