An additive two-stage DEA approach creating sustainability efficiency indexes

In this paper we apply an additive two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) estimator on a panel of 27 Annex I countries for the time period 2006-2010 in order to create sustainability efficiency indexes. The sustainability efficiency indexes are decomposed into economic and eco-efficiency indicators. The results reveal inequalities among the examined countries between the two stages. The eco-efficiency stage is characterized by large inequalities among countries and significantly lower efficiency scores than the overall or/and the economic efficiency stages. Finally, it is reported that a country’s high economic efficiency level does not ensure a high eco-efficiency performance.