Operational efficiency of major cargo seaports in some developing regions: results from a bootstrap DEA

This paper's aim is to investigate the efficiency of main ports located in five different developing regions. The consideration of multiple developing regions constitutes a unique geographic setting that has been neglected in the research literature. A sample of 40 ports was studied and the ports' bias corrected efficiency scores were estimated by means of a bootstrap DEA approach. The study is based on data covering the period 2013-2018. The results showed that most of the ports were not operating at their optimal scale and reported an increasing and decreasing trend in their CRS and VRS efficiency scores respectively. Most of the ports have experienced an increase in their operations without attaining the corresponding increase in their technical capabilities. The ports exhibited a dynamic behaviour, which was due to their operational dynamism rather than their infrastructure dynamism. The overall and regional top port performers were identified for benchmarking purposes.