Next stop: restructuring? : a nonparametric efficiency analysis of German public transport companies

Christian von Hirschhausen and Astrid Cullmann

In this paper, we present a nonparametric comparative efficiency analysis of 179 communal public transport bus companies in Germany (1990-2004). We apply both deterministic data envelopment analysis (DEA) and bootstrapping to test the robustness of our estimates and to test the hypothesis of global and individual constant returns to scale. We find that the average technical efficiency of German bus companies is relatively low. We observe that the industry appears to be characterized by increasing returns to scale for smaller companies. These results would imply increasing pressure on bus companies to restructure. -- Public transport ; buses ; efficiency analysis ; nonparametric methods ; DEA ; bootstrapping

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Year of publication:	2008
Other Persons:	Hirschhausen, Christian R. von (contributor) ; Cullmann, Astrid (contributor)
Publisher:	Berlin : DIW
Subject:	Busverkehr \| Bus transport \| Öffentlicher Nahverkehr \| Local public transport \| Technische Effizienz \| Technical efficiency \| Skalenertrag \| Returns to scale \| Organisatorischer Wandel \| Organizational change \| Deutschland \| Germany \| 1990-2004