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This study aims to verify how the product-relevant market for wines should be defined. To do so, the authors apply an empirical methodology to determine the levels of substitution among wine-categories, identifying each relevant market in Argentina.

The authors perform an econometric analysis applying the nested logit methodology that will enable us to estimate cross elasticities in wine segments in the Argentine market. The database contains 1,367 brands and a maximum of 395 firms offering products of different segments. If cross elasticities between wine segments are positive and significantly different to zero, the products belong to the same relevant market. In the methodological section, the authors discuss the pros and cons of this approach and its alternatives, while in the empirical analysis, they perform several robustness controls.

The proposed method and results provide an alternative to exogenously defining where each product category begins and ends. The results show that the relevant market for wines should be segmented by categories as the substitution between each one is very low.

In this empirical work, the study analyzes whether each segment constitutes a relevant, independent market. In Argentina, the practice of competition policy does not recognize substitution between different categories of wine; thus, each category constitutes a relevant market by itself, while according to the international practice, the relevant market includes all wine categories. The results suggest exploring the existence of different relevant markets of wine.

Under the label “wine,” different types or qualities can act as substitutes among them in different possible relevant markets. A more precise definition of relevant markets permits informed decisions facing proposed mergers or anticompetitive practices.

This study provides a mechanism to determine the levels of substitution among wine categories (i.e. to find the boundaries of each relevant market). Wine is a differentiated product and, as such, offers different qualities (categories) for consumers. The consideration of those differences in winery mergers has consequences on social welfare.

According to the international practice in competition policy, the relevant market includes all wine categories. This study provides an alternative to defining exogenously where each category of product begins and ends and does not assume a priori the direction or intensity of substitution among products.

The purpose of this paper is to build performance indicators to assess efficiency for First Instance Federal Courts in Argentina and study the determinants of efficiency in Criminal Instruction Courts.

The efficiency scores were determined using data envelopment analysis with a database for the period 2006–2010. Then, a search of the efficiency determinants in the Criminal Instruction Courts was performed. Four output-oriented models were developed based on various explanatory and environmental variables.

Workload is an environmental variable that significantly increased the average levels of efficiency. When analyzing explanatory factors of the efficiency levels of the Criminal Instruction Courts, surrogate judges and temporary staff are more efficient on average than tenured judges and staff.

The method chosen permits flexibility in the analysis. Future research would be interesting to develop the underlying economic model using econometric methods.

This paper’s contribution is twofold: first, to estimate the relative efficiency for all First Instance Federal Courts in every jurisdiction; and second, to explain the differences in efficiency in the Criminal Instruction Courts.

This study has the potential to greatly impact the discussion of how to structure judicial procedures (from the benchmarking between different branches of Federal justice) and in the design of incentives in a judicial career (e.g. tenured vs temporary judges and clerical employees, the role of seniority of judges and clerical employees and the impact of gender in performance).

To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first scholarly article to measure efficiency in Argentine justice system using mathematical programming and econometric methods. It has academic interest since it advances on the comprehension of the underlying production function of justice service provision. The paper also has social and practical implications since it permits contributing to the institutional design and opens the discussion for further sequels with other methods and complementary purposes.