ON THE RELATIVE EFFICIENCY OF ALTERNATIVE MODES OF PRODUCING A PUBLIC-SECTOR OUTPUT - THE CASE OF THE DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED

This paper examines the relative efficiency of alternative methods of producing care for the developmentally disabled. A linear programming framework is used to construct a production frontier which allows meas urement of relative efficiency among institutions in the sample. Tests are performed to detect influential observations in the data which mi ght result from measurement error which could distort the efficiency m easures. Different types of institutions are compared in terms of aver age efficiency. Policy implications of the analysis are discussed in t he concluding section.