IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transe/v89y2016icp133-150.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding overall output efficiency in public transit systems: The roles of input regulations, perceived budget and input subsidies

Author

Listed:
  • Obeng, K.
  • Sakano, R.
  • Naanwaab, C.

Abstract

This paper examines the combined effects of subsidies, regulations and perceived budget on overall output and technical efficiency in a sample of single-mode bus transit systems using an indirect production function. The main findings are that the average transit system is 67.21% output efficient and systematic and stochastic technical inefficiencies decrease output. In addition subsidies increase output, regulations decrease output and the overall budget effect is an increase in output. Additionally, it identifies the characteristics of two groups of transit systems whose perceived costs after subsidies and regulations are either less or greater than actual total costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Obeng, K. & Sakano, R. & Naanwaab, C., 2016. "Understanding overall output efficiency in public transit systems: The roles of input regulations, perceived budget and input subsidies," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 133-150.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transe:v:89:y:2016:i:c:p:133-150
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2016.03.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1366554515300569
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tre.2016.03.001?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Obeng, K. & Sakano, R., 2008. "Public transit subsidies, output effect and total factor productivity," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 85-98, January.
    2. Bhattacharyya, Arunava & Harris, Thomas R. & Narayanan, Rangesan & Raffiee, Kambiz, 1995. "Technical Efficiency Of Rural Water Utilities," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 20(2), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Hilmer, Christiana E. & Holt, Matthew T., 2005. "Estimating Indirect Production Functions with a More General Specification: An Application of the Lewbel Model," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(3), pages 619-634, December.
    4. repec:adr:anecst:y:1999:i:54:p:06 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. William Roy & Anne Yvrande-Billon, 2007. "Ownership, Contractual Practices and Technical Efficiency: The Case of Urban Public Transport in France," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 41(2), pages 257-282, May.
    6. 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.
    7. K. A. Boame & K. Obeng, 2004. "Sources of productivity change: a Malmquist total factor productivity approach," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 103-116, March.
    8. Miguel Urdánoz & Catherine Vibes, 2013. "Regulation and cost efficiency in the European railways industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 217-230, June.
    9. K. Obeng, 2011. "Indirect production function and the output effect of public transit subsidies," Transportation, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 191-214, March.
    10. Mehdi Farsi & Massimo Filippini & Michael Kuenzle, 2006. "Cost Efficiency in Regional Bus Companies: An Application of Alternative Stochastic Frontier Models," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 40(1), pages 95-118, January.
    11. Wang, Hung-Jen & Ho, Chia-Wen, 2010. "Estimating fixed-effect panel stochastic frontier models by model transformation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 157(2), pages 286-296, August.
    12. Fabrizio Erbetta & Carmelo Petraglia, 2011. "Drivers of Regional Efficiency Differentials in Italy: Technical Inefficiency or Allocative Distortions?," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 351-375, September.
    13. Kumbhakar, Subal C & Bhattacharyya, Arunava, 1996. "Productivity Growth in Passenger-Bus Transportation: A Heteroskedastic Error Component Model with Unbalanced Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 557-573.
    14. Kim, Moshe & Spiegel, Menahem, 1987. "The effects of lump-sum subsidies on the structure of production and productivity in regulated industries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 105-119, October.
    15. Nolan, J. F. & Ritchie, P. C. & Rowcroft, J. E., 2002. "Identifying and measuring public policy goals: ISTEA and the US bus transit industry," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 291-304, July.
    16. Schmidt, Klaus M, 1996. "The Costs and Benefits of Privatization: An Incomplete Contracts Approach," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-24, April.
    17. Kristiaan Kerstens, 1999. "Decomposing Technical Efficiency and Effectiveness of French Urban Transport," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 54, pages 129-155.
    18. K. Obeng & R. Sakano, 2000. "The Effects of Operating and Capital Subsidies on Total Factor Productivity: A Decomposition Approach," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(2), pages 381-397, July.
    19. Stevenson, Rodney E., 1980. "Likelihood functions for generalized stochastic frontier estimation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 57-66, May.
    20. THIRY, Bernard & TULKENS, Henry, 1992. "Allowing for inefficiency in parametric estimation of production fucntions for urban transit firms," LIDAM Reprints CORE 994, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    21. William Roy & Anne Yvrande-Billon, 2007. "Ownership, Contractual Practices and Technical Efficiency: The Case of Urban Public Transport in France," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00107375, HAL.
    22. Schmidt, Klaus M., 1996. "Incomplete contracts and privatization," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 569-579, April.
    23. Aly, Hassan Y, et al, 1990. "Technical, Scale, and Allocative Efficiencies in U.S. Banking: An Empirical Investigation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 211-218, May.
    24. 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.
    25. Beniamina Margari & Fabrizio Erbetta & Carmelo Petraglia & Massimiliano Piacenza, 2007. "Regulatory and environmental effects on public transit efficiency: a mixed DEA-SFA approach," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 131-151, October.
    26. Kofi Obeng & Golam Azam, 1995. "The Intended Relationship Between Federal Operating Subsidy and Cost," Public Finance Review, , vol. 23(1), pages 72-94, January.
    27. Scott E. Atkinson & Rolf Färe & Daniel Primont, 2003. "Stochastic Estimation of Firm Inefficiency Using Distance Functions," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(3), pages 596-611, January.
    28. Massimiliano Piacenza, 2006. "Regulatory Contracts and Cost Efficiency: Stochastic Frontier Evidence from the Italian Local Public Transport," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 257-277, June.
    29. Subal C. Kumbhakar & Raushan Bokusheva, 2009. "Modelling farm production decisions under an expenditure constraint," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 36(3), pages 343-367, September.
    30. Ryoichi Sakano & Kofi Obeng & G. Azam, 1997. "Subsidies And Inefficiency: Stochastic Frontier Approach," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 15(3), pages 113-127, July.
    31. Iseki, Hiroyuki, 2008. "Economies of scale in bus transit service in the USA: How does cost efficiency vary by agency size and level of contracting?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(8), pages 1086-1097, October.
    32. Zhang, Chunqin & Juan, Zhicai & Xiao, Guangnian, 2015. "Do contractual practices affect technical efficiency? Evidence from public transport operators in China," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 39-55.
    33. 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.
    34. 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.
    35. William Roy & Anne Yvrande-Billon, 2007. "Ownership, Contractual Practices and Technical Efficiency: The Case of Urban Public Transport in France," Post-Print halshs-00107375, HAL.
    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. Obeng, K. & Sakano, R., 2020. "Effects of government regulations and input subsidies on cost efficiency: A decomposition approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 95-107.
    2. Chen, Jingxu & Liu, Zhiyuan & Wang, Shuaian & Chen, Xuewu, 2018. "Continuum approximation modeling of transit network design considering local route service and short-turn strategy," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 165-188.
    3. Merkert, Rico & Mulley, Corinne & Hakim, Md Mahbubul, 2017. "Determinants of bus rapid transit (BRT) system revenue and effectiveness – A global benchmarking exercise," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 75-88.
    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. Obeng, K., 2019. "Public transit cost efficiency studies: The impact of non-contracting regulations," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 247-258.
    6. Yu, Le & Xie, Binglei & Chan, Edwin H.W., 2019. "Exploring impacts of the built environment on transit travel: Distance, time and mode choice, for urban villages in Shenzhen, China," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 57-71.

