Infrastructure Operation Efficiency and Influential Factors in Developing Countries: Evidence from China

Abstract

The development of sustainable infrastructure has been identified as one of the seventeen sustainable development goals by the United Nations. Keeping the operation of infrastructure sustainable in terms of economy becomes a major challenge in developing countries. The objective of this research is to evaluate the operation efficiency of the expressway and explore the key influential factors. This research took expressway mileage as the physical output and evaluated the operation efficiency of the expressway companies based on the super-efficiency Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model; additionally, we analyzed the influential factors on the basis of the fixed-effects regression model. The results showed the following: (1) The average value of operation efficiency of China's expressway companies from 2007 to 2017 was 0.904. In general, the operation of expressways was efficient. However, the differences in operation efficiency among the eleven expressway companies were significant, and some companies were seriously inefficient. (2) The asset-liability ratio, the scale, and the structure of property rights in the companies were shown to be the main factors affecting the operation efficiency. These results indicate that the development of innovative financing modes and optimization of the scale of each company are the key directions for infrastructure reform, which could eventually narrow the differences in operation efficiency and allow the development of sustainable infrastructure.

Do Public‐Private Partnerships Improve the Operational Efficiency of Infrastructure in Mainland China?

“…e results showed that toll road operations were inefficient, which is consistent with the conclusion of Wei et al [21]. It should be noted that there is a significant difference in the efficiency among the eastern, central, and western regions.…”

“…As a nonparametric performance evaluation method, Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model has been widely used in the evaluation of the operational efficiency of toll roads and other infrastructures [21]. e SBM model takes the slack variable into account in the objective function and overcomes the deficiency of the traditional DEA model's radial distance function and its measurement results closer to reality [45].…”

“…Competition may influence the allocation of product market resources and needs to be classified as CSFs [56]. Finally, scale, as an important feature of a project, is also an essential factor affecting the efficiency of infrastructure operations, since it has significant economies of scale effect [21,57]. In summary, the potential factors influencing the operational efficiency of toll roads, including concession, the institutional environment, economic development, competition, and scale, were selected.…”

“…e second stream focuses on the operational efficiency of concessionary toll roads. is research has evaluated the efficiency of China's expressway companies and compared the operational efficiency of toll roads under different operating modes, concluding that the concession system is more efficient at operating toll roads than public authorities [20,21]. However, existing evidence supporting the efficiency advantages of concession is inadequate.…”

Study on the Operation Efficiency of Toll Roads in China from the Perspective of Scale Economy

“…e development mode, dilemma, and reform path of China's toll highways have become the focus of world attention [2]. Wei et al [3] stated that the operational efficiency of toll highways is the key to reducing operating costs and achieving sustainable infrastructure. Xu et al [4] thought that the poor operational efficiency is the main problem of the supply side of toll highway industry, and the development of toll highways should be transformed from scale expansion to quality and efficiency improvement.…”