The hybrid returns-to-scale model and its extension by production trade-offs: an application to the efficiency assessment of public universities in Malaysia
Most applications of data envelopment analysis (DEA) employ standard constant or variable returns-to-scale models. In this paper we suggest that these models may sometimes underutilize our knowledge of the underlying production process. For example, in the context of higher education considered i...
Main Authors: | , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English English English |
Published: |
Springer
2017
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/42577/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/42577/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/42577/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/42577/4/42577_The%20hybrid%20returns-to-scale%20model%20and%20its%20extension%20by%20production_Scopus.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/42577/10/42577_The%20hybrid%20returns-to-scale%20model.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/42577/16/42577_The%20hybrid%20returns-to-scale%20model_wos.pdf |
Summary: | Most applications of data envelopment analysis (DEA) employ standard constant
or variable returns-to-scale models. In this paper we suggest that these models may sometimes
underutilize our knowledge of the underlying production process. For example, in the
context of higher education considered in the reported application, individual universities
often maintain