Factors affecting technical efficiency in fisheries: stochastic production frontier versus data envelopment analysis approaches

Technical efficiency (TE) measures the relationship between a vessel's inputs to the fishing process and its outputs, with full efficiency being achieved when outputs are maximised from a given set of inputs. Inputs can be fixed (e.g. the vessel, gear, engine, onboard equipment, etc.) or variable (e.g. time spent fishing, size of crew). Fixed inputs may also be intangible, such as skipper skill and quality differences between technologies. TE scores can be calculated using the econometric stochastic production frontier (SPF) or the non-stochastic, linear-programming data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodologies. This paper compares the results of both techniques for segments of the English Channel fisheries. The influence of factors most affecting technical efficiency is analysed using an SPF inefficiency model and tobit regression of DEA-derived scores. Such factors include vessel and skipper characteristics. It is argued that DEA can be used as an alternative to SPF techniques when there is difficulty in specifying the correct SPF model. There is general consistency between SPF and DEA analyses in regard to the factors affecting TE.