Incentive Regulation and Efficiency of Portuguese Port Authorities

In all European seaports, organisational efficiency forms a vital component of the activities to improve competitiveness in the market. As public enterprise entities, Portuguese seaports rely on government subsidies to meet their deficits. The policy of subsidisation is part of the regulatory procedures that are intended to provide incentives for increasing productive efficiency, thereby allowing seaports to share in the social gains from efficiency in the form of greater, or at least stable, employment and local development. In addition, the drive for greater efficiency is meant to assist the ports' preparation for some kind of privatisation. In this paper, we analyse the technical and allocative efficiencies of Portuguese seaport authorities in order to investigate if the state's policy is achieving its aims. We find that the results are, at best, mixed, leading us to conclude that the incentive regulation carried out by the government's regulatory body, the Maritime Port Agency, is not achieving its aims. Therefore, we propose a policy revision to enforce efficiency, based on a governance environment framework. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2003) 5, 55–69. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100060

Decomposing Growth in Portuguese Seaports: A Frontier Cost Approach

This paper analyses the extent of technical change and technical efficiency in Portuguese seaport costs between 1990 and 2000, using a stochastic cost frontier method. A translog frontier and the maximum likelihood estimation technique are employed to estimate the empirical model. The results show that the average score of inefficiency is 39.6%, denoting a high degree of waste in the use of resources, despite the fact that technical change contributed to a reduction of costs. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2005) 7, 297–315. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100140

Efficiency in European Seaports with DEA: Evidence from Greece and Portugal

In this paper, we compare the seaport efficiency of two European countries, Greece and Portugal, using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The international benchmarking procedure is implemented, in which the seaports in each country are compared against each other. The broader aim of this study is to seek out those best practices that will lead to improved performance in the context of European seaport policy. We rank the seaports according to their total productivity for the period 1998–2000. Economic implications arising from the study are considered. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2004) 6, 122–140. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100099

Evaluating the Efficiency and Productivity of Insurance Companies with a Malmquist Index: A Case Study for Portugal

This paper estimates changes in total productivity, breaking this down into technically efficient change and technological change by means of data envelopment analysis applied to a representative sample of insurance companies operating in the Portuguese market. The aim of this procedure is to seek out those best practices that will lead to improved performance in the market. We rank the companies according to their change in total productivity for the period 1995–2001, concluding that some companies experienced productivity growth while others experienced a decrease in productivity. The implications arising from the study are considered in terms of managerial policy. The Geneva Papers (2005) 30, 244–267. doi:10.1057/palgrave.gpp.2510029