Reforms and infrastructure efficiency in Spain’s container ports (original) (raw)
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Documentos de Trabajo …, 2010
This paper tries to analyse the evolution of total factor productivity and its decomposition between 1986 and 2005 in the Spanish port authorities using a parametric distance function approach. Panel data for different outputs and inputs for the last 20 years have been constructed. During this period, the Spanish port authorities suffered three important regulatory changes. The results show that technical progress and scale efficiency gains contributed to improve total factor productivity whereas pure technical efficiency affected negatively. The change in the model of port management from a service port model to a landlord port model, the adoption of certain technologies and the possible existence of overcapacity caused by an increasing port competition, could explain these results.
Are larger and more complex port more productive? An analysis of Spanish port authorities
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2019
Several Spanish ports have grown substantially in recent decades. Ports in Spain are heterogeneous in that they differ substantially in terms of complexity, size and traffic mix. We measure the productivity of Spanish port authorities and identify the drivers of productivity taking into account this heterogeneity in order to provide more meaningful estimates of efficiency and productivity change. Using a sample of 26 ports observed over the period 1993-2016, we classify these ports into two different groups according to their overall size and their importance in terms of individual outputs. Segregating the sample into these two distinct groups permits us to draw a more precise picture of the consequences for productivity of the changes that have occurred in the sector in Spain over the last quarter of a century. Using Data Envelopment Analysis techniques, we calculate and decompose Malmquist productivity indexes using a metafrontier analysis. We use these indexes to estimate an Arellano-Bond Generalised Method Moments model to explain the differences in productivity change. Our results show that the group of large and complex port authorities had a considerable technological advantage, being closer to the metafrontier on average than the other group. Relative size, which can be interpreted as a measure of complexity of the port authority, has a strong positive influence on productivity growth. Specialisation in solids, container cargo and general bulk also increased productivity growth, but specialisation in liquids has no effect.
2019
In peripheral port markets, a limited volume of traffic creates challenges in sustaining multiple competing Port Authorities (PAs). With a limited size, smaller ports have difficulty in attracting the necessary traffic flows to leverage capital for development. In many European jurisdictions, recent policy reform has sought to concentrate resources in dominant ports or amalgamate smaller PAs to increase competitiveness and rationalize investments. This paper formally examines the link between port size and achievable efficiencies through an efficiency analysis of Irish and Atlantic Spanish ports. To achieve this, the paper applies a two-step double bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach to examine the effect of relative size on technical efficiency across the two port systems in the period 2000-2015. The results indicate a positive relationship between size and technical efficiency amongst ports in peripheral regions. As the time-period covers the financial crisis, it is...
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2020
Specialisation is a common strategy followed by ports to face the challenges of globalisation, changes in the naval industry and maritime operations. The main objective of this research is to determine if specialisation and size of ports have an impact on port efficiency. We estimate the efficiency of 27 Spanish ports during the 2001-2011 period using a parametric distance function approach. Our results show that larger and more specialised ports are more highly efficient. From an economics policy perspective, the recommendation would be to encourage the specialisation of ports where possible, and collaboration between ports with different specialisations, as well as those of smaller sizes. This would allow the development of strategic planning that favours coordination between ports, the joint development of infrastructure, and the avoidance of service duplication. This study is a pioneer in estimating the efficiency of the cargo handling service of the Spanish port system including port dockers to measure the labour input, as well as specialisation and size indicators to assess their relevance as drivers of port efficiency.
Eficiency of Infrastructure: The Case of Container Ports
2008
This paper gauges efficiency in container ports. Using non-parametric methods, we estimate efficiency frontiers based on information from 86 ports across the world. Three attractive features of the method are: 1) it is based on an aggregated measure of efficiency despite the existence of multiple inputs; 2) it does not assume particular input-output functional relationships; and 3) it does not rely on a-priori peer selection to construct the benchmark. Results show that the most ine_cient ports use inputs in excess of 20 to 40 percent. Since infrastructure costs represent about 40 percent of total maritime transport costs, these could be reduced by 12 percent by moving from the inefficient extreme of the distribution to the efficiency one.
Sources of efficiency gains in port reform: a DEA decomposition of a Malmquist TFP index for Mexico
Utilities Policy, 2004
In Mexico, the port system was managed centrally by public firms until the 1993 reforms which involved mainly a liberalization and decentralization of the system into regional port authorities. The main motivation for the reforms was to improve the competitiveness of the Mexican port systems and efficiency gains were expected to be a major contributor. This paper measures the efficiency changes achieved and their main sources. To do so, we estimate and decompose productivity changes in the 11 main ports for the 1996-1999 period with a Malmquist Index. We differentiate between the catching-up effect and the frontier shift effect and unbundle the catchingup effect into pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency effects. We conclude by drawing the main policy lessons of this experience.
The European Port Industry: An Analysis of its Economic Efficiency
Maritime Economics & Logistics, 2007
Because of their critical strategic role, ports have all traditionally been subject to some form of government control even if the legal form and the intensity of this control have varied across countries. The member countries of the European Union have not been different from the rest of the world in this respect. A significant difference however is the recurrent effort to integrate, in a coordinated way, the port sector in a transeuropean transport network (TEN-T) through the adoption of a common legal framework. In this context, if the objective of the reforms is to ensure that port networks, integrated in combined transport networks, become competitors of the road network, the concept of port efficiency becomes central. This paper provides an overview of the evolution of the European Port Legislation and shows how comparative economic measures can be used to highlight the scope for port efficiency improvements, essential to allow short sea shipping transport to compete with road transport in Europe. To our knowledge, this paper is also the first effort of estimating technical efficiency of European Port Authorities. The average port efficiency in 2002 was estimated to be around 60%, denoting that ports could have handled 40% more traffic with the same resources.