IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v42y2008i4p696-708.html

The effect of mergers on efficiency and productivity of public transport services

Author

Listed:
  • Odeck, James

Abstract

Merger is a process whereby two or more companies merge into one company to strengthen their market positions. Merger in the bus transport sector has been prevalent in Europe, and elsewhere, since the early 1990s. A question rarely addressed by researchers of transportation is the extent to which mergers lead to efficiency by which services are provided to the public. This is the substantive issue in this paper in which Norwegian data are used to assess the impact that mergers have on the performances of bus companies. The data cover the period 1995-2002; 1995-1998 are the pre-mergers years and the post-merger years are 1999-2002. The framework for the analyses is that of data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) to investigate the impacts of mergers on efficiency and productivity growth, respectively. It is found that: (1) there is great potential for efficiency and productivity improvements in the bus industry; (2) mergers outperformed non-mergers as far as scale efficiency was concerned; and (3) the merger process led to productivity improvements in the post-merger periods for the reasons that merged companies utilized their scale economies to improve efficiencies while the non-mergers significantly became more technically innovative in order to be competitive. These results are an asset to the less-explored field of the impact of mergers in transportation.

Suggested Citation

  • Odeck, James, 2008. "The effect of mergers on efficiency and productivity of public transport services," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 696-708, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:42:y:2008:i:4:p:696-708
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965-8564(08)00020-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bjurek, Hans & Hjalmarsson, Lennart, 1995. "Productivity in multiple output public service: A quadratic frontier function and Malmquist index approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 447-460, March.
    2. Odeck, James, 2006. "Congestion, ownership, region of operation, and scale: Their impact on bus operator performance in Norway," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 52-69, March.
    3. Bekken, Jon-Terje & Longva, Frode & Fearnley, Nils & Osland, Oddgeir, 2006. "Norwegian experiences with tendered buss services," European Transport \ Trasporti Europei, ISTIEE, Institute for the Study of Transport within the European Economic Integration, issue 33, pages 29-40.
    4. Dag Dalen & Andres Gómez-Lobo, 2003. "Yardsticks on the road: Regulatory contracts and cost efficiency in the Norwegian bus industry," Transportation, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 371-386, November.
    5. Coelli, Tim J., 1995. "Recent Developments In Frontier Modelling And Efficiency Measurement," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 39(3), pages 1-27, December.
    6. Pacheco, R. R. & Fernandes, E., 2003. "Managerial efficiency of Brazilian airports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 667-680, October.
    7. Juan, Zhichai & Wu, Jianping & McDonald, Mike, 2003. "The socio-economic impacts assessment of advanced convoy driving on motorway," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 731-747, November.
    8. C. Lovell, 2003. "The Decomposition of Malmquist Productivity Indexes," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 437-458, November.
    9. Karlaftis, Matthew G., 2003. "Investigating transit production and performance: a programming approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 225-240, March.
    10. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    11. Kerstens, K., 1996. "Technical efficiency measurement and explanation of French urban transit companies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 431-452, November.
    12. James Odeck & Abdulrahim Alkadi, 2001. "Evaluating efficiency in the Norwegian bus industry using data envelopment analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 211-232, August.
    13. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    14. Jonathan Cowie & Darinka Asenova, 1999. "Organisation form, scale effects and efficiency in the British bus industry," Transportation, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 231-248, August.
    15. Jonathan Cowie, 2002. "Acquisition, efficiency and scale economies: An analysis of the British bus industry," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 147-157, January.
    16. Cullinane, Kevin & Wang, Teng-Fei & Song, Dong-Wook & Ji, Ping, 2006. "The technical efficiency of container ports: Comparing data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 354-374, May.
    17. Patrick L. Brockett & Boaz Golany, 1996. "Using Rank Statistics for Determining Programmatic Efficiency Differences in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(3), pages 466-472, March.
