Experimental evidence on robustness of data envelopment analysis

Don Galagedera and P Silvapulle
Additional contact information
P Silvapulle: Monash University

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2003, vol. 54, issue 6, 654-660

Abstract: Abstract There is an on-going debate about variable selection in data envelopment analysis (DEA) as there are no diagnostic checks for model misspecification. This paper contributes to this debate by investigating the sensitivity of DEA efficiency estimates to including inappropriate and/or omitting several important variables in a large-sample DEA model. Data are simulated from constant, increasing and decreasing returns-to-scale (RS) Cobb–Douglas production processes. For constant and decreasing RS processes with irrelevant inputs, DEA tends to overestimate efficiency in almost all production units. When relevant variables are omitted, variable RS appears to be a safer option. The correct RS specification is vital when the DEA model includes irrelevant variables. The effect of omission of relevant inputs on individual production unit efficiency is more adverse compared to the inclusion of irrelevant ones.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis; robustness and sensitivity analysis; variable selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601507 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:54:y:2003:i:6:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601507

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... search/journal/41274

DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601507

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Operational Research Society is currently edited by Tom Archibald and Jonathan Crook

More articles in Journal of the Operational Research Society from Palgrave Macmillan, The OR Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().