On the Matthew effect in a multi-airport system: Evidence from the viewpoint of airport green efficiency

Abstract

When formulating a coordinated development strategy for a Multi-Airport System (MAS), it is necessary to consider discrepancies, such as sustainable development level measured by the green efficiency, among member airports. We are particularly interested in whether a so-called “Matthew effect” intensifies these discrepancies. A Matthew effect is a social phenomenon often linked to the idea that “the strong get stronger and the weak weaker”. To this end, we take the MAS in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region (China) as an example and use a super-efficiency data envelopment analysis model based on directional distance function to evaluate the green efficiency of 12 member airports from 2007 to 2019. On that basis, the traditional and spatial transition probability matrices are applied to investigate the Matthew effect with(out) spatial effect, respectively. Our analysis shows that: (1) the green efficiency of YRD MAS has an increasing trend, and the variation of efficiency has a decreased trend; (2) the reverse Matthew effect exists from the standpoint of airport efficiency; (3) a spatial effect has a significant impact on the degree of reverse Mathew effect, and depends on the efficiency types of neighboring airports; and (4) spatial aggregation effect of airports with same efficiency type is not conducive to airport efficiency improvement. We also provide some recommendations to improve airport green efficiency and add to coordinated development for the MAS.