• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.23-44
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• 2022

Purpose - Recent issues such as vessel enlargement, strengthening of environmental regulations, and port smartization are expected to increase costs and intensify competition in the port industry. In the new normal era, when external growth has reached its limit, the efficient operation of ports is becoming indispensable for achieving sustainable growth. This study aims to identify the determinants of inefficiency by examining the cost structure and efficiency of container terminals in Korea and furthermore propose the political implications to derive the maximization of efficiency. Design/methodology - This study estimates the cost function of container terminal operators and identifies the efficiency of container terminals using stochastic cost frontier (SCF) in the first stage. In the second step, the SCF results are compared with the data envelopment analysis (DEA). Last, this paper proposes efficiency determinants on container terminal operation to establish appropriate strategies. Out of the 29 container terminal operators in South Korea, 13 operators participated in the survey. The translog cost function was estimated utilizing a total of 116 observations collected over the 2007-2017 period. Findings - Empirical analysis shows that economies of scale exist in Korea's container ports, which provides a rationale for the government's policy to establish the global terminal operator by integrating small terminal operators to enhance competitiveness. In addition, as a result of the determinants analysis, container throughput, weight of direct employment costs, and labour cost share have positive effects on improving cost efficiency, while inefficiency increases as the length of quay increases. More specifically, cost efficiency improves as the proportion of direct employment costs to outsourcing service costs increases. Originality/value - This study contributes to analyzing the inefficiency factors of container terminals through efficiency analysis with respect to a cost function. In addition, this study proposes the practical and political implications, such as establishing a long-term manpower pool, the application of the hybrid liner terminal system, and the construction of a statistical data system, to improve the cost inefficiency of terminal operators.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.141-157
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• 2007

This paper evaluates the effects of privatization and deregulation on the firm-specific efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the Korean and Japanese railways. Using a stochastic frontier approach and a generalized translog functional form, the paper specifies the equation system consisting of a multiproduct variable cost function and input share equations which is estimated with Zellner's iterative seemingly unrelated regression and the corrected least squares method. The Korean and Japanese railway firms are assumed to produce three outputs (Shinkansen passenger-kilometers, incumbent railway passenger-kilometers, ton-kilometers of freight) using three input factors (labor, fuel, maintenance and rolling stock). A monetary value of the ways and fixed installations held by the railroad firm is also included as a quasi-fixed input. The empirical results indicate that the average estimate of cost inefficiency is 2.57% for the total sample and on the average, JNR and JR Kyushu are found to be worst efficient while the most efficient railway firm in the sample is JR West. Also the cost efficiency levels of seven JRs have been improved after the reform and privatization of JNR. The findings also indicate that TFP growth of the privately-owned JRs are higher than those of the government-owned KNR and JNR. Three-island JRs and JR Freight have slightly higher TFP growth than Honshu JRs as well. Thus, the results suggest that managerial autonomy and increased competition via deregulation have improved efficiency and TFP growth.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.63-76
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• 2009

On the basis of a Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA), this paper analyses revenue efficiencies for the same sample of Korean and Japanese railways in the papers which analyze cost efficiencies using a generalized translog functional form. The paper also compares the results of revenue efficiencies with cost efficiencies and evaluates the effects of managerial autonomy and privatization on the firm-specific efficiencies. The results show that the average estimate of revenue inefficiency is 7.02% when the term of inefficiency is assumed to be distributed as a half-normal and 6.98% as a exponential for the total sample. Also, standardized inefficiencies in revenues (7.5%) are greater than those in costs (2.1%). JR East and JR West are found to be most efficient on the revenue side and on the cost side respectively while JNR and JR Kyushu are worst efficient on the both sides. Finally, the correlations between efficiencies in revenues and costs also between efficiencies and privatization are positively correlated. The results suggest that the most independent companies, with increased managerial autonomy via privatization, are the most efficient in both revenues and costs.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.71-89
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• 2005

The purpose of this research is to examine X-efficiency of Korean local credit unions in 2001 by employing the stochastic frontier approach. This study uses the intermediation approach in order to define outputs and inputs of the credit unions. We define the outputs as the amounts of loans, and securities. The inputs are labor, deposit and physical capital. The price of labor is estimated by dividing the total wages by the number of employees. The price of deposit equals total interest divided by total deposit, and the price of physical capital is also computed to divide the total sales and administrative expenses by the physical capital. By the result of this study, the average efficiency score is 0.81. This fact indicates that credit unions can reduce their inputs by 19% for the given outputs. If results are arranged into quartiles based on the efficiency, inefficiency of top 25% credit unions is below 9%, and half of them is over 17%. In addition, e result shows that the efficiency is significantly influenced by region and size even if credit unions in Seoul and Daegu showed little difference in efficiency by size. Generally, medium size credit unions are more efficient than large size.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.108-116
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to analyze the technical and cost efficiency of Air Transport Industry on Global strategic alliances. In particular, this study develops Stochastic Frontier Approach for accurate judgement. Based on 20 major international airline corporations related with strategic alliances during the period 1995-2001, we find that alliances make a significant contribution to efficiency. On the other hand, it is found that the level of contribution to efficiency is different according to alliances. These results also changed greatly between pre- and post- Asian financial crisis period.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.23 no.5 s.83
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• pp.15-25
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• 2005

Using a stochastic cost frontier approach(SCFA), this paper annually estimates the efficiency and productivity with same data in the papers which analyze the efficiency and productivity using data envelopment analysis(DEA) to compare the results and suggest the political findings of raising the efficiency and productivity for three publicly-owned rail transit properties. the Seoul Subway Corporation (SSC), the Seoul Metropolitan Electrified Railways Sector of Korea National Railroad (SMESRS) and the Busan Urban Transit Authority (BUTA). The results show that the results of SCFA are higher than DEA for efficiency and lower for productivity in that DEA regards the stochastic error and measurement error as the inefficiency contrary to SFCA. But the political findings from these results appears to be similar as follows. First, the productivity of the three properties should be first improved by using existing technologies efficiently and then by introducing new ones. Second, the three properties should improve the technical efficiency through reducing input quantities to raise their efficiency. Finally, all the three components of the productivity such as productive efficiency change, technical change, and scale change should be considered to evaluate their productivity more correctly.