IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/ndtr07/207931.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Marginal Cost Estimations In Airports. Multiproductive Cost Functions And Stochastic Frontiers: An International Airports Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Martin, Juan Carlos
  • Voltes-Dorta, Augusto

Abstract

Regarding some regulation fields, such as optimal investments and pricing policies, marginal cost estimations for infrastructure intensive transport services is always a challenging effort in order to provide some basis for important areas of economic regulation. The lack of comparable data among airports is one of the causes which could explain the relative scarcity of this literature in the previous studies. In this paper, we estimate different specifications and methods, using mono and multi product translog specifications and a technical efficiency stochastic frontier. We also estimate long and short run cost functions, using a pooled database of financial data on 41 airports across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia for the period 1991-2005. We find significant economies of scale using Work Load Units (WLU) and Air Traffic Movements (ATM) as output measures. Additionally, we provide individual long and short run marginal costs estimates for each output measure, and for every airport under study. The variability of our marginal cost estimations lead us to further deviate from the assumption of neoclassical theory, and to study the existence of some important levels of inefficiency regarding airports performance. For this reason, we consider the stochastic frontier analysis which partially solves this matter.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin, Juan Carlos & Voltes-Dorta, Augusto, 2007. "Marginal Cost Estimations In Airports. Multiproductive Cost Functions And Stochastic Frontiers: An International Airports Case Study," 48th Annual Transportation Research Forum, Boston, Massachusetts, March 15-17, 2007 207931, Transportation Research Forum.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ndtr07:207931
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.207931
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/207931/files/2007_8A_AirCaseStudy_paper.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.207931?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heike Link & Wolfgang Götze & Veli Himanen, 2006. "Estimating the marginal costs of airport operation by using multivariate time series model with correlated error terms," Working Papers 11, Institute of Transport Economics, University of Muenster.
    2. McFadden, Daniel, 1978. "Cost, Revenue, and Profit Functions," Histoy of Economic Thought Chapters, in: Fuss, Melvyn & McFadden, Daniel (ed.),Production Economics: A Dual Approach to Theory and Applications, volume 1, chapter 1, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought.
    3. Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Tsionas, Efthymios G., 2005. "Measuring technical and allocative inefficiency in the translog cost system: a Bayesian approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 355-384, June.
    4. Christensen, Laurits R & Jorgenson, Dale W & Lau, Lawrence J, 1973. "Transcendental Logarithmic Production Frontiers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 55(1), pages 28-45, February.
    5. Fuss, Melvyn & McFadden, Daniel, 1978. "Production Economics: A Dual Approach to Theory and Applications (II): Applications of the Theory of Production," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, volume 2, number fuss1978a.
    6. Douglas W. Caves & Laurits R. Christensen & Joseph A. Swanson, 1981. "Economic Performance in Regulated and Unregulated Environments: A Comparison of U. S. and Canadian Railroads," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 96(4), pages 559-581.
    7. Fuss, Melvyn & McFadden, Daniel (ed.), 1978. "Production Economics: A Dual Approach to Theory and Applications," Elsevier Monographs, Elsevier, edition 1, number 9780444850133.
    8. Diewert, W E, 1971. "An Application of the Shephard Duality Theorem: A Generalized Leontief Production Function," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(3), pages 481-507, May-June.
    9. Link, Heike & Nilsson, Jan-Eric, 2005. "Infrastructure," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 49-83, January.
    10. Pels, Eric & Nijkamp, Peter & Rietveld, Piet, 2003. "Inefficiencies and scale economies of European airport operations," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 341-361, September.
    11. Laurits R. Christensen & Dale W. Jorgenson, 1969. "The Measurement Of U.S. Real Capital Input, 1929–1967," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 15(4), pages 293-320, December.
    12. Jondrow, James & Knox Lovell, C. A. & Materov, Ivan S. & Schmidt, Peter, 1982. "On the estimation of technical inefficiency in the stochastic frontier production function model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 233-238, August.
    13. Kumbhakar, Subal C, 1991. "The Measurement and Decomposition of Cost-Inefficiency: The Translog Cost System," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 667-683, October.
    14. Fuss, Melvyn & McFadden, Daniel, 1978. "Production Economics: A Dual Approach to Theory and Applications (I): The Theory of Production," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, volume 1, number fuss1978.
    15. Stevenson, Rodney, 1980. "Measuring Technological Bias," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(1), pages 162-173, March.
    16. Daniel McFadden, 1963. "Constant Elasticity of Substitution Production Functions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 30(2), pages 73-83.
    17. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Tretheway, Michael W, 1980. "Flexible Cost Functions for Multiproduct Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(3), pages 477-481, August.
    18. Richard H. Spady & Ann F. Friedlaender, 1978. "Hedonic Cost Functions for the Regulated Trucking Industry," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(1), pages 159-179, Spring.
    19. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    20. Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Wang, Hung-Jen, 2006. "Pitfalls in the estimation of a cost function that ignores allocative inefficiency: A Monte Carlo analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 134(2), pages 317-340, October.
    21. Kumbhakar, Subal C., 1997. "Modeling allocative inefficiency in a translog cost function and cost share equations: An exact relationship," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1-2), pages 351-356.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Daglish, Toby & Robertson, Oliver & Tripe, David & Weill, Laurent, 2015. "Translog Cost Function Estimation: Banking Efficiency," Working Paper Series 4180, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    2. Daglish, Toby & Robertson, Oliver & Tripe, David & Weill, Laurent, 2015. "Translog Cost Function Estimation: Banking Efficiency," Working Paper Series 19256, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    3. repec:vuw:vuwscr:19256 is not listed on IDEAS

