Synopsis
This paper is the first comprehensive investigation of the shipping industry’s efficiency in five countries from the ASEAN region: Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Employing Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Analysis, we compare efficiency dynamics of 45 international and offshore shipping providers engaged in fishing and ferrying. Our results indicate consistently diminishing efficiency from 2011 to 2017, a phenomenon that persists even in the traditionally efficient companies. Thereafter, we develop Altman Z-scores for the sampled companies and notice that despite rising inefficiency, most firms remain unencumbered by bankruptcy concerns, especially those with large capital buffers. In general, we observe a negative relationship between bankruptcy risk and efficiency. Furthermore, we notice that reducing inputs does not help boost efficiency.
JEL Codes: C14, G33, R4
Keywords
Efficiency; Data envelopment analysis; Stochastic frontier analysis; Z-scores; Shipping companies.
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