The paper investigates the impact of subsidies and of para-agriculture on the technical efficiency of organic farms in Switzerland, Austria and Southern Germany. The data-set consists of bookkeeping data with 1,704 observations in the years 2003 to 2005. Technical efficiency is modelled using a...

We propose a two-stage procedure for finding realistic benchmarks for nonparametric efficiency analysis. On the first stage the efficient DMUs are figured out by a free disposal hull approach. These benchmarks are directly targeted by directional distance functions and the extent of inefficiency...

In this paper, we discuss three-stage models that control for exogenous, non-discretionary inputs in data envelopment analysis. In a recent article in this journal, Monte Carlo analysis was employed to compare and contrast alternative DEA models that measure efficiency in the presence of...

The performance of the airline industry has been widely studied using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Many existing DEA-based airline performance studies have used the standard DEA model, with some minor modifications. These studies have ignored the internal structure relative to the measures...

The conventional slacks-based measure (SBM) model is widely applied to measure the relative efficiency of a set of decision making units (DMUs) because the measured efficiency is not affected by weakly efficient frontiers. This model seeks the target point on the production frontier that is...

Production analysis matters in agricultural economics because technology shapes developments in agriculture as well as in related sectors, such as the food industry. Pro- ductivity and technical efficiency (TE) are key aspects in this context. In empirical analysis, inefficiency can be...

As the Argentinean grapevine production systems have gained global visibility, the wine industry has been revitalized with a greater focus on enological quality, technology adoption, and export orientation. Although grapevine production has decreased 36% in a decade nationwide, the province of...