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Mr Kostas Bakoulas

Kostas Bakoulas

Research Assistant

Operations & Information Management Group

Qualifications:

  • Ph.D in Operational Research, Aston Business School (currently pursuing)

  • M.Sc in Management Science and Operational Research, Warwick Business School

  • Master Thesis title: “Modeling Electricity Prices: the case of the Australian Market”

  • B.Sc in Operational Research, Athens University of Economics and Business

Background:

Kostas is a Research Assistant at Aston Business School Business School. He joined the School in October 2005 from Warwick Business School. He holds a BSc (First Class Honours) in Operational Research (Athens University of Economics and Business), MSc (Distinction) in Management Science and Operational Research (Warwick Business School) and he is currently pursuing a PhD in Operational Research under the supervision of Prof.Emmanuel Thanassoulis. His main research interests are economies of scope using data envelopment analysis and productivity change over time.

Thesis Title

Economies of Scope using Data Envelopment Analysis.

Research Description

My research is based on a DEA approach on identifying the existence of technical economies of scope.  Economies of scope in the traditional sense exist when it is cheaper to produce an output bundle by a single firm rather than by firms each one specialising in the production of one of those products.  The concept of economies of scope, as described by Panzar and Willing (1981) refers to a basic and intuitive property of production: cost savings which result from the scope (rather than the scale) of the firm's production.  Loosely described, economies of scope exist when combining two or more product lines in one firm is less costly than producing them separately.

We introduce the notion of technical economies of scope, which exist in the case where lower inputs are needed to produce an output bundle by a single diversified firm rather than to produce each individual output by separate specialized firms.  The question that should be posed here is what would the reasons be for excluding cost considerations from a scope economies assessment?  There are two cases, among others, which illustrate that cost is sometimes a trammel of such analysis.  There are cases that prices are not available and yet there may be issues of economies of scope.  Within the health industry context, it may be more effective clinically to deliver services in speciality units or in general hospitals as distinct from cost considerations.  Secondly even where prices exist, the mix of inputs used may be externally determined and so we may want to assess technical rather than cost efficiency.

The research reviews previous approaches to this issue in the DEA framework and develops a new approach to identifying and measuring technical economies or diseconomies of scope.  A simulated data set is used to enable the illustration of the suggested methodology.

Research Interests

Economies of scope using data envelopment analysis
Productivity change over time and efficiency measurement
Public sector efficiency

Research projects

The assessment of productivity change over time in central administrative services in UK Higher Education Institutions, with Prof. Emmanuel Thanassoulis; funded by Higher Education Funding Council of England

Research Network

Andrew L. Johnson
Ioannis Kosmidis
Battista Severgnini