Géographie et transports publics locaux

This paper investigates how geography affects the performance of local public transport firms in Italy. Using data on 110 firms involved in urban and interurban transport, we provide different estimates of stochastic cost frontiers. It emerges that geographic variables impact on the efficiency of firms. In particular, we find that transport in metropolitan areas and in mountain areas account for a loss in efficiency of 15-21 % and of 15-18 %, respectively.