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In this paper we propose a new technique for incorporating environmental effects and statistical noise into a producer performance evaluation based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). The technique involves a three-stage analysis. In the first stage, DEA is applied to outputs and inputs only, to obtain initial measures of producer performance. In the second stage, stochastic frontier analysis (SEA) is used to regress first stage performance measures against a set of environmental variables. This provides, for each input or output (depending on the orientation of the first stage DEA model), a three-way decomposition of the variation in performance into a part attributable to environmental effects, a part attributable to managerial inefficiency, and a part attributable to statistical noise. In the third stage, either inputs or outputs (again depending on the orientation of the first stage DEA model) are adjusted to account for the impact of the environmental effects and the statistical noise uncovered in the second stage, and DEA is used to re-evaluate producer performance. Throughout the analysis emphasis is placed on slacks, rather than on radial efficiency scores, as appropriate measures of producer performance. An application to nursing homes is provided to illustrate the power of the three-stage methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DEA is typically applied to cross-section data to analyze productive efficiency. DEA is infrequently applied to panel data to analyze the variation of productive efficiency over time, but when it is, the technique of choice has been window analysis. Here, we adopt a different approach to the use of DEA with panel data. Following the lead of Färe and others, we use DEA to construct a Malmquist index of productivity change, and we provide a new decomposition of the Malmquist productivity index. Our new decomposition allocates productivity change to change in productive efficiency, the magnitude of technical change, and the bias of technical change. We then propose an evaluation of managerial performance, not on the usual basis of static efficiency, but on the intertemporal basis of change in efficiency and adaptation to the bias of technical change. We illustrate our approach with an examination of the recent productivity change experience in Spanish savings banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract--Multilateral productivity comparisons of firms producing multiple outputs, some of which are undesirable, are obtained by making two modifications to the standard Farrell approach to efficiency measurement. The restriction that production technology satisfy strong disposability of outputs is relaxed to allow for the fact that undesirable outputs may be freely disposable, and the efficiency measures are modified to allow for an asymmetric treatment of desirable and undesirable outputs. Performance measures that satisfy these requirements are calculated as solutions to programming problems. The methodology is applied to a sample of mills producing paper and pollutants [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]