¹Instituto de Economia e Gestao, Technical University of Lisbon, Rua Miguel Lupi, 20, 1249-078 Lisbon, Portugal. E-mail: cbarros@iseg.utl.pt

Abstract

This paper analyses the extent of technical change and technical efficiency in Portuguese seaport costs between 1990 and 2000, using a stochastic cost frontier method. A translog frontier and the maximum likelihood estimation technique are employed to estimate the empirical model. The results show that the average score of inefficiency is 39.6%, denoting a high degree of waste in the use of resources, despite the fact that technical change contributed to a reduction of costs.