Long-term cost efficiency of alternative management forms for urban public transport from the public sector perspective

The aim of this paper is to analyse the long-term efficiency of different management forms for urban public transport, using a sample of 193 Spanish municipalities for the period 2014–2016. The analysis is performed using the order-m data panel method proposed by Garrido et al. (2018) and the concept of the meta-frontier (Battese et al., 2004). This approach is based on an analysis of panel data cost efficiency as described by Surroca et al. (2016) and provides a stable, homogeneous and comparable estimate of the efficiency obtained by different management forms in the delivery of urban public transport. The study results indicate that inter-municipal cooperation is the most efficient form of long-term management.