AN EFFICIENCY STUDY OF THE CHINESE POSTAL SERVICES

Baruch Lundy
Savannah State University

José Humberto Ablanedo-Rosas
University of Texas at El Paso

Hongman Gao
Harold Lundy, Jr.
Alabama State University

ABSTRACT

The study analyzes the productivity and efficiency in the postal sector of China.. It
applies the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach to measure the efficiency of 31 different
provinces in China. Three different analyses are performed considering different returns to scale
and efficiency scores: constant return to scale composed by technical and scale efficiency,
variable return to scale based on pure technical efficiency, and a ratio of these two aimed to
measure scale efficiency. There are 8 Chinese provinces that achieved overall efficiency. Super-
efficiency scores are computed to discriminate efficient provinces. Some hypotheses are tested to
validate managerial recommendations and derive policy implications.
Keywords: Data envelopment analysis (DEA); Postal service efficiency; Chinese postal service;
Performance measurement