Does Exist the Efficient Return on the Investment on Sea Port? Empirical Study on China's Sea Port Investment

Based on the panel data of 14 major ports in China from 2003 to 2014, this paper evaluates the investment efficiency of Chinese ports and its influencing factors. Considering that the ports' input and output indicators are difficult to measure with a definite function, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied to evaluate the investment efficiency of 14 major ports in China. Then the panel data model is applied to analyze the influencing factors of port investment efficiency. The study find that from 2003 to 2014 with the competition among ports, the investment efficiency of the ports in China is decreasing. Due to the different influence of each factor, the investment efficiency of the port is unbalanced in temporal and spatial distribution, there is large differences between regions. The main factors of ports investment efficiency is the level of economic development of the hinterland, but the emergence of a new mode of economic growth will lead to lowering investment efficiency of the port.