Competition and public high school performance

Increasing the level of school competition has been suggested as a way to improve school performance. This study examines one of the most extreme examples of such reform using data from New Zealand public high schools. In the 1990s school zoning was abolished in New Zealand and public schools competed for students, not just with private schools, but also with each other. A categorical Data Envelopment Analysis model using data on school resources and student academic performance, stratified using student socio-economic characteristics, is used to calculate efficiency scores for schools. A regression model is then used to analyse differences in these efficiency scores and their relationship to different levels of competition.     

Investment and dynamic DEA

A dynamic version of data envelopment analysis (DEA) is developed in the present paper. Our model introduces investment in traditional DEA and imposes intertemporal cost minimization. Adding an intertemporal adjustment constraint into the cost minimization problem, we derive the relation between the DEA variables of the variable cost function and those of the primary production frontiers’ coefficients. The augmented DEA model can be solved using standard linear programming. This dynamic framework enables computing the production frontiers, measuring the productive efficiencies and evaluating the potential economies all in the presence of adjustment costs.

Congestion in the Chinese automobile and textile industries revisited

This paper re-examines a problem of congested inputs in the Chinese automobile and textile industries, which was identified by Cooper et al. [Cooper WW, Deng H, Gu B, Li S, Thrall RM. Using DEA to improve the management of congestion in Chinese industries (1981-1997). Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 2001;35:227-242]. Since these authors employed a single approach in measuring congestion, it is worth exploring whether alternative procedures would yield very different outcomes. Indeed, the measurement of congestion is an area where there has been much theoretical debate but relatively little empirical work. After examining the theoretical properties of the two main approaches currently available, those of Färe et al. [Färe R, Grosskopf S, Lovell CAK. The measurement of efficiency of production. Boston: Kluwer-Nijhoff; 1985] and Cooper et al., we use the data set assembled by Cooper et al. for the period 1981-1997 to compare and contrast the measurements of congestion generated by these alternative approaches. We find that the results are strikingly different, especially in terms of the amount of congestion identified. Finally, we discuss the new approach to measuring congestion proposed by Tone and Sahoo [Tone K, Sahoo BK. Degree of scale economies and congestion: a unified DEA approach. European Journal of Operational Research 2004;158:755-772].     

Classification in automobile insurance using a DEA and discriminant analysis hybrid

In this article, we adopt an efficiency approach to the two-group linear programming method of discriminant analysis (DA), using principles taken from data envelopment analysis (DEA), to predict group membership in an insurance underwriting scheme. Using an empirical insurance data base we illustrate the effectiveness of our model as a decision-making tool to distinguish among automobile insurance applicants by contrasting our hybrid model with both statistical and LP methods of discriminant analysis. We find for this insurance application that our hybrid model significantly outperforms the more traditional methods in separation and misclassification outcomes.     

Measuring efficiency in Australian Schools: A preliminary analysis

In this paper, we apply a public sector Data Envelopment Analysis model to estimate the efficiency of Australian primary and secondary schools. Standard microeconomic production theory showing the transformation of inputs into outputs is extended to allow nondiscretionary environmental variables characteristic of educational production. Failure to properly control for the socioeconomic environment leads to inappropriate comparisons and biased efficiency estimates. We employ a conditional estimator that does not allow a school with a better environment to serve as a benchmark for a school with a worse environment. The results suggest that Australian schools are moderately inefficient and that efficiency increases for the quintile of schools with the most favorable environment. Further, efficiency gains are realized with increasing enrollment.     

Target and technical efficiency in DEA: controlling for environmental characteristics

In this paper we propose a target efficiency DEA model that allows for the inclusion of environmental variables in a one stage model while maintaining a high degree of discrimination power. The model estimates the impact of managerial and environmental factors on efficiency simultaneously. A decomposition of the overall technical efficiency into two components, target efficiency and environmental efficiency, is derived. Estimation of target efficiency scores requires the solution of a single large non-linear optimization problem and provides both a joint estimation of target efficiency scores from all DMUs and an estimation of a common scalar expressing the environmental impact on efficiency for each environmental factor. We argue that if the indices on environmental conditions are constructed as the percentage of output with certain attributes present, then it is reasonable to let all reference DMUs characterized by a composed fraction lower than the fraction of output possessing the attribute of the evaluated DMU enter as potential dominators. It is shown that this requirement transforms the cone-ratio constraints on intensity variables in the BM-model (Banker and Morey 1986) into endogenous handicap functions on outputs. Furthermore, a priori information or general agreements on allowable handicap values can be incorporated into the model along the same lines as specifications of assurance regions in standard DEA.

Projections Onto Efficient Frontiers: Theoretical and Computational Extensions to DEA

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has been widely studied in the literature since its inception in 1978. The methodology behind the classical DEA, the oriented method, is to hold inputs (outputs) constant and to determine how much of an improvement in the output (input) dimensions is necessary in order to become efficient. This paper extends this methodology in two substantive ways. First, a method is developed that determines the least-norm projection from an inefficient DMU to the efficient frontier in both the input and output space simultaneously, and second, introduces the notion of the observable frontier and its subsequent projection. The observable frontier is the portion of the frontier that has been experienced by other DMUs (or convex combinations of such) and thus, the projection onto this portion of the frontier guarantees a recommendation that has already been demonstrated by an existing DMU or a convex combination of existing DMUs. A numerical example is used to illustrate the importance of these two methodological extensions.     

