Quantitative Study on Privatization in Railway Idustry

本研究的主要目的是调查当所有权和/或管理形式从公共部门转变为私营部门时，日本铁路行业（如JRs和大型私营铁路）的效率和绩效指标发生了多大程度的变化。运用计量经济学和微观经济学的定量方法进行分析。1995财政年度，对现有的研究文献进行了调查，以便确定具体的方法，并找到通过私有化改变业绩的结果。在这一年里，我也收集了一些数据来调查上面提到的问题。在1996财年，我在建立了生产率变化和成本降低的模型后做了一些定量分析。进一步分析了所有制形式和尺度竞争对日本大型民营铁路运营成本降低的影响。我通过分析得到了几个有趣的结果，这些结果已经或将发表在几十年的期刊上。从这两年的分析中得出的几个重要结论总结如下：首先，就以劳动生产率衡量的生产率提高而言，私有化确实提高了生产率。根据劳动生产率比较模型，私有化对劳动生产率的影响在1981 - 1991年间增加了约29%。然而，小铁路的劳动生产率水平仍然比大型私营铁路低20%左右。其次，即使劳动生产率提高了，安全水平也没有下降。至于严重事故率，民营化前和民营化后没有差别。第三，根据1970年至1994年JR和私营铁路行业的超对数成本函数，私有化每年降低运营成本约0.2%。这意味着每年可节省约66亿日元的成本。第四，通过对公共和私营铁路的统计分析，发现所有制和竞争对运营成本的影响都是显著的。换句话说，私有制和尺度竞争的增加往往会降低运营成本。最后，尽管需要进一步调查，但尺度竞争可能在大型私营铁路公司中部分发挥作用。少

The main purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent efficiency and performance indicators have changed in the Japanese rail industry, such as among the JRs and large private railways, when ownership and/or management forms changed from the public to the private sector. The analysis was done by quantitative methods based upon econometrics and microeconomic theory. In FY1995, existing research literature was surveyed in order to concrete methodology and to find results on performance change through privatization. During that year, I also collected data in order to investigate the issues mentioned above. In FY1996, I did several quantitative analyzes after building models on productivity change and cost reduction. Furthermore, I analyzed the effects of ownership form and yardstick competition on operating cost reduction in Japanese large private railways. I have obtained several interesting results through analysis and these results have been and/or will be publishied in acade … More mic journals. Several omportant results obtained from this two-years analysis are summarized as follows :First of all, as for productivity improvement measured by labor productivity, it is true that privatization improves productivity. Based on labor productivity comparison models, privatization effects on labor productivity between 1981 and 1991 increased by about 29%. However, the labor productivity level of JRs is still lower than for large private railways by about 20%. Second, even if labor productivity was improved , the safety level did not deteriorated. As for serious accident rates, there is no difference between the preprivatization period and the after-privatization period. Third, based upon translog cost functions for JR and the private rail industry from 1970 to 1994, privatization reduced operating cost by annually about 0.2%. That means a cost saving of about 6.6 billion yen occurred annually. Fourth, using statistical analysis in both public and private railways, both ownership and competition effects on operating costs were found to be significant. In other words, private ownership and an increase of yardstick competition tend to decrease operating cost. Last, although further investigation is necessary, yardstick competition might work partially among large prizate railways. Less