Evaluation of the eco-efficiency of territorial districts with seaport economic activities

Abstract

The port sector has received growing attention from port authority managers and policymakers. The strategic relevance of ports has improved, but the environment is negatively affected by port operations. This study attempts to assess the performance of twenty-four European ports considering their eco-efficiency. The stochastic frontier analysis has been proposed to evaluate the port performance, and several data envelopment analysis estimations have been calculated to verify the consistency condition. Evidence suggests that recent management efforts to increase the volume of the ports’ activity do not impair their eco-efficiency, and policymakers can refer to different theoretical patterns to verify the potential impact of specific measurements targeted at improving eco-efficiency performance.