IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v239y2014i3p776-785.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decomposing technical inefficiency using the principle of least action

Author

Listed:
  • Aparicio, Juan
  • Mahlberg, Bernhard
  • Pastor, Jesus T.
  • Sahoo, Biresh K.

Abstract

In for-profit organizations, profit efficiency decomposition is considered important since estimates on profit drivers are of practical use to managers in their decision making. Profit efficiency is traditionally due to two sources – technical efficiency and allocative efficiency. The contribution of this paper is a novel decomposition of technical efficiency that could be more practical to use if the firm under evaluation really wants to achieve technical efficiency as soon as possible. For this purpose, we show how a new version of the Measure of Inefficiency Proportions (MIP), which seeks the minimization of the total technical effort by the assessed firm, is a lower bound of the value of technical inefficiency associated with the directional distance function. The targets provided by the new MIP could be beneficial for firms since it specifies how firms may become technically efficient simply by decreasing one input or increasing one output, suggesting that each firm should focus its effort on a specific dimension (input or output). This approach is operationalized in a data envelopment analysis framework and applied to a dataset of airlines.

Suggested Citation

  • Aparicio, Juan & Mahlberg, Bernhard & Pastor, Jesus T. & Sahoo, Biresh K., 2014. "Decomposing technical inefficiency using the principle of least action," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(3), pages 776-785.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:239:y:2014:i:3:p:776-785
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2014.06.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221714004895
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2014.06.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coelli, Tim & Grifell-Tatje, Emili & Perelman, Sergio, 2002. "Capacity utilisation and profitability: A decomposition of short-run profit efficiency," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 261-278, October.
    2. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 2010. "Directional distance functions and slacks-based measures of efficiency: Some clarifications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 206(3), pages 702-702, November.
    3. Rolf Fare & Daniel Primont, 2006. "Directional duality theory Directional duality theory," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 29(1), pages 239-247, September.
    4. Sahoo, Biresh K. & Luptacik, Mikulas & Mahlberg, Bernhard, 2011. "Alternative measures of environmental technology structure in DEA: An application," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 215(3), pages 750-762, December.
    5. Ray,Subhash C., 2012. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107405264, October.
    6. W. Briec, 1997. "A Graph-Type Extension of Farrell Technical Efficiency Measure," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 95-110, March.
    7. Kerstens, Kristiaan & Mounir, Amine & Van de Woestyne, Ignace, 2011. "Geometric representation of the mean-variance-skewness portfolio frontier based upon the shortage function," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 210(1), pages 81-94, April.
    8. Fare, Rolf & Knox Lovell, C. A., 1978. "Measuring the technical efficiency of production," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 150-162, October.
    9. Juan Aparicio & José Ruiz & Inmaculada Sirvent, 2007. "Closest targets and minimum distance to the Pareto-efficient frontier in DEA," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 209-218, December.
    10. William Cooper & Jesús Pastor & Fernando Borras & Juan Aparicio & Diego Pastor, 2011. "BAM: a bounded adjusted measure of efficiency for use with bounded additive models," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 85-94, April.
    11. Robert Chambers & Thomas Mitchell, 2001. "Homotheticity and Non-Radial Changes," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 31-39, January.
    12. R. G. Chambers & Y. Chung & R. Färe, 1998. "Profit, Directional Distance Functions, and Nerlovian Efficiency," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 98(2), pages 351-364, August.
    13. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Sekitani, Kazuyuki, 2009. "An occurrence of multiple projections in DEA-based measurement of technical efficiency: Theoretical comparison among DEA models from desirable properties," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(2), pages 764-794, July.
    14. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Sekitani, Kazuyuki, 2007. "The measurement of returns to scale under a simultaneous occurrence of multiple solutions in a reference set and a supporting hyperplane," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 181(2), pages 549-570, September.
    15. Mahlberg, Bernhard & Sahoo, Biresh K., 2011. "Radial and non-radial decompositions of Luenberger productivity indicator with an illustrative application," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(2), pages 721-726, June.
