• The Journal of shipping and logistics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.457-474
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• 2011

The aim of this study is to analyze the efficiency of major ports in Northeast Asia such as Korea, China and Japan. For the empirical analysis, we tried to apply the data envelopment analysis (DEA), which is an efficiency evaluation model based on mathematical programming theory, and we also established a model to Northeast Asian ports. In our opinion, DEA analysis which involves multiple inputs as well as multiple outputs in its efficiency valuation makes analysis more suitable for port efficiency measurement because ports produce a number of different outputs. In this paper, we attempted to analyze the relative efficiency of 27 ports (5 Korean ports, 13 Chinese ports, 9 Japanese ports) through DEA-CCR, DEA-BCC models. According to the result, Chinese ports are relatively efficient than Korean and Japanese ports. The result of the analysis shows that 7 Chinese ports are efficient in DEA-CCR model in 2009, but in DEA-BCC model 8 Chinese ports and 1 Koran port are efficient. Most of inefficient ports have a value closed to 1 in efficiency for scale, it means that the reason of inefficiency is caused from the technical aspect. Furthermore, we also verified that there exists excess of input in Korean and Japanese ports than Chinese ports.