IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v41y2009i22p2827-2851.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The determinants of efficiency and productivity in European railways

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Couto
  • Daniel Graham

Abstract

This article evaluates the economic performance of European railways over the period 1972 to 1999. The cost structure of the railway industry is analysed using a stochastic frontier approach estimated within the framework of a translog cost system. The results confirm that European railways experience significant cost increases due to inefficient behaviour. In contrast to previous studies, however, the estimates indicate a much greater role for allocative rather than technical inefficiency. Overall, inefficiencies can essentially be explained by the supply of excess capacity and by the over-employment of labour inputs. Regarding productivity, it appears to be technological progress, and not levels of efficiency or scale economies, that provide the most convincing explanation for variance in growth rates within the sample.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Couto & Daniel Graham, 2009. "The determinants of efficiency and productivity in European railways," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(22), pages 2827-2851.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:41:y:2009:i:22:p:2827-2851
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840801949782
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036840801949782
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036840801949782?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ugo Arrigo & Giacomo Foggia, 2013. "Schemes And Levels Of State Aid To Rail Industry In Europe: Evidences From A Cross-Country Comparison," European Journal of Business and Economics, Central Bohemia University, vol. 8(3), pages 4101:8-4101, October.
    2. Albalate, Daniel & Rosell, Jordi, 2019. "On the efficiency of toll motorway companies in Spain," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    3. Holvad, Torben, 2020. "Efficiency analyses for the railway sector: An overview of key issues," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Pittman Russell, 2015. "Railways Restructuring and Ukrainian Economic Reform," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 87-107, June.
    5. Santosh Kumar Sahu, 2014. "Energy Use Patterns and Firm Performance: Evidence from Indian Industries," Working Papers 2014-092, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    6. Arrigo, Ugo & Di Foggia, Giacomo, 2013. "Assessing the railways subsidy in selected European countries: insights from the Italian case," MPRA Paper 67830, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Christian Desmaris & Guillaume Monchambert, 2021. "Regional Passenger Rail Efficiency: Measurement and Explanation in the case of France," Post-Print halshs-03118747, HAL.
    8. Lourens Broersma & Arjen Edzes & Jouke van Dijk, 2011. "Have Dutch Municipalities Become More Efficient in Managing the Costs of Social Assistance Dependency? (refereed paper)," ERSA conference papers ersa10p177, European Regional Science Association.
    9. Santosh Kumar, Sahu & K., Narayanan, 2011. "Energy Intensity and Firm Performance: Do Energy Clusters Matter?," MPRA Paper 43457, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Kwon, He-Boong, 2017. "Exploring the predictive potential of artificial neural networks in conjunction with DEA in railroad performance modeling," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(PA), pages 159-170.
    11. Daniel Albalate & Jordi Rosell, 2016. "Persistent and transient efficiency on the stochastic production and cost frontiers – an application to the motorway sector," Working Papers XREAP2016-04, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Oct 2016.
    12. Pittman, Russell, 2011. "Risk-averse restructuring of freight railways in China," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 152-160.
    13. Pittman, Russell, 2016. "Reforming and Restructuring Ukrzaliznytsia: A Crucial Task for Ukrainian Reformers," MPRA Paper 76028, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Christian Desmaris & Guillaume Monchambert, 2021. "Regional Passenger Rail Efficiency: Measurement and Explanation in the case of France," Working Papers halshs-03118747, HAL.
    15. Cui, Shana & Pittman, Russell & Zhao, Jian, 2018. "Restructuring the Chinese Freight Railway: Two Scenarios," MPRA Paper 88407, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:41:y:2009:i:22:p:2827-2851. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.