IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2022i1p461-d1021818.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic, Energy and Environmental Efficiency of Road Freight Transportation Sector in the EU

Author

Listed:
  • Joanna Domagała

    (Institute of Economics and Finance, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 166 Nowoursynowska St., 02-787 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Marta Kadłubek

    (Faculty of Management, Czestochowa University of Technology, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland)

Abstract

The proper development of transportation constitutes the basis for an effectively functioning economy at the national and global levels. On the other hand, transportation significantly impacts the environment and climate. Sustainable transportation management should therefore include both economic, social and environmental aspects. The article aims to comprehensively assess the economic–energy–environmental efficiency of the 27-road freight transport sector in EU countries in 2019. The research was conducted using the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The Slacks-Based Measure–Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM-DEA) model was used, taking into account unwanted (undesirable) effects. As non-energy inputs in the DEA model used the labor in the road freight transport sector, stock of registered goods vehicles, and the length of the road network. Moreover, the energy consumption by the road freight transport sector was used as energy inputs in the DEA model. Desirable outputs were taken as road freight transport sector revenues and freight work performed by the sector. GHG emissions expressed in CO 2 equivalent were treated as undesirable outputs. The research also adopts energy productivity and GHG emission efficiency indicators. The eco-efficiency of the road freight transport sector in EU countries varies. Ten countries have efficient road freight transport sectors. The efficient road freight transport group included Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Bulgaria. They efficiently transformed the inputs into outputs. Five countries were recognized as eco-efficiency followers, including Italy, Finland, Slovakia, Sweden and Romania, and 12 countries were characterized by an inefficient road freight transport sector. Based on benchmarking principles for inefficient road freight transport sectors, the changes in input and output levels were proposed to improve efficiency. The relationship between the economic development of EU countries and the eco-efficiency of the road freight transport sector was also analyzed, indicating a positive relationship between the variables but with weak strength. The main contributions of this article are an extension of previous DEA works that assesses the efficiency of the road freight transport sector, also considering undesirable variables. Research conclusions are particularly important for policymakers in the context of management sustainable transportation development in the EU.

