The 20th and 21st joint COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals (CICTP 2020-21)

With the rapid economic development in China, substantial capital and resources are invested in urban logistics industry and urban logistics industry expanded quickly. In this paper, the efficiency and energy efficiency of urban logistics industry in China is measured through a stochastic frontier analysis based on a translog production function for the period of 2009-2017 with a sample of 216 prefecture-level Cities. The results suggest that: (1) Urban logistics efficiency scores are at low levels and imbalanced in sample cities. Cities located in eastern coastal region have the largest average efficiency score, central region is lower, and western region is the lowest. In contrast, energy efficiency scores are at low levels and on the decline during study period. (2) Technical change plays an important role in promoting urban logistics efficiency. (3) Economic development, digitalization, urbanization, and government intervention are positively correlated with efficiency of urban logistics. Industrial structure and urbanization have positive impact on the energy efficiency of urban logistics industry. (4) The effect of factors on urban logistics efficiency across the sample stratified between eastern, central, and western regions are in line with the estimation results with whole sample cities. Sensitivity analysis with density variables proved the robustness of research conclusions.

CICTP