Benchmarking Container Port Technical Efficiency in Latin America and the Caribbean : A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

Morales Sarriera, Javier ; Araya, Gonzalo ; Serebrisky, Tomas ; Briceñ ; o-Garmendí ; a, Cecilia ; Schwartz, Jordan

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AIM;    AVERAGE PRODUCTIVITY;    AVERAGING;    BENCHMARK;    BENCHMARKING;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6680
RP-ID  :  WPS6680

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper presents a technicalefficiency analysis of container ports in Latin America andthe Caribbean using an input-oriented stochastic frontiermodel. A 10-year panel is employed with data on containerthroughput, port terminal area, length of berths, and numberof cranes available in 67 ports. The model has threeinnovations with respect to the available literature: (i) ittreats ship-to-shore gantry cranes and mobile cranesseparately, in order to account for the higher productivityof the former; (ii) a binary variable is introduced forports using ships' cranes, treated as an additionalsource of port productivity; and (iii) a binary variable isused for ports operating as transshipment hubs. Theassociated parameters are highly significant in theproduction function. The results show an improvement in theaverage technical efficiency of ports in the Latin Americaand the Caribbean region from 36 percent to 50 percentbetween 1999 and 2009; the best-performing port in 2009achieved a technical efficiency of 94 percent with respectto the frontier. The paper also studies possibledeterminants of port technical efficiency, such asownership, corruption, terminal purpose, income per capita,and location. The results reveal positive, but weak,associations between technical efficiency with landlordports and with lower corruption levels; stronger results areobserved between technical efficiency with specializedcontainer terminals and with average income.