OWNERSHIP AND EFFICIENCY IN NUCLEAR-POWER PRODUCTION

This paper uses Data Envelopment Analysis to examine the relative prod uctive efficiency of a sample of 78 publicly- and privately-owned nucl ear power plants operating the year 1989. The sample includes 13 UK nu clear power plants. Linear programs are used to calculate a variety of plant specific efficiency scores including measures which attempt to adjust for vintage effects. Non-parametric and Tobit/OLS analysis is e mployed to test the null hypothesis that ownership has no effect on pr oductive efficiency. The results tentatively suggest that the UK plant s could expect to reduce costs through significantly lower staffing le vels.