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Comparative Efficiency Studies

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  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

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Synonyms

Efficiency analysis; Efficiency performance

Definition

The organization’s efficiency is about the comparison between the outputs (services or products) it produces and the inputs (resources) it uses. An efficient organization would be one that produces the maximum possible outputs given its inputs, or one that produces a certain level of output with the minimum amount of inputs.

Generally, the efficiency can be achieved under the conditions of maximizing the results of an action in relation to the resources used, and it is calculated by comparing the effects obtained in their efforts. Measuring the efficiency requires: (a) estimating the costs, the resources consumed the effort, in general, found in the literature as the input; (b) estimating the results, or the outputs (services, projects, products); (c) comparing the two.

Introduction

The efficiency issue is critical to evaluate the performance of an organization.

Measuring and managing performance is relevant to anyone –...

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References

  • Banker R, Charnes A, Cooper W (1984) Some models for estimating technical and scale inefficiencies in data envelopment analysis. Manag Sci 30:1078–1092

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  • Mihaiu, D. M., Opreana, A., & Cristescu, M. P. (2010). Efficiency, effectiveness and performance of the public sector. Romanian Journal of Economic Forecasting, 4(1), 132–147.

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  • Thanassoulis E (2000) The use of data envelopment analysis in the regulation of UK water utilities: water distribution. Eur J Oper Res 126(2):436–453

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  • Zhu J (2009) Quantitative models for performance evaluation and benchmarking: data envelopment analysis with spreadsheets. Springer, New York

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, University of Turin, C.so Unione Sovietica, 218 bis, 10134, Turin, Italy

    Simona Alfiero & Alfredo Esposito

Authors
  1. Simona Alfiero
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  2. Alfredo Esposito
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simona Alfiero .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Alfiero, S., Esposito, A. (2017). Comparative Efficiency Studies. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3292-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3292-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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