Eciency measurement of selected Australian and other international ports using data envelopment analysis q Jose Tongzon * Department of Economics, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 0511, Singapore Received 12 October 1998; received in revised form 15 July 1999; accepted 26 July 1999 Abstract Available studies have not provided a satisfactory answer to the problem of making international comparisons of port eciency. This study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to provide an eciency measurement for four Australian and twelve other international container ports. While DEA has been applied to a wide number of dierent situations where eciency comparisons are required, this technique has not previously been applied to ports. The DEA technique is useful in resolving the measurement of port eciency because the calculations are non-parametric, can handle more than one output and do not require an explicit a priori determination of relationships between output and inputs, as is required for conven- tional estimation of eciency using production functions. The ports of Melbourne, Rotterdam, Yokohama and Osaka are found to be the most inecient ports in the sample, based on constant and variable returns to scale assumptions, mainly due to the enormous slack in their container berths, terminal area and labor inputs. The study also draws some policy implications for ports and recommends certain areas for future research. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: DEA; Port eciency; Measurement; Australia; International Ports 1. Introduction In order to support trade oriented economic development, port authorities have increasingly been under pressure to improve port eciency by ensuring that port services are provided on an Transportation Research Part A 35 (2001) 107±122 www.elsevier.com/locate/tra q The author would like to express his deep appreciation to the anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions made on the earlier version of this paper. However, the author alone is responsible for any errors and omissions made in this paper. * Tel.: +65-874-3955; fax: +65-775-2646. E-mail address: ecsjt@nus.edu.sg (J. Tongzon). 0965-8564/00/$ - see front matter Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0965-8564(99)00049-X