Permutation techniques, where one recompute the test statistic over permutations of data, have a long history in statistics and have become increasingly useful as the availability of computational power has increased. Until now, no permutation tests for examining returns to scale assumptions,...

The standard indicators used to compare cross-country innovation are in the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR). But there are problems with aggregation and response bias with these largely self-reported measures (Hollanders and van Cruysen, 2008). We propose a theory-based metric using Data...

Some models are presented in this paper which extend the concept of measuring superefficiency to the useful case of variable returns-to-scales (VRS), thus enabling the ranking of efficient as well as inefficient units. Two models, namely the Universal Radial Model and the Universal Additive...

Focusing in particular on upper secondary education, this paper examines whether the relatively high level of expenditure on education in the Nordic countries is matched by high output from the educational sector, both in terms of student enrolment and indicators of output quality in the form of...

Economic activity produces not only desirable outputs but also undesirable outputs that are usually called negative externalities in economic theory. Negative externalities are usually omitted from efficiency assessments (i.e., applications of Data Envelopment Analysis) which fail to express the...

We present an alternative decomposition technique to identify the factors which contribute to the change of aggregate CO2 emissions by using distance functions to model the joint production of desirable and undesirable outputs. The key feature of the proposed approach is the introduction of...

Purpose – This paper aims to propose an integration of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods in a multiattribute grey relational analysis (GRA) methodology in which the attribute weights are completely unknown and the attribute values take the form of...

The main goal of this research is to compare and contrast two methodologies that exist within the multi-criteria decision making field. After presenting Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Multi-Dimensional Scaling approach (Co-plot), the two techniques are evaluated and compared against...

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is widely used to compare the empirical performance of public institutions such as law enforcement agencies, judicial authorities or national health care systems. Many DEA analysts, however, ignore the fact that DEA efficiency values are non-metric. They...