    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. Obeng, K. & Sakano, R., 2020. "Effects of government regulations and input subsidies on cost efficiency: A decomposition approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 95-107.
    2. 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".
    3. Matthias Walter, 2011. "Some Determinants of Cost Efficiency in German Public Transport," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 45(1), pages 1-20, January.
    4. 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.
    5. Andrea Boitani & Marcella Nicolini & Carlo Scarpa, 2013. "Do competition and ownership matter? Evidence from local public transport in Europe," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(11), pages 1419-1434, April.
    6. Vigren, Andreas, 2016. "Cost efficiency in Swedish public transport," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 123-132.
    7. Zhang, Chunqin & Juan, Zhicai & Xiao, Guangnian, 2015. "Do contractual practices affect technical efficiency? Evidence from public transport operators in China," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 39-55.
    8. Wegelin, Philipp, 2018. "Is the mere threat enough? An empirical analysis about competitive tendering as a threat and cost efficiency in public bus transportation," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 245-253.
    9. Filippini, M. & Koller, M. & Masiero, G., 2015. "Competitive tendering versus performance-based negotiation in Swiss public transport," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 158-168.
    10. Rosell, Jordi, 2017. "Urban bus contractual regimes in small- and medium-sized municipalities: Competitive tendering or negotiation?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 54-62.
    11. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi & Catherine Muller-Vibes, 2011. "The Industrial Organization of Competition in Local Bus Services," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 32, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Obeng, K., 2019. "Public transit cost efficiency studies: The impact of non-contracting regulations," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 247-258.
    13. Sheng, Dian & Meng, Qiang, 2020. "Public bus service contracting: A critical review and future research opportunities," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    14. Cambini Carlo & Filippini Massimo & Piacenza Massimiliano & Vannoni Davide, 2011. "Corporatization and Firm Performance: Evidence from Publicly-Provided Local Utilities," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 191-213, July.
    15. Obeng, K., 2010. "The Deadweight Costs of Public Transit Subsidies," 51st Annual Transportation Research Forum, Arlington, Virginia, March 11-13, 2010 207240, Transportation Research Forum.
    16. Avenali, Alessandro & Catalano, Giuseppe & D'Alfonso, Tiziana & Matteucci, Giorgio, 2020. "The allocation of national public resources in the Italian local public bus transport sector," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    17. Axel Gautier & Anne Yvrande-Billon, 2013. "Contract Renewal as an Incentive Device. An Application to the French Urban Public Transport Sector," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 4(1).
    18. Campos-Alba, Cristina M. & Prior, Diego & Pérez-López, Gemma & Zafra-Gómez, Jose L., 2020. "Long-term cost efficiency of alternative management forms for urban public transport from the public sector perspective," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 16-23.
    19. Avenali, Alessandro & Boitani, Andrea & Catalano, Giuseppe & D’Alfonso, Tiziana & Matteucci, Giorgio, 2016. "Assessing standard costs in local public bus transport: Evidence from Italy," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 164-174.
    20. Mouwen, Arnoud & van Ommeren, Jos, 2016. "The effect of contract renewal and competitive tendering on public transport costs, subsidies and ridership," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 78-89.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Operating and capital subsidies; Transit regulations; Budget size; Overall productive efficiency; Efficiency decomposition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy

    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:transe:v:89:y:2016:i:c:p:133-150. 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/600244/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.