Tae Hoon OumSomchai PathomsiriYuichiro YoshidaThe University of British ColumbiaMahidol UniversityNational Graduate Institute for Policy Studies2018-10-192018-10-192013-01-01Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. Vol.57, (2013), 16-26136655452-s2.0-84880327417https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/31451This paper measures and compares social efficiency of railway firms and airlines in Japan's domestic intercity travel market. Unlike other efficiency studies, our input and output measures are more comprehensive because we incorporate the life-cycle CO2emissions as an undesirable output and travelers' time and government spending on air infrastructure as inputs. We use the nonparametric directional output distance function (DODF) together with the composite social efficiency index to analyze the yearly panel data of the three major railroads and two major airlines during 1999-2007. The results indicate that the railroads are more socially efficient than airlines. Furthermore, we discuss the inability of nonparametric DODF method for comparing the social efficiency of firms across modes. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.Mahidol UniversityBusiness, Management and AccountingDecision SciencesSocial SciencesArticleSCOPUS10.1016/j.tre.2013.01.003