Returns to scale on nonparametric deterministic technologies: Simplifying goodness-of-fit methods using operations on technologies

The purpose of this short article is to simplify goodness-of-fit methods to obtain qualitative information about returns to scale for individual obser vations. Traditional and new goodness-of-fit methods developed for estimati ng returns to scale on nonparametric deterministic reference technologies a re reviewed. Using composition rules for technologies with specific returns to scale assumptions, we show how these goodness-of-fit methods can be sim plified in the case of convex technologies (Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models).