The purpose of this paper is to show a way for extracting the core input and output variables in Korean seaports by using principal component analysis and DEA(data envelopment analysis). Two inputs/birthing capacity, and cargo handling capacity) and three outputs(export cargo handling amount, import cargo handling amount, and number of ship calls), and three cross sectional data(1995, 2000, and 2004) for 26 Korean seaports are considered for measuring the efficiencies of 21 DEA models. 21 models can be treated as variables and efficiencies as observations for extracting the core inputs and outputs variables by using principal component analysis. An empirical main result indicates that core input variable is cargo handling capacity, and core output is the number of ship calls. The Korean seaport authority can adopt the DEA and principal component analysis for deciding the development and investment to each seaport. |