Long-term cost efficiency of alternative management forms for urban public transport from the public sector perspective

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the long-term efficiency of different management forms for urban public transport, using a sample of 193 Spanish municipalities for the period 2014–2016. The analysis is performed using the order-m data panel method proposed by Garrido et al. (2018) and the concept of the meta-frontier (Battese et al., 2004). This approach is based on an analysis of panel data cost efficiency as described by Surroca et al. (2016) and provides a stable, homogeneous and comparable estimate of the efficiency obtained by different management forms in the delivery of urban public transport. The study results indicate that intermunicipal cooperation is the most efficient form of long-term management.