    18. Odeck, James, 2000. "Assessing the relative efficiency and productivity growth of vehicle inspection services: An application of DEA and Malmquist indices," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 501-514, November.
    19. Viton, Philip A., 1997. "Technical efficiency in multi-mode bus transit: A production frontier analysis," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 23-39, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items 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. Odeck, James, 2008. "How efficient and productive are road toll companies?: Evidence from Norway," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 232-241, July.
    2. Cullinane, Kevin & Wang, Teng-Fei & Song, Dong-Wook & Ji, Ping, 2006. "The technical efficiency of container ports: Comparing data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 354-374, May.
    3. Cinzia Daraio & Marco Diana & Flavia Di Costa & Claudio Leporelli & Giorgio Matteucci & Alberto Nastasi, 2014. "Efficiency and effectiveness in the urban public transport sector: a critical review with directions for future research," DIAG Technical Reports 2014-14, Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza".
    4. Zhang, Chunqin & Xiao, Guangnian & Liu, Yong & Yu, Feng, 2018. "The relationship between organizational forms and the comprehensive effectiveness for public transport services in China?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 783-802.
    5. Chiou, Yu-Chiun & Lan, Lawrence W. & Yen, Barbara T.H., 2010. "A joint measurement of efficiency and effectiveness for non-storable commodities: Integrated data envelopment analysis approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 201(2), pages 477-489, March.
    6. Chiou, Yu-Chiun & Lan, Lawrence W. & Yen, Barbara T.H., 2012. "Route-based data envelopment analysis models," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 415-425.
    7. Mahmoudi, Reza & Emrouznejad, Ali & Shetab-Boushehri, Seyyed-Nader & Hejazi, Seyed Reza, 2020. "The origins, development and future directions of data envelopment analysis approach in transportation systems," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Lampe, Hannes W. & Hilgers, Dennis, 2015. "Trajectories of efficiency measurement: A bibliometric analysis of DEA and SFA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(1), pages 1-21.
    9. Zhang, Chunqin & Juan, Zhicai & Luo, Qingyu & Xiao, Guangnian, 2016. "Performance evaluation of public transit systems using a combined evaluation method," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 156-167.
    10. Cavaignac, Laurent & Petiot, Romain, 2017. "A quarter century of Data Envelopment Analysis applied to the transport sector: A bibliometric analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 84-96.
    11. George E. Halkos & Nickolaos G. Tzeremes, 2015. "Measuring Seaports' Productivity: A Malmquist Productivity Index Decomposition Approach," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 49(2), pages 355-376, April.
    12. Karlaftis, Matthew G. & Tsamboulas, Dimitrios, 2012. "Efficiency measurement in public transport: Are findings specification sensitive?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 392-402.
    13. Hanauerová, Eliška, 2019. "Assessing the technical efficiency of public procurements in the bus transportation sector in the Czech Republic," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 105-111.
    14. Huang, Wencheng & Shuai, Bin & Sun, Yan & Wang, Yang & Antwi, Eric, 2018. "Using entropy-TOPSIS method to evaluate urban rail transit system operation performance: The China case," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 292-303.
    15. Ganji, Seyedreza Seyedalizadeh & Tirkolaee, Erfan Babaee, 2025. "Intercity Road Transportation Assessment: Double-Frontier Q-Cross-Efficiency Method," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 42-65.
    16. Ganji, S.S. & Dehghani, Alireza & Ajirlu, Shahrouz Fathi, 2024. "Evaluation of intercity road passenger transportation using a novel double-frontier game-regret-cross-efficiency," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    17. de Borger, Bruno & Kerstens, Kristiaan & Staat, Matthias, 2009. "Erratum to "Transit costs and cost efficiency: Bootstrapping non-parametric frontiers" [Research in Transport Economics 23 (2008) 53-64]," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 67-67.
    18. Odeck, James, 2006. "Identifying traffic safety best practice: an application of DEA and Malmquist indices," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 28-40, January.
    19. Peter Fernandes Wanke & Rebecca de Mattos, 2014. "Capacity Issues and Efficiency Drivers in Brazilian Bulk Terminals," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 11(5), pages 72-98, October.
    20. Shih-Heng Yu & Chia-Wei Hsu, 2020. "A unified extension of super-efficiency in additive data envelopment analysis with integer-valued inputs and outputs: an application to a municipal bus system," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 287(1), pages 515-535, April.

    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:eee:transa:v:42:y:2008:i:4:p:696-708. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    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.