Suggested Citation

  • Joanna Domagała & Marta Kadłubek, 2022. "Economic, Energy and Environmental Efficiency of Road Freight Transportation Sector in the EU," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-28, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2022:i:1:p:461-:d:1021818
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/1/461/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/1/461/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yongjun Shen & Qiong Bao & Elke Hermans, 2020. "Applying an Alternative Approach for Assessing Sustainable Road Transport: A Benchmarking Analysis on EU Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Liddle, Brantley & Lung, Sidney, 2013. "The long-run causal relationship between transport energy consumption and GDP: Evidence from heterogeneous panel methods robust to cross-sectional dependence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 524-527.
    3. Timothy J. Coelli & D.S. Prasada Rao & Christopher J. O’Donnell & George E. Battese, 2005. "An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-25895-9, December.
    4. Dalia M. Ibrahiem, 2018. "Road energy consumption, economic growth, population and urbanization in Egypt: cointegration and causality analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 1053-1066, June.
    5. Ştefan Cristian Gherghina & Mihaela Onofrei & Georgeta Vintilă & Daniel Ştefan Armeanu, 2018. "Empirical Evidence from EU-28 Countries on Resilient Transport Infrastructure Systems and Sustainable Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-34, August.
    6. Chia-Nan Wang & Tran Quynh Le & Ching-Hua Yu & Hsiao-Chi Ling & Thanh-Tuan Dang, 2022. "Strategic Environmental Assessment of Land Transportation: An Application of DEA with Undesirable Output Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-16, January.
    7. Tone, Kaoru, 2001. "A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 498-509, May.
    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. Cheng, Gang & Qian, Zhenhua, 2011. "Dea数据标准化方法及其在方向距离函数模型中的应用 [Data normalization for data envelopment analysis and its application to directional distance function]," MPRA Paper 31995, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Veronese da Silva, Aline & Costa, Marcelo Azevedo & Lopes-Ahn, Ana Lúcia, 2022. "Accounting multiple environmental variables in DEA energy transmission benchmarking modelling: The 2019 Brazilian case," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    3. Victoria Wojcik & Harald Dyckhoff & Marcel Clermont, 2019. "Is data envelopment analysis a suitable tool for performance measurement and benchmarking in non-production contexts?," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 12(2), pages 559-595, December.
    4. Necmi Kemal Avkiran, 2017. "An illustration of multiple-stakeholder perspective using a survey across Australia, China and Japan," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 248(1), pages 93-121, January.
    5. Zarrin, Mansour & Brunner, Jens O., 2023. "Analyzing the accuracy of variable returns to scale data envelopment analysis models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(3), pages 1286-1301.
    6. Thomas Standfuss & Georg Hirte & Michael Schultz & Hartmut Fricke, 2023. "Efficiency in European Air Traffic Management -- A Fundamental Analysis of Data, Models, and Methods," Papers 2302.07525, arXiv.org.
    7. Adriana Cobas & Alexandros Maziotis & Andrés Villegas, 2023. "Measurement of Efficiency and its Drivers in the Chilean Banking Industry," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 987, Central Bank of Chile.
    8. Ather Hassan Dar & Somesh Kumar Mathur & Sila Mishra, 2021. "The Efficiency of Indian Banks: A DEA, Malmquist and SFA Analysis with Bad Output," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 19(4), pages 653-701, December.
    9. Wanfang Shen & Guoliang Yang & Zhongbao Zhou & Wenbin Liu, 2019. "DEA models with Russell measures," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 278(1), pages 337-359, July.
    10. Elena Cigu & Daniela Tatiana Agheorghiesei & Anca Florentina Gavriluță (Vatamanu) & Elena Toader, 2018. "Transport Infrastructure Development, Public Performance and Long-Run Economic Growth: A Case Study for the Eu-28 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-22, December.
    11. Jie Wu & Qingyuan Zhu & Junfei Chu & Liang Liang, 2015. "Two-Stage Network Structures with Undesirable Intermediate Outputs Reused: A DEA Based Approach," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 46(3), pages 455-477, October.
    12. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2015. "Efficiency of the banking system in Vietnam under financial liberalization," OSF Preprints qsf6d, Center for Open Science.
    13. Nodin, Mohd Norazmi & Mustafa, Zainol & Hussain, Saiful Izzuan, 2023. "Eco-efficiency assessment of Malaysian rice self-sufficiency approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    14. Nasreen, Samia & Mbarek, Mounir Ben & Atiq-ur-Rehman, Muhammad, 2020. "Long-run causal relationship between economic growth, transport energy consumption and environmental quality in Asian countries: Evidence from heterogeneous panel methods," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    15. Sala-Garrido, Ramon & Mocholi-Arce, Manuel & Maziotis, Alexandros & Molinos-Senante, María, 2023. "The carbon and production performance of water utilities: Evidence from the English and Welsh water industry," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 292-300.
    16. Viera Mendelová, 2022. "Decomposition of technical efficiency under fixed proportion technologies: an application of data envelopment analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 1-22, February.
    17. Apostolos Ampountolas, 2022. "Postcrisis REIT performance using financial ratios: A DEA approach," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(2), pages 371-393, March.
    18. Franz R. Hahn, 2007. "Determinants of Bank Efficiency in Europe. Assessing Bank Performance Across Markets," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 31499, April.
    19. Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov & Zhang, Shanshan, 2016. "Industrial energy demand and energy efficiency – Evidence from Sweden," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 130-152.
    20. Kristiaan Kerstens & Jafar Sadeghi & Ignace Van de Woestyne, 2020. "Plant capacity notions in a non-parametric framework: a brief review and new graph or non-oriented plant capacities," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 288(2), pages 837-860, May.

    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:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2022:i:1:p:461-:d:1021818. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.