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Q2 Z2,(Q2) Z2(Q2) - Institute for Water Resources - U.S. Army

Q2 Z2,(Q2) Z2(Q2) - Institute for Water Resources - U.S. Army

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co=odities. This may represent only part of the work per<strong>for</strong>mcd <strong>for</strong><br />

the customer, excluding such services as storage, special handling,<br />

and fascr delivery. If the numbersof these services are expanded as<br />

the firm grows, its cost (but also. its revenue) per EBM will increase.<br />

Thus, neither the single firm nor the cross section results can be<br />

used to draw unambiguous conclusions about returns to scale <strong>for</strong> barge<br />

firms. '<br />

B. Technological Change<br />

The several parts of this study contain various measures of<br />

capital embodied and neutral technological change (labor embodied<br />

technological change was not examined). The results are remarkable<br />

<strong>for</strong> their consistency.<br />

Two measures of capital embodied technological change <strong>for</strong> tow-<br />

boats were examined in the towboat production and cost functions:<br />

towboat age and Kort nozzles. The results <strong>for</strong> towboat age indicate<br />

that there have been no significant changes in towboat design <strong>for</strong> the<br />

range of ages in thcsample (about 25 years). This indication has<br />

been confirmed by naval architects.<br />

However, it is possible that Minor changes have occurred that<br />

would not Show up in our data. For example, newer towboats are gen-<br />

erally equiped'with sophisticated navigation and communication equip-<br />

ment as they are built. Such equipment should tend to raise the pro-<br />

ductivity of the towboat. The improvements, however, are easily<br />

installed on older boats. In fact, almost all the boats in the sample<br />

were so equiped by the beginning of our sample period. Thus, our<br />

analysis is not capable of picking up these effects.<br />

144

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