A Study On Price Regulation Of China's Port Industry Based On DEA Model

As an integral part of national infrastructure, port is of strategic significance to the economy of each country. By virtue of its characteristics such as scale economy and regional monopoly, China's ports have been under the strict regulation of government for a long period. However, the natural monopoly industries have been gradually deregulated on a worldwide basis since the 1970s. Against this background, the reform concerning price regulation of port industry in China is accordingly attached more importance.With the aim of resolving the issue with regard to price regulation of port industry, this thesis mainly applies the theories and methods from regulatory economics and port economics. Particularly, the key point lies in the empirical research of port efficiency in virtue of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Model, so as fix the efficiency factor X value which is always a difficulty in the Price Cap Regulation Model of port industry.First of all, this thesis clarifies the related theories including natural monopolies, price regulation and performance benchmark, especially gives detailed description about price cap regulation (RPI-X ) model which is commonly utilized in a variety of natural monopoly industry. Secondly, the development history of price regulation in China's port and existing problems are summarized. Besides, on the basis of successful experience from foreign counterparts, the underlying motivation and basic ideas of reform in this respect is analyzed in depth. Finally, the super-efficiency DEA model is introduced in the research regarding price regulation of port industry in order to evaluate the efficiency of main listed port enterprise in China, thus determine the efficiency of the ports business factor X values. This thesis is not only a creative exploration in theory, but also has its value of guidance in the price regulation of China's port industry.