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Influence of Size and Administrative Organization on Costs of Rural Roads*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

Steven W. Lamb  and
Wilfred H. Pine
Steven W. Lamb
Affiliation:
Indiana State University
Wilfred H. Pine
Affiliation:
Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station
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Extract

Providing and maintaining roads are major public services. Costs of these services are influenced by many factors. This paper examines the influence of two factors, size of operation and type of administrative organization, on costs of rural roads.

An administrative unit providing roads for a small area, county, or township, with a given density of roads might experience higher costs per unit of area than an administrative unit providing road service for a larger area, all other conditions being the same. It likely would experience disadvantages in buying supplies and equipment, making full use of equipment, hiring competent help, and in other ways. However, the unit with a large area could run into diseconomies through high administrative and supervisional costs. Actually, it may not be that simple. This study tests the idea empirically.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , December 1974 , pp. 157 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 1974

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Footnotes

*

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Contribution No. 506.

References

[1]Heady, Earl O., et al, (eds.). Resource Productivity, Returns to Scale, and Farm Size. Iowa State Press, pp. 79–80, 1956.Google Scholar
[2]Lamb, Steven W. “The Determination of the Benefits of Economies of Scale as Applied to Rural Road Systems in Kansas.” Unpublished PhD. thesis, Kansas State University, 1970.Google Scholar
[3]Langvatn, Harry N. “An Approach to the Effect of Size and Combination of Enterprises on Farm Labor Consumption.” Journal of Farm Economics, Vol. 42, No. 1, p. 80, Feb. 1960.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4]Meyer, John R. and Kraft, Gerald. “The Evaluation of Statistics Costing Techniques as Applied in the Transportation Industry.” American Economic Review. Papers and proceedings of the 73rd annual meeting, p. 327, May 1961.Google Scholar
[5]Swanson, Earl R., “Rural Road Costs.” Proceedings of the 36th annual meeting of the Highway Research Board, 1957.Google Scholar