An Evaluation of Air Transport Sector Operational Efficiency in China based on a Three-Stage DEA Analysis

Mingli Song, Guangshe Jia and Puwei Zhang
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Mingli Song: School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Guangshe Jia: School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Puwei Zhang: College of City Construction, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Air transport provides important transportation services for economic development; meanwhile, its operation requires massive resource inputs into the air transport sector (ATS). In order to ensure sustainable development of air transport industry, improve the utilization efficiency of resources, and coordinate the development of the ATS and the macroeconomy, the operational efficiency of the industry should be evaluated accurately. However, few studies have analyzed the operational performance of ATSs across different regions. This study therefore constructs an index system and applied a three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, which considers various regional environmental factors and statistical noise, to evaluate regional ATS operational performance. China’s 30 provincial ATS operational efficiencies in year 2017 are empirically evaluated using the proposed model. The empirical results show that different levels of environmental factors, such as regional GDP, openness, technical markets, technological development, and consumption, pose various influences on provincial ATS operational efficiency in China. Operational performance evaluation results eliminating these environmental effects in the third stage show considerable differences with that stage 1 results. In addition, corresponding development strategy implications in different provinces and regions are put forward according to the evaluation results.

Keywords: air transport sector; operational performance; three-stage data envelopment analysis; regional efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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