Climate Zone Crucial for Efficiency of Ski Lift Operators

This paper investigates the efficiency of ski lift companies across different climate zones in a group of countries based on establishment data. By a joint estimation of the stochastic frontier production and efficiency equations, the results indicate that ski areas in subarctic climate zones are fa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Falk, Martin, Hagsten, Eva
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/77517/
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/77517/1/MPRA_paper_77517.pdf
Description
Summary:This paper investigates the efficiency of ski lift companies across different climate zones in a group of countries based on establishment data. By a joint estimation of the stochastic frontier production and efficiency equations, the results indicate that ski areas in subarctic climate zones are far more efficient than their counterparts in warmer zones. Presence of a large local market and elevation of the ski area are factors not relevant for efficiency. Output of ski lift operators (companies) increases with the length of ski runs, number of ski lifts, share of slopes covered by snowmaking facilities and availability of fast lifts. Productivity is also significantly higher for ski lift companies owned by a large conglomerate.