Technical and Scale Efficiency in Spanish Urban Transport: Estimating with Data Envelopment Analysis

The paper undertakes a comparative efficiency analysis of public bus transport in Spain using Data Envelopment Analysis. A procedure for efficiency evaluation was established with a view to estimating its technical and scale efficiency. Principal components analysis allowed us to reduce a large number of potential measures of supplyand demand-side and quality outputs in three statistical factors assumed in the analysis of the service. A statistical analysis Tobit regression shows that efficiency levels are negative in relation to the population density and peak-to-base ratio. Nevertheless, efficiency levels are not related to the form of ownership public versus private . The results obtained for Spanish public transport show that the average pure technical and scale efficiencies are situated at 94.91 and 52.02%, respectively. The excess of resources is around 6%, and the increase in accessibility of the service, one of the principal components summarizing the large number of output measures, is extremely important as a quality parameter in its performance.