Capacity Issues and Efficiency Drivers in Brazilian Bulk Terminals

This paper presents an efficiency analysis of Brazilian bulk terminals built upon the conjoint use of Data Envelopment Analysis and the bootstrapping technique. Confidence intervals and bias corrected central estimates were used as cornerstone tools, not only to test for significant differences on e...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Peter Fernandes Wanke, Rebecca de Mattos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: FUCAPE Business School 2014-01-01
Series:BBR: Brazilian Business Review
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=123032385004
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper presents an efficiency analysis of Brazilian bulk terminals built upon the conjoint use of Data Envelopment Analysis and the bootstrapping technique. Confidence intervals and bias corrected central estimates were used as cornerstone tools, not only to test for significant differences on efficiency scores and their reciprocals, but also on returns to scale indicators provided by different DEA models. The results of the study suggest that most Brazilian bulk terminals present increasing returns-to-scale, that is, they are too small in size comparatively to the tasks performed, indicating a capacity shortfall. Results also suggest paths for improving efficiency levels in a scenario of low investments and capacity constraints: privatization and cargo specialization. A final contribution to the literature lays on the development a simple methodology to assess returns-to-scale based on bootstrap results.
ISSN:1807-734X