Productivity Growth in European Railways: Technological Progress,Efficiency Change and Scale Effects

Heike Wetzel

No 101, Working Paper Series in Economics from University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics

Abstract: This paper analyzes the performance of the European railway sector in the period of deregulation (1990-2005). Using a stochastic frontier panel data model that controls for unobserved heterogeneity a multiple-output multiple input distance function model is estimated in order to evaluate the sources of productivity growth: technological progress, technical efficiency change and scale effects. The results indicate that technology improvements were by far the most important driver of productivity growth, followed by gains in technical efficiency, and to a lesser extent by exploitation of scale economies. Overall, we find an average productivity growth of 39 per cent within the sample period.

Keywords: European railways; Deregulation; Stochastic frontier analysis; Total factor productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 L51 L92 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2008-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec and nep-eff
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lue:wpaper:101

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