X-Efficiency: Theory, Evidence and Applications

Traditional microeconomic theory is concerned with the allocation of scarce resources through the mechanism of prices and markets. The efficient allocation of resources by prices and markets is called allocative efficiency. In emphasizing the allocative function of prices and markets, microeconomic theory has ignored the allocation of resources within firms, and instead assumes that firms are always internally (X) efficient, cost minimizers. X-efficiency theory shows that protection from co...