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martín, Juan Carlos & Voltes-Dorta, Augusto, 2011. "The econometric estimation of airports' cost function," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 112-127, January.
    2. Luis R. Murillo‐Zamorano, 2004. "Economic Efficiency and Frontier Techniques," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 33-77, February.
    3. Levent Kutlu & Shasha Liu & Robin C. Sickles, 2022. "Cost, Revenue, and Profit Function Estimates," Springer Books, in: Subhash C. Ray & Robert G. Chambers & Subal C. Kumbhakar (ed.), Handbook of Production Economics, chapter 16, pages 641-679, Springer.
    4. Martín, Juan Carlos & Rodríguez-Déniz, Héctor & Voltes-Dorta, Augusto, 2013. "Determinants of airport cost flexibility in a context of economic recession," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 70-84.
    5. Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Wang, Hung-Jen, 2006. "Estimation of technical and allocative inefficiency: A primal system approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 134(2), pages 419-440, October.
    6. Voltes-Dorta, Augusto & Pagliari, Romano, 2012. "The impact of recession on airports' cost efficiency," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 211-222.
    7. Roberto MOSHEIM, 2008. "Efficiency And Survival: The Impact Of The International Coffee Agreement'S Demise On Costa Rica'S Cooperative Coffee Processing, 1988–2005," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 79(1), pages 79-106, March.
    8. Taining Wang & Jinjing Tian & Feng Yao, 2021. "Does high debt ratio influence Chinese firms’ performance? A semiparametric stochastic frontier approach with zero inefficiency," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 587-636, August.
    9. Sébastien Marchand, 2011. "Technical Efficiency, Farm Size and Tropical Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazonian Forest," CERDI Working papers halshs-00552981, HAL.
    10. Michaelides, Panayotis G. & Vouldis, Angelos T. & Tsionas, Efthymios G., 2010. "Globally flexible functional forms: The neural distance function," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 206(2), pages 456-469, October.
    11. Tung Liu, 2020. "Measuring Technical, Allocative inefficiency, and Cost Inefficiency by Applying Duality Theory," Working Papers 202001, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2020.
    12. Crompton, Paul & Lesourd, Jean-Baptiste, 2008. "Economies of scale in global iron-making," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 74-82, June.
    13. Dairo Estrada & Poldy Osorio, 2004. "Effects of Financial Capital on Colombian Banking Efficiency," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 22(47), pages 162-201, December.
    14. Ilko Vranki? & Mira Krpan & Jasminka ?ohinger, 2019. "Economic Analysis of Technology and Properties of Legendre-Fenchel Transformations," International Journal of Economic Sciences, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences, vol. 8(2), pages 159-183, December.
    15. McDonald, John & Snooks, G. D., 1986. "Domesday Economy: A New Approach to Anglo-Norman History," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198285243.
    16. Peters, Cornelius, 2015. "Do age complementarities affect labour productivity? Evidence from German firm level data," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112941, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Debertin, David L., 2012. "Agricultural Production Economics, Second Edition," Monographs: Applied Economics, AgEcon Search, number 158319, July.
    18. Moschini, GianCarlo, 2001. "Production risk and the estimation of ex-ante cost functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 357-380, February.
    19. Buyle, Sven & Dewulf, Wouter & Kupfer, Franziska & Onghena, Evy & Meersman, Hilde & Van de Voorde, Eddy, 2020. "Does ANSP size and scope matter in the European ANS market? A multi-product stochastic frontier approach," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Ferenc Kiss & Bernard Lefebvre, 1987. "Econometric models of telecommunications firms : a survey," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 38(2), pages 307-374.

    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:ags:ndtr07:207931. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.trforum.org/journal/ .

    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.