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Design of New Efficiency and Productivity Indexes with Applications

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 3078

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Economics and Social Sciences Department, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Valencia. 46022, Spain
Interests: efficiency; productivity; data envelopment analysis; Malmquist indexes; Luenberger indicators, sustainability measurement

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The literature on sustainability assessment has increased quite strongly over the last few years. However, there are relatively few publications that have used data envelopment analysis (DEA). A review of articles that associate DEA and sustainable development can be in found in Emrouznejad and Yang (2017) or Zhou et al. (2018).

This Special Issue seeks research papers on various aspects of efficiency and productivity analysis within the field of data envelopment analysis (DEA). We particularly encourage the submission of interdisciplinary works and multicountry collaborative research preferably related to sustainability. We welcome original research papers using different non-parametric techniques, as well as systematic reviews of efficiency and productivity analysis applications.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to the design of new DEA models based on the physical principle of minimum action; the design of new measures of economic efficiency, incorporating market prices; the study of productivity indexes that will allow comparing multiplicative Malmquist indexes with additive Luenberger indicators; the improvement of environmental DEA models considering the existence of undesirable outputs; the introduction of new DEA models for working with bounded variables; the analysis and improvement of computational aspects of DEA; the application of bi-level programming to different open DEA problems; the decompositions of global change into input and output components; the evaluations of productivity change and its components in the case of working with pseudo-panels; and other related topics.

This Special Issue welcomes methodological as well as applied contributions. In addition to expanding the theory related to DEA, including its interaction with other production planning techniques, we are interested in implementing the new proposals in different applied areas and sectors. Among them, we consider, but are not limited to, the challenges relating to sustainability, the socioeconomic, scientific, and integrated approaches to sustainable development and other topics related to sustainability (measuring sustainability, sustainability tools, applications of sustainability, etc.). Thus, the issue will focus on the proposal of methodological developments in the areas of measuring efficiency and evaluating productivity change over time. Our main aim is to improve the level of reliability and applicability of the actual efficiency indexes.

References:

Aparicio, J.; Lovell, C.A.K.; Pastor, J.T. Advances in Efficiency and Productivity. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science. Springer International Publishing. 2016.

Emrouznejad, A.; Yang, G.L. A survey and analysis of the first 40 years of scholarly literature in DEA: 1978–2016. Socio-Econ. Plan. Sci. 2017, 61, 4–8.

Łozowicka, A. Evaluation of the Efficiency of Sustainable Development Policy Implementation in Selected EU Member States Using DEA. The Ecological Dimension. Sustainability. 2020, 12, 435.

Zhou, H.; Yang, Y.; Chen, Y.; Zhu, J. Data envelopment analysis application in sustainability: The origins, development and future directions. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 2018, 264, 1–16.

Prof. Dr. Fernando Vidal Gimenez
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • efficiency
  • productivity
  • data envelopment analysis
  • Malmquist indexes
  • Luenberger indicators
  • sustainability measurement

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 591 KiB  
Article
Data Envelopment Analysis Applications on Primary Health Care Using Exogenous Variables and Health Outcomes
by Silvia González-de-Julián, Isabel Barrachina-Martínez, David Vivas-Consuelo, Álvaro Bonet-Pla and Ruth Usó-Talamantes
Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1337; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031337 - 27 Jan 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2752
Abstract
A data envelopment analysis was used to evaluate the efficiency of 18 primary healthcare centres in a health district of the Valencian Community, Spain. Factor analysis was used as a first step in order to identify the most explanatory variables to be incorporated [...] Read more.
A data envelopment analysis was used to evaluate the efficiency of 18 primary healthcare centres in a health district of the Valencian Community, Spain. Factor analysis was used as a first step in order to identify the most explanatory variables to be incorporated in the models. Included as variable inputs were the ratios of general practitioners, nurses, and costs; as output variables, those included were consultations, emergencies, avoidable hospitalisations, and prescription efficiency; as exogenous variables, those included were the percentage of population over 65 and a multimorbidity index. Confidence intervals were calculated using bootstrapping to correct possible biases. Efficient organisations within the set were identified, although the results depend on the models used and the introduction of exogenous variables. Pharmaceutical expenditure showed the greatest slack and room for improvement in its management. Data envelopment analysis allows an evaluation of efficiency that is focussed on achieving better results and a proper distribution and use of healthcare resources, although it needs the desired goals of the healthcare managers to be clearly identified, as the perspective of the analysis influences the results, as does including variables that measure the achievements and outcomes of the healthcare services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design of New Efficiency and Productivity Indexes with Applications)
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