基于成本函数的中国上市航空公司规模经济分析

Analyzing the economies of scale of China’s airline industry based on cost function

基于中国上市航空公司2005—2019年的财务数据和运营数据,在传统的超越对数成本函数模型中引入运营变量构建评价指标体系,选用航线数量作为网络规模变量,以区分规模经济和密度经济,并利用似不相关回归方法,测算中国上市航空公司的要素成本弹性、规模经济与密度经济值。结果表明:中国上市航空公司的规模经济值和密度经济值分别为1.3699和1.2821。其中,国有航空和民营航空的规模经济值分别为1.4069和1.2413,密度经济值分别为1.2972和1.1972,前者均优于后者,原因在于国有航空在资金、人事等方面具有天然优势,对优质航线和时刻资源的竞争能力更强。

Based on the financial and operational data of listed airlines in China(2005—2019),the evaluation index system was constructed by introducing operational variables in the traditional translog cost function model and choosing the number of routes as the network scale variable to distinguish between economies of scale and economies of density,and factor cost elasticity,economies of scale and economies of density were measured using the seemingly unrelated regression estimation.This research’s findings show that economies of scale and density values of China’s air transportation industry are 1.3699 and 1.2821,respectively.The economies of scale values of state-owned airlines and private airlines are 1.4069 and 1.2413,respectively,and the economies of density values are 1.2972 and 1.1972,respectively.The former is better than the latter,because state-owned airlines have natural advantages in capital and personnel,and are more competitive for high-quality routes and time resources.