Scale, mergers and efficiency: the case of Dutch housing corporations

The efficiency of social housing providers is a contentious issue. In the Netherlands, there is a widespread belief that housing corporations have substantial potential for efficiency improvements. A related question is whether scale influences efficiency, since recent decades have shown a trend of mergers among corporations. This paper offers a framework to assess the effects of scale and mergers on the efficiency of Dutch housing corporations by using both a data envelopment analysis and a stochastic frontier analysis, using panel data for 2001–2012. The results indicate that most housing co... Mehr ...