Title: Efficiency and Merger Gains in the Danish Forestry Extension Service
Abstract: Abstract In Denmark, many small-scale forest owners are affiliated to local district offices of The Danish Forestry Extension Service. In this article, the efficiency of the different offices is evaluated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Furthermore, recent theoretical developments in DEA are used to assess the gains from a number of potential mergers and to decompose these gains into those from technological improvements, harmony effects, and scale effects. The results show that inefficiency is widespread and may in some cases be improved through mergers due to potential harmony gains and scale returns. However, the dominant part of the inefficiency is technical, and this suggests that improved learning and sharing of know-how or key resources across offices may improve efficiency. For. Sci. 49(4):585–595.