Impact of Port Recentralization on Efficiency of Chinese Coastal Listed Port Companies

Port governance has had a substantial impact on port operations. China launched the port-recentralization reform in 2015 to better allocate resources and improve efficiency. This was a reverse reform of port decentralization, and it is of great practical significance to assess its impact. This study empirically examines how port-governance recentralization affects port efficiency from the perspective of enterprise operation of listed port companies from 2010 to 2022. Using the super-efficiency slacks-based measure for efficiency analysis and the Tobit model for impact analysis, and decomposing the overall technical efficiency (TE) into pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE), it is found that: 1) the average values of TE, PTE, and SE first decreased and then increased, supporting the 2015 reform to some extent; 2) the establishment of provincial port groups (PPGs) increased PTE, but the changes in TE and SE were small; 3) the changes in corporate structure did not improve TE and PTE, but reduced SE. Because of the offsetting improvement in PTE and decrease in SE, port recentralization may not always increase overall efficiency. This study contributes by empirically revealing the complex micro-level effects of port-recentralization reform. It offers decision-making insights for port managers and related enterprises to maximize the positive effects of port reform on management and technology, while minimizing its negative effects on returns to scale.