Regulation, Competition and Technical Efficiency in Bus Public Transport: Discussing the Case of the Metropolitan Area of San José, Costa Rica

Abstract

In the last two decades the relative roles of regulation and competition in promoting efficiency in urban bus industry has emerged as a central theme in both technical and academic debate. Empirical studies have concentrated in European, North American and Australian cases, as well as translog functions have been the main technical tool used in empirical analysis. In this paper, we focus on a Latin American case San José, Costa Rica using DEA techniques for the assessment of technical efficiency of bus service private provision under public regulation. Conclusions highlight a significant technical inefficiency level in the industry. Operators running their services efficiently are identified in order to provide industry benchmarkings.