    16. William Cooper & Kyung Park & Jesus Pastor, 1999. "RAM: A Range Adjusted Measure of Inefficiency for Use with Additive Models, and Relations to Other Models and Measures in DEA," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 5-42, February.
    17. Maria Silva Portela & Pedro Borges & Emmanuel Thanassoulis, 2003. "Finding Closest Targets in Non-Oriented DEA Models: The Case of Convex and Non-Convex Technologies," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 251-269, April.
    18. Bogetoft, Peter & Fare, Rolf & Obel, Borge, 2006. "Allocative efficiency of technically inefficient production units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 168(2), pages 450-462, January.
    19. Cooper, W.W. & Pastor, Jesus T. & Aparicio, Juan & Borras, Fernando, 2011. "Decomposing profit inefficiency in DEA through the weighted additive model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 212(2), pages 411-416, July.
    20. Gonzalez, Eduardo & Alvarez, Antonio, 2001. "From efficiency measurement to efficiency improvement: The choice of a relevant benchmark," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(3), pages 512-520, September.
    21. Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Weber, William L., 2009. "A directional slacks-based measure of technical inefficiency," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 274-287, December.
    22. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    23. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna, 2010. "Directional distance functions and slacks-based measures of efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 320-322, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aparicio, Juan & Garcia-Nove, Eva M. & Kapelko, Magdalena & Pastor, Jesus T., 2017. "Graph productivity change measure using the least distance to the pareto-efficient frontier in data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-14.
    2. Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Matousek, Roman & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2023. "Estimating the degree of firms’ input market power via data envelopment analysis: Evidence from the global biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 305(2), pages 946-960.
    3. Juan Aparicio & Magdalena Kapelko & Juan F. Monge, 2020. "A Well-Defined Composite Indicator: An Application to Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 186(1), pages 299-323, July.
    4. Bogetoft, Peter & Ramírez-Ayerbe, Jasone & Romero Morales, Dolores, 2024. "Counterfactual analysis and target setting in benchmarking," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 315(3), pages 1083-1095.
    5. Chao Lu & Jie Tao & Qiuxian An & Xiaodong Lai, 2020. "A second-order cone programming based robust data envelopment analysis model for the new-energy vehicle industry," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 292(1), pages 321-339, September.
    6. Juan Aparicio & Magdalena Kapelko & Bernhard Mahlberg & Jose L. Sainz-Pardo, 2017. "Measuring input-specific productivity change based on the principle of least action," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 17-31, February.
    7. Aparicio, Juan & Pastor, Jesús T. & Vidal, Fernando & Zofío, José L., 2017. "Evaluating productive performance: A new approach based on the product-mix problem consistent with Data Envelopment Analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 134-144.
    8. Alcaraz, Javier & Anton-Sanchez, Laura & Aparicio, Juan & Monge, Juan F. & Ramón, Nuria, 2021. "Russell Graph efficiency measures in Data Envelopment Analysis: The multiplicative approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(2), pages 663-674.
    9. Lozano, Sebastián & Calzada-Infante, Laura, 2018. "Computing gradient-based stepwise benchmarking paths," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 195-207.
    10. Aparicio, Juan & Cordero, Jose M. & Gonzalez, Martin & Lopez-Espin, Jose J., 2018. "Using non-radial DEA to assess school efficiency in a cross-country perspective: An empirical analysis of OECD countries," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 9-20.
    11. Ando, Kazutoshi & Minamide, Masato & Sekitani, Kazuyuki & Shi, Jianming, 2017. "Monotonicity of minimum distance inefficiency measures for Data Envelopment Analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 260(1), pages 232-243.
    12. Henriques, C.O. & Chavez, J.M. & Gouveia, M.C. & Marcenaro-Gutierrez, O.D., 2022. "Efficiency of secondary schools in Ecuador: A value based DEA approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PA).
    13. Tsionas, Mike G., 2024. "A generalized inefficiency model with input and output dependence," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(1), pages 315-323.
    14. Somayeh Razipour-GhalehJough & Farhad Hosseinzadeh Lotfi & Gholamreza Jahanshahloo & Mohsen Rostamy-malkhalifeh & Hamid Sharafi, 2020. "Finding closest target for bank branches in the presence of weight restrictions using data envelopment analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 288(2), pages 755-787, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aparicio, Juan & Borras, Fernando & Pastor, Jesus T. & Vidal, Fernando, 2013. "Accounting for slacks to measure and decompose revenue efficiency in the Spanish Designation of Origin wines with DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 231(2), pages 443-451.
    2. Aparicio, Juan & Borras, Fernando & Pastor, Jesus T. & Vidal, Fernando, 2015. "Measuring and decomposing firm׳s revenue and cost efficiency: The Russell measures revisited," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 19-28.
    3. Juan Aparicio & Magdalena Kapelko & Bernhard Mahlberg & Jose L. Sainz-Pardo, 2017. "Measuring input-specific productivity change based on the principle of least action," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 17-31, February.
    4. Hirofumi Fukuyama & Hiroya Masaki & Kazuyuki Sekitani & Jianming Shi, 2014. "Distance optimization approach to ratio-form efficiency measures in data envelopment analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 175-186, October.
    5. Jose Zofio & Jesus Pastor & Juan Aparicio, 2013. "The directional profit efficiency measure: on why profit inefficiency is either technical or allocative," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 257-266, December.
    6. Cooper, W.W. & Pastor, Jesus T. & Aparicio, Juan & Borras, Fernando, 2011. "Decomposing profit inefficiency in DEA through the weighted additive model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 212(2), pages 411-416, July.
    7. Aparicio, Juan & Monge, Juan F. & Ramón, Nuria, 2021. "A new measure of technical efficiency in data envelopment analysis based on the maximization of hypervolumes: Benchmarking, properties and computational aspects," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(1), pages 263-275.
    8. Juan Aparicio & Jesus T. Pastor & Jose L. Sainz-Pardo & Fernando Vidal, 2020. "Estimating and decomposing overall inefficiency by determining the least distance to the strongly efficient frontier in data envelopment analysis," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 747-770, June.
    9. Adler, Nicole & Volta, Nicola, 2016. "Accounting for externalities and disposability: A directional economic environmental distance function," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(1), pages 314-327.
    10. Liu, Guangtian & Wang, Bing & Zhang, Ning, 2016. "A coin has two sides: Which one is driving China’s green TFP growth?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 481-498.
    11. Fangqing Wei & Junfei Chu & Jiayun Song & Feng Yang, 2019. "A cross-bargaining game approach for direction selection in the directional distance function," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 41(3), pages 787-807, September.
    12. Halická, Margaréta & Trnovská, Mária, 2021. "A unified approach to non-radial graph models in data envelopment analysis: common features, geometry, and duality," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 289(2), pages 611-627.
    13. Halická, Margaréta & Trnovská, Mária & Černý, Aleš, 2024. "A unified approach to radial, hyperbolic, and directional efficiency measurement in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(1), pages 298-314.
    14. Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Matousek, Roman, 2018. "Nerlovian revenue inefficiency in a bank production context: Evidence from Shinkin banks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 271(1), pages 317-330.
    15. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Wang, H., 2012. "Energy and CO2 emission performance in electricity generation: A non-radial directional distance function approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(3), pages 625-635.
    16. Chen, Po-Chi & Yu, Ming-Miin & Chang, Ching-Cheng & Hsu, Shih-Hsun & Managi, Shunsuke, 2015. "The enhanced Russell-based directional distance measure with undesirable outputs: Numerical example considering CO2 emissions," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 30-40.
    17. Aparicio, Juan & Pastor, Jesus T., 2014. "Closest targets and strong monotonicity on the strongly efficient frontier in DEA," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 51-57.
    18. Jradi, Samah & Bouzdine Chameeva, Tatiana & Aparicio, Juan, 2019. "The measurement of revenue inefficiency over time: An additive perspective," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 167-180.
    19. Färe, Rolf & Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Grosskopf, Shawna & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2015. "Decomposing profit efficiency using a slack-based directional distance function," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 247(1), pages 335-337.
    20. Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Matousek, Roman & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2022. "Bank production with nonperforming loans: A minimum distance directional slack inefficiency approach," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:239:y:2014:i:3:p:776-785. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.