An additive super-efficiency DEA approach to measuring regional environmental performance in China

Abstract

ABSTRACTIt is one of the issues of current concern for international research engaged in data envelopment analysis (DEA) that how to achieve more accurate results of environmental and energy efficiency evaluation. Past studies about the application of DEA to environmental performance measurement often follow the concept of undesirable factors. In the context, slacks-based measure of super-efficiency, a non-radial super-efficiency model compared to the traditional radial super-efficiency DEA models, offers a remarkable alternative, largely due to their ability to deal with ranking the performance of efficient decision-making units (DMUs). This paper extends super-efficiency approach to the additive super-efficiency DEA approach with undesirable outputs to measuring environmental performance. Unlike the traditional radial super-efficiency DEA suffering from infeasibility, the additive super-efficiency models in the context of undesirable factors are always feasible. A case study of regional environmental performance in China is also presented by applying the proposed the additive super-efficiency DEA approach. The results show that the environmental efficiency scores of inefficient provinces were slightly lowered in China, and identified regions where these provinces have the capacity to develop without damaging overall performance.