Estimating technical efficiency of the coastal purse seines fishery using a stochastic frontier analysis

This study analyzes the technical efficiency of the coastal purse seine fishery in Korea, using the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). A Cobb-Douglas production function with inefficiency represented by a half-normal distribution was set up; and the output variable was the total production value and the input variables were physical production factors directly related to fishing activities of vessels, i.e. the numbers of tons, fishing days and crew size. The average technical efficiency of the sample vessels, estimated by SFA, was 60%, which meant there was a relatively high degree of inefficient production in the vessels. The technical efficiencies for each vessel were observed to spread evenly over a wide range between 14% and 100%. In addition, there was statistically significant difference in the technical efficiencies by vessel size: the technical efficiency was highest in the vessels of 5 tons and more, followed by those of less than 3 tons and those of 3-5 tons.