TY - JOUR
T1 - Regulatory and environmental effects on public transit efficiency
T2 - A mixed DEA-SFA approach
AU - Margari, Beniamina Buzzo
AU - Erbetta, Fabrizio
AU - Petraglia, Carmelo
AU - Piacenza, Massimiliano
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We would like to thank an anonymous referee, Michael Crew (the Editor), Giovanni Fraquelli, Subal Kumbhakar, Knox Lovell, Claudio Piga, and Davide Vannoni for their helpful comments, and Andrew Martin Garvey for having patiently revised our paper. We are also grateful to the participants at the 4th International Industrial Organization Conference (IIOC), Northeastern University, Boston, April 7–9, 2006, the 3rd Hellenic Workshop on Efficiency and Productivity Measurement (HEWPEM), University of Patras, Greece, June 16–18, 2006, the 4th North American Productivity Workshop (NAPW), New York University, Stern School of Business, New York, June 27–30, 2006, and a seminar held at University of Piemonte Orientale, where the paper was presented. The financial support of HERMES and MIUR (PRIN 2004) is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies.
PY - 2007/10
Y1 - 2007/10
N2 - This paper assesses the impact of regulatory and environmental factors and statistical noise on the efficiency of public transit systems within a DEA-based framework. Using a panel of Italian companies, we implement a DEA-SFA mixed approach based on [H.O. Fried et al. (2002) Journal of Productivity Analysis, 17(1-2), 157-174] to decompose DEA inefficiency measures into three components: exogenous effects, managerial inefficiency and stochastic events. Besides providing evidence on the determinants of input-specific efficiency differentials across companies, the results point out that managerial skills play a minor role, and emphasize the relevance of regulatory policies aimed at replacing cost-plus subsidization with high-powered incentive contracts as well as improving environmental conditions of public transit networks.
AB - This paper assesses the impact of regulatory and environmental factors and statistical noise on the efficiency of public transit systems within a DEA-based framework. Using a panel of Italian companies, we implement a DEA-SFA mixed approach based on [H.O. Fried et al. (2002) Journal of Productivity Analysis, 17(1-2), 157-174] to decompose DEA inefficiency measures into three components: exogenous effects, managerial inefficiency and stochastic events. Besides providing evidence on the determinants of input-specific efficiency differentials across companies, the results point out that managerial skills play a minor role, and emphasize the relevance of regulatory policies aimed at replacing cost-plus subsidization with high-powered incentive contracts as well as improving environmental conditions of public transit networks.
KW - Environmental factors
KW - Frontier analysis (DEA, SFA)
KW - Managerial skills
KW - Public transit systemsm
KW - Regulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=36048979301&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11149-007-9025-0
DO - 10.1007/s11149-007-9025-0
M3 - Article
SN - 0922-680X
VL - 32
SP - 131
EP - 151
JO - Journal of Regulatory Economics
JF - Journal of Regulatory Economics
IS - 2
ER -