Goal programming, regulation and generalised economies of scale and scope

In this paper a new class of goal programming models are employed to define economies of scale and scope first with reference to distribution models and then with reference to more general linear and nonlinear goal programming models. Applications to interregional production, regulation and exchange are provided and in every case these models yield "competitive" results as special cases. But in their general form the models and associated results correspond to appropriately regulated market conditions with regulation being determined inter alia by means of appropriate supply and/or demand goal oriented taxes and subsidies. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.