Productivity of airline carriers and its relation to deregulation, privatisation and membership in strategic alliances

Abstract

This study looks at how deregulation, privatisation and the formation of strategic alliances have affected the productivity of international airlines. We evaluate all three factors simultaneously and disaggregate the carriers’ operations into production and sales and allow for unobserved firm-level heterogeneity through random parameters. Estimations of stochastic frontier models reveal that on the aggregate level, deregulation increases productivity, membership in alliances has an ambiguous effect and state ownership has no significant effect. Disaggregating the carriers’ operations confirms the productivity gains from deregulation, and that state ownership and alliances have contradictory effects.