확률적 프론티어 방법을 이용한 도시철도 운영기관의 효율성 분석 : 외부 환경요인의 효과

With the huge concerns on the inefficiency of public enterprises, particularly a significant amount of debt, anincreasing number of studies have been carried out to analyze the levels of inefficiency and investigate thecauses of that inefficiency. However, very limited range of analytical methodologies have been used in the efficiencyanalysis and moreover, the effects of external factors have been little addressed. This study explores theefficiency of urban railway corporations in Korea by utilizing a method of stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Inparticular, the potential effects of external factors including residential and floating populations of a station werestatistically analyzed. A total of seven Korean urban railway corporations were selected to compare each other interms of operational efficiency. The results present three important findings. First, the Cobb-Douglas model wasfound to be more valid for SFA compared to the Translog model. Second, the efficiencies of urban railway corporationsin Seoul and Busan are relatively high whereas those of Daejeon and Gwangju are very low in efficiencyin the area of sales revenue. In an aspect of number of transport of passengers, Gwangju Metro also showedthe lowest efficiency. Third, the external factors are significantly associated with the efficiency, indicating thatthe efficiencies of Daejeon Metro and Gwangju Metro would increase while the efficiency of Seoul Metro woulddecreases when the external variables are excluded in the efficiency analysis. The results provide several meaningfulimplications for managers of the urban railway corporations as well as policy makers who are attemptingto resolve the inefficiency problems of public enterprises.