Productivity, efficiency and technical change in the European railways: A non-parametric approach

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the evolution of productivity in th e European railways in the period 1970--95. We use a non-parametric approac h that enables changes in productivity to be broken down into variations in efficiency and technical change. The results indicate that the productivit y growth is concentrated in the last period (1985--95), when the majority o f the companies undertook processes of reforms. This increase in productivi ty is mainly due to technical progress. We also analyse the determinants of efficiency and, unlike other papers, the technical change, finding that th e greater the degree of autonomy and financial independence, the higher the efficiency levels and technical change.