Financial liberalization and banking efficiency: evidence from Turkey

This paper examines the banking efficiency in a pre- and post-liberalization environment by drawing on the Turkish experience by using DEA. The paper also investigates the scale effect on efficiency. Our findings suggest that liberalization programs were followed by an observable decline in efficiency. Another finding of the study is that the Turkish banking system had a serious scale problem during the study period. The second part of our analysis relied on econometric methods and found that one major reason for such system-wide efficiency decline has been the growing macroeconomic instability of the Turkish economy in general and financial sector in particular.

Using DEA to improve the management of congestion in Chinese industries (1981–1997)

Congestion is said to be present when increases in inputs result in output reductions. An “iron rice bowl” policy instituted in China shortly after the revolution led by Mao Tze Tung resulted in congestion that ultimately led to bankruptcy in the textile industry, and near bankruptcy in other industries. A major policy shift away from the “iron rice bowl policy” in 1990 led to massive layoffs and increasing social tensions. Were these massive layoffs necessary? Extensions of data envelopment analysis models effected in the present paper identified inefficiencies in the management of congestion. Using textiles and automobiles for illustration, it is shown how elimination of such managerial inefficiencies could have led to output augmentation without reducing employment. Thus, even in the presence of congestion, it proved to be possible to identify additional (managerial) inefficiencies that provided opportunities for improvement. In the heavily congested textile industry, these output augmentations could have been accompanied by reductions in the amounts of capital used (as an added bonus). In any case, we show how to identify and evaluate new types of efficiency—viz., the efficiency with which needed (or desired) inefficiencies are managed.     

The efficient use of enterprise information for strategic advantage: A data envelopment analysis

A majority of manufacturers make use of some form of enterprise systems (ES), yet on average, the financial impact of ES adoption is essentially neutral. We propose that in an ES environment of easy information access, competitive success depends, in part, on the policies regulating enterprise information use. To explore this proposition, we examine the efficient use of different types of enterprise information in the realization of strategic performance. Efficient firms will devote fewer resources to information use to achieve the same strategic performance as less efficient firms.     

Multidimensional quality-of-life measure with an application to Fortune's best cities

The notion of the quality of life is about a finite set of measurable attributes that can be weighted by some metric. The quality of life has subjective as well as objective dimensions. Single dimension measures now are recognized as too narrow to fully capture differences in the quality of life. Based upon data envelopment analysis (DEA), the current paper demonstrates how to develop a multidimensional measure to characterize the quality of life and identify its best-practice frontier which balances work and family life and judges practical comfort. Benchmarks are introduced into DEA models to implicitly reflect tradeoff information on quality-of-life related factors and to incorporate evaluation standards. A method is proposed to determine the unique best quality-of-life scale target. Critical quality-of-life factors are identified in a multidimensional construct. Fortune magazine's choice of the 20 best cities—15 domestic and five international—is investigated.     

基于DEA的区域高等院校协作效率评价

本文应用DEA方法从定量的角度研究通过区域内和区域之间的合作带来的益处。通过构建评价高等院校协作效率的DEA模型,对某地14所院校的区域内和区域间的高等院校协作效率进行评价。计算结果表明,通过区域内合作,每一个区域内都有部分院校的效率有较大的提高,最高的超过30％。     

The benefits of non-radial vs. radial super-efficiency DEA: an application to burden-sharing amongst NATO member nations

Using radial super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) has improved the discriminating performance across efficient decision-making units (DMUs). This paper extends the super-efficiency approach to a non-radial super-efficiency DEA (NRSE-DEA) index. NRSE-DEA is shown to be invariant to units of input (output) measurement. NRSE-DEA is illustrated here via an application to NATO burden-sharing assessment in which the DMUs are the member nations of NATO. The NRSE-DEA provides additional insights into the ranking of efficient countries, suggesting which are absorbing a particularly large share of NATO responsibilities. The NRSE-DEA generates a smaller set of efficient DMUs. This, in turn, provides more discriminatory power, a more accurate measure of super-efficiency, a more meaningful ranking of the efficient burden sharing countries, and a more reliable assessment of contributions by NATO members, amongst other policy issues.     

Is human and financial investment in Chinese universities effective?

To obtain high-quality human resources and to gain advantages in the context of global competition, countries are constantly promoting the development of higher education. Enormous human and financial resources were invested in this “battle”. However, the “inputs” consumed by universities are largely ignored. A major issue, evaluating how well a country's universities make use of input resources in their output path, is of economic and social significance. The focus of this study is to embed the concept of capacity utilization in education and to assess the university's performance. We construct an attainable output-oriented capacity utilization measurement model by taking into account the heterogeneity of the region. According to the usage of the input, we divide the decision making units into four areas and identify the causes of inefficiency. Thus, the methodology proposed in this study provides policymakers an applicable tool on differences in educational inputs across regions. To illustrate the method, we conduct an empirical analysis using data from 54 universities directly under the Ministry of Education in China.