Evaluating the operational efficiency of major ports in the Asia-Pacific region using data envelopment analysis

In recent years, as competition among international ports has intensified, the impartial and objective evaluation of port operational efficiency has become increasingly important in enabling each individual port to understand its peculiar strengths and weaknesses, as well as any immediate threats or opportunities that may affect its competitive environment. This study applies CCR model, BCC model and 3-stage DEA model to evaluate the changes in efficiency that have taken place between 1998 and 2001 in 10 ports in the Asia-Pacific region using cross-period data. The empirical results show that different model will lead to different result. On average, the efficiency estimated by 3-stage DEA procedure is the highest, while CCR efficiency is the lowest. It should be noted that the efficiencies based on CCR and BCC model are somewhat lower than the 3-stage DEA approaches, because they do not take the environmental factors, managerial inefficiency and statistical noises into account.