Airport Costs and Production Technology: A Translog Cost Function Analysis with Implications for Economic Development.

摘要

Based upon 50 large and medium hub airports over a 13 year period, this research estimates one and two output translog models of airport short run operating costs. Output is passengers transported on non-stop segments and pounds of cargo shipped. The number of runways is a quasi-fixed factor of production. Statistical tests reject the null hypothesis that airport production technology is homothetic and homogeneous, exhibits constant returns to scale, or reflects a Cobb-Douglas production technology. From the analysis, airports operate under increasing returns to runway utilization and increasing ray economies of scale for the two-output model. Airport operating costs were 2% higher after the September 1, 2001 terrorist attacks. The input demand for general airport operations is price elastic, and Morishima substitution elasticities indicate that Personnel, Repair-Maintenance-Contractual services, and General Airport Operations are substitutes in production. For the one output passenger model, an exploratory analysis identifies a relationship between the average cost of airport operations and indicators of economic development. All else constant, a decrease in an airports real average operating costs is associated with increasing metropolitan employment, the number of establishments, and real gross metropolitan and state products.