A Russell Measure for Modeling Environmental Performance

Subject Areas : International Journal of Data Envelopment Analysis

H. Zare Haghighi ¹ , M. Rostamy-Malkhalifeh ²

1 - Department of Mathematics, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Department of Mathematics, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2013-11-30 Accepted : 2014-03-16 Published : 2014-03-30

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis, Environmental performance, Undesirable Output,

Abstract :

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has been long employed as a popular methodology to evaluatethe performance of various production activities with multiple inputs and outputs. However, animportant issue is that the production process in the real world inevitably generates undesirableoutputs (like wastes and pollutants) along with desirable outputs. Therefore, the undesirable outputsshould be included into the environmental performance evaluation. This study surveys the twotechnologies which is available in the DEA literature for modelling environmental performance underweak disposability assumption of good and bad outputs. Then, it attempts to present a Russellmeasure that incorporates both desirable and undesirable outputs. To illustrate the use of the proposedmethod, an empirical application corresponding to 31 administrative regions of China is provided andinterpreted.