Economies of Scale

The entry into force of the World Trade Organization (WTO) TRIPS Agreement in 1995 transformed the international intellectual property system. The harmonization of basic intellectual property standards has operated to protect investment in innovation, limiting risks from unjustified ‘free riding’. Yet these same harmonized IP standards sharply curtailed the traditional capacity of suppliers of public goods, such as health care and nutrition, to address priority needs of less affluent members of society, particularly in (but not limited to) developing countries. In the Doha Declaration, the Waiver Decision of 30 August 2003 and the Article 31bis Protocol of Amendment, stakeholders concerned with re-opening policy space for the supply of newer pharmaceutical products pushed back against restrictive elements of the TRIPS Agreement.Governments around the world are in the process of deciding whether to ratify and accept the Article 31bis Amendment. Based on their Study for the Internatio...

Nigeria is endowed with abundant energy resources, both conventional and renewable, whichprovide her with immense capacity to develop an effective national energy plan. However, introduction of renewable energyresources into the nation's energy mix have implications on itsenergy budget. The national energy supply system has been projected intothe future using MARKAL, a large scale linear optimization model.However, this model may not be absolutely representative of the highlynon-linear future of renewable energy. Results of the model reveal that under onlya least cost constraint, only large hydro power technology is the prominentcommercial renewable energy technology in the electricity supply mix of thecountry. Despite the immense solar energy potentials available, solar electricity generation is attractive only under severeCO2 emissions mitigation of the nation's energy supply system. Similarly, the penetration of small-scale hydro power technology in theelectricity supply mix is favoured only under CO2 emissionsconstraints. Due to economy of scale, large hydropower technology takes the lion share of all the commercial renewableenergy resources share for electricity generation under any CO2emissions constraint. These analyses reveal that some barriers exist to thedevelopment and penetration of renewable energy resources electricity production in Nigeria's energy supplysystem. Barriers and possible strategies to overcome them arediscussed. Intensive efforts and realistic approachtowards energy supply system in the country will have to be adopted inorder to adequately exploit renewable energy resources and technologiesfor economic growth and development.

Presented at the 6th A1AA/USAF/NASA/1SSMO Symposium on Multidisciplinarx Analysis and Optimization September 4-6, 1996 in Bellevue, WA Published by AIAA, Inc., Vol. 2 of 2, pp. 1535-1545 CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF A FAMILY OF PRODUCTS THROUGH THE USE ...

In the 1990s the Dutch government stimulated small categorical schools, offering only one level of education, to merge to form larger high schools, offering all high school levels. We use longitudinal data from the ministry of education and the bureau of statistics to investigate economies of size and the effects of size on students’ performance in Dutch high schools. We establish optimal levels of size for different types of high schools. For higher levels of education the effect of size is unclear. We observe smaller categorical high schools in the highest level of education to perform better than their merged counterparts. For lower levels of education we find size to have a negative effect on the performance of students.

In this article, the influence of vertical integration on cost behavior in poultry farming in southwestern Nigeria is examined. The study was based on primary data obtained in cross-section survey of 211 randomly selected poultry farms in the study area. An average farmer in the sample was 44 years old; 85% were males and 72% had tertiary education. An average poultry farm in the sample had 4,342 birds, about half of which were laying birds. A set of cost and revenue share equations estimated by Zellner's seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) method revealed that vertical integration (measured in proxy by value-added sales ratio) is feed and veterinary service using, labor saving, and output augmenting. However, the scale effect of vertical integration was found to be higher in layers production than what obtains in broilers and cock/cockerel productions. [EconLit citations: Q120, D240, R340]. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The study attempted to analyse the long-term effects of the FTA on India. It is argued that after full trade liberalization, India’s allocative efficiency will increase, but the terms of trade effect will worsen continuously and remain negative. India will be able to arrest the worsening in terms of trade once the gain in allocative efficiency is used to improve productivity in the export-oriented sectors as well as achieve economies of scale.

Historically, most analyses of electric utility cost structures have focused almost exclusively on the generation sector of the industry. Electric restructuring raises a number of new questions which require analysis of electric utility operations in other sectors of the industry. Most restructuring proposals call for continued regulation of the transmission sector of the industry based upon the presumption that it

Today's manufacturers increasingly face demands on customized products to meet the challenges of global competition and customer satisfaction. As a result, many manufacturers have adapted their business models to mass customization, which enables customers to order customized products tailored to their specific needs. This new model combines mass production's economies of scale with custom manufacturing's flexibility. In order to successfully

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Paper is about how railway freight can best be organized to contribute to economic development. Nearly all the freight that railways carry, could be carried by one or more other modes of transport. But railways have a particular role to ...

An international survey of outsourcing contrasts current practice between US and European companies. US companies are identified as pursuing more value adding sourcing strategies while European companies are more focused on gaining economies of scale through ...

Achieving a successful transition to hydrogen-powered vehicles in the US automotive market will require strong and sustained commitment by hydrogen producers, vehicle manufacturers, transporters and retailers, consumers, and governments. The interaction ...

This paper discusses an approach to solve the joint replenishment problem in a production environment with variable production cost. These variable production costs occur due to economies of scale in production. Under this environment, the model leads to a global optimization problem, which is investigated by using some standard results from convex analysis. Consequently, an effective and exact solution procedure is proposed. The proposed procedure is guaranteed to return a solution with a predetermined quality in terms of the objective function value. A computational study is provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed solution procedure with respect to the running time.

Seaports provide multiple services to ships, cargo, and passengers. These services can be performed by a combination of public and private initiatives. Usually, the role of public sector institutions is to regulate and supervise private firms. In performing that task public sector institutions require in-depth knowledge of firms� cost structure. This paper offers a review of the literature about ports�

... To the extent the REIS market rents and IREM market expenses represent the benchmark, then differences in an individual REIT portfolio relative to the benchmark arise through management decisions. ... Same Store New Store Total New Store** Total Efficiency Gains ...

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