Abstract
The literature on the software development industry (summarized in [2]) contains references to returns-to-scale as a factor in software development productivity. As noted in [2], most studies have typically related project size to labor productivity. A general finding is that software development tools and more specialized labor are usually employed on larger, in terms of project size, software projects. However, this observation does not necessarily imply increasing returns to a particular input, such as software development tools or more specialized labor. The confusion in the literature stems from the use of the term scale and the more general observation that large projects rarely have the same capital-labor mix as their smaller counterparts. In this paper returns-to-scale estimates are allowed to vary with both project capital-labor mix and project size.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Banker, R.D., Estimating Most Productive Scale Size Using Data Envelopment Analysis, European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 17 (1984), 35–44.
Banker, R.D. and C.F. Kemerer, Scale Economies in New Software Development, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 15, 1199–1205.
Boehm, Barry W. Software Engineering Economics. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1981.
Boyd, G., Factor Intensity and Site Geology as Determinants of Returns-to-Scale in Coal Mining, Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69 (1987), 18–23.
Defense Logistics Agency. DoD Automated Resources Management System (ARMS), Users Guide, April, 1985.
Byrnes, P., R. Färe, and S. Grosskopf, Measuring Productive Efficiency: An Application to Illinois Strip Mines, Management Science, Vol. 30 (1984), 671–681.
Färe, R., Fundamentals of Production Theory. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1988.
Färe, R., On Scaling Laws for Production Functions, Zeitschrift für Operations Research, Vol. 17 (1973), 195–205.
Ferguson, C.E., The Neoclassical Theory of Production and Distribution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
Levitan, K.B., J. Salasin, T.P. Frazier, and B.N. Angier, Final Report on the Status of Software obsolescence in the DoD, P-2126, Institute for Defense Analyses, 1988.
Lovell, C.A.K. and P. Schmidt, A Comparison of Alternative Approaches to the Measurement of Productive Efficiency, In A. Dogramaci and R. Färe, Editors, Applications of Modern Production Theory: Efficiency and Productivity. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988.
Shephard, R.W., Theory of Cost and Production Functions. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970.
Zellner, A., J. Kmenta, and J. Dreze, Specification and Estimation of Cobb-Douglas Production Function Models, Econometrica, Vol. 34 (1966), 784–795.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Byrnes, P.E., Frazier, T.P., Gulledge, T.R. (1993). Returns-to-Scale in Software Production: A Comparison of Approaches. In: Gulledge, T.R., Hutzler, W.P. (eds) Analytical Methods in Software Engineering Economics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77795-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77795-0_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-77797-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-77795-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive