IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jomega/v24y1996i3p229-244.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A comparison of data envelopment analysis and ratio analysis as tools for performance assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Thanassoulis, E.
  • Boussofiane, A.
  • Dyson, R. G.

Abstract

This paper compares data envelopment analysis (DEA) and ratio analysis as alternative tools for assessing the performance of organisational units such as bank branches and schools. Such units typically use one or more resources to secure one or more outputs, the inputs and/or outputs being possibly incommensurate. The assessment of District Health Authorities in England on the provision of perinatal care is used as a vehicle for comparing the two methods. The comparison focuses on how well the two methods agree on the performance of a unit relative to that of other units, and on the estimates of targets each method provides for improving the performance of units. It is found that provided the performance indicators capture all variables used in the DEA assessment the two methods agree reasonably closely on the performance of the units as a whole, though this depends on the way the performance indicators are combined into a summary figure of performance. The two methods can disagree substantially on the relative performance of individual units. Ratio analysis, unlike DEA, is not found to be suitable for setting targets so that units can become more efficient. This is mainly due to the fact that DEA takes simultaneous account of all resources and outputs in assessing performance while ratio analysis relates only one resource to one output at a time. However, the two methods can support each other if used jointly. Ratios do provide useful information on the performance of a unit on specific aspects and they can support the communication of DEA results to non-specialists when the two methods agree on performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Thanassoulis, E. & Boussofiane, A. & Dyson, R. G., 1996. "A comparison of data envelopment analysis and ratio analysis as tools for performance assessment," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 229-244, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:24:y:1996:i:3:p:229-244
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0305-0483(95)00060-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Thanassoulis, E. & Dyson, R. G., 1992. "Estimating preferred target input-output levels using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 80-97, January.
    2. Boussofiane, A. & Dyson, R. G. & Thanassoulis, E., 1991. "Applied data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 1-15, May.
    3. Michael Barrow & Adam Wagstaff, 1989. "Efficiency measurement in the public sector: an appraisal," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 10(1), pages 72-97, February.
    4. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    5. Cook, Wade D. & Kazakov, Alex & Roll, Yaakov & Seiford, Lawrence M., 1991. "A data envelopment approach to measuring efficiency: Case analysis of highway maintenance patrols," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 83-103.
    6. 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.
    7. Thompson, Russell G. & Langemeier, Larry N. & Lee, Chih-Tah & Lee, Euntaik & Thrall, Robert M., 1990. "The role of multiplier bounds in efficiency analysis with application to Kansas farming," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 93-108.
    8. Thanassoulis, E. & Boussofiane, A. & Dyson, R. G., 1995. "Exploring output quality targets in the provision of perinatal care in England using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 588-607, February.
    9. Thanassoulis, Emmanuel, 1995. "Assessing police forces in England and Wales using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 641-657, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Karkazis, John & Thanassoulis, Emmanuel, 1998. "Assessing the effectiveness of regional development policies in Northern Greece using data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 123-137, June.
    2. Reuben Elan & Verma Bharat Bhushan & Bhat Ramesh, 2001. "Hospital Efficiency: An Empirical Analysis of District and Grant-in-Aid Hospitals in Gujarat," IIMA Working Papers WP2001-07-05, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    3. Thanassoulis, E., 1996. "A data envelopment analysis approach to clustering operating units for resource allocation purposes," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 463-476, August.
    4. Adler, Nicole & Friedman, Lea & Sinuany-Stern, Zilla, 2002. "Review of ranking methods in the data envelopment analysis context," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 249-265, July.
    5. Avkiran, Necmi K., 2001. "Investigating technical and scale efficiencies of Australian Universities through data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 57-80, March.
    6. Harald Dyckhoff & Katrin Allen, 1999. "Theoretische Begründung einer Effizienzanalyse mittels Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 411-436, May.
    7. Thanassoulis, Emmanuel, 1995. "Assessing police forces in England and Wales using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 641-657, December.
    8. Francisco Pedraja & Javier Salinas & Peter Smith, 1994. "La restricción de las ponderaciones en el análisis envolvente de datos: una fórmula para mejorar la evaluación de la eficiencia," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 18(2), pages 365-380, May.
    9. E. Thanassoulis & R. Allen, 1998. "Simulating Weights Restrictions in Data Envelopment Analysis by Means of Unobserved DMUs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(4), pages 586-594, April.
    10. Yang, J.B. & Wong, B.Y.H. & Xu, D.L. & Liu, X.B. & Steuer, R.E., 2010. "Integrated bank performance assessment and management planning using hybrid minimax reference point - DEA approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(3), pages 1506-1518, December.
    11. Petridis, Konstantinos & Malesios, Chrisovalantis & Arabatzis, Garyfallos & Thanassoulis, Emmanuel, 2013. "Efficiency analysis of forestry journals: Suggestions for improving journals’ quality," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 505-521.
    12. Emmanuel Thanassoulis & Maria Da Conceicao & A. Silva Portela, 2002. "School Outcomes: Sharing the Responsibility Between Pupil and School1," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 183-207.
    13. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2008. "Technical efficiency of thermoelectric power plants," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 3118-3127, November.
    14. Carlos Pestana Barros & Maria Teresa Medeiros Garcia, 2006. "Performance Evaluation of Pension Funds Management Companies with Data Envelopment Analysis," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 9(2), pages 165-188, September.
    15. Yang, Jian-Bo & Wong, Brandon Y.H. & Xu, Dong-Ling & Stewart, Theodor J., 2009. "Integrating DEA-oriented performance assessment and target setting using interactive MOLP methods," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 195(1), pages 205-222, May.
    16. Lee, Seonghee & Lee, Hakyeon, 2015. "Measuring and comparing the R&D performance of government research institutes: A bottom-up data envelopment analysis approach," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 942-953.
    17. Tone, Kaoru & Sahoo, Biresh K., 2005. "Evaluating cost efficiency and returns to scale in the Life Insurance Corporation of India using data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 261-285, December.
    18. Halme, Merja & Korhonen, Pekka, 2000. "Restricting weights in value efficiency analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 175-188, October.
    19. Debora Di Caprio & Ali Ebrahimnejad & Mojtaba Ghiyasi & Francisco J. Santos-Arteaga, 2020. "Integrating fuzzy goal programming and data envelopment analysis to incorporate preferred decision-maker targets in efficiency measurement," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 43(2), pages 673-690, December.
    20. Shang, Jen & Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki, 1995. "A unified framework for the selection of a Flexible Manufacturing System," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 297-315, September.

    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:jomega:v:24:y:1996:i:3:p:229-244. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/375/description#description .

    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.