The impact of the platform economy and environmental regulations on the technical efficiency of the express delivery industry

ABSTRACT

This study proposes a projection pursuit – stochastic frontier analysis (PP-SFA) approach to address the shortcomings of SFA, which can only deal with a single output. The PP-SFA approach is employed to investigate the influencing factors and efficiency of the express industry in 31 provinces of China. The conclusions demonstrate that: (1) the technical efficiency of the express delivery industry in China is low, and the gap between the different regions is large. (2) An increase in the number of employees in the logistics industry will significantly promote the express delivery industry efficiency, while the increase of business outlets will inhibit this. (3) E-commerce sales platforms have a remarkably positive influence on the efficiency of the express delivery industry, but stricter control in environmental pollution restrain the industry’s technical efficiency. Furthermore, this paper advances proposals from the enterprise and government perspectives to promote the efficient development of China’s express industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Platform economy
• express delivery industry
• efficiency
• environmental regulations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under [grant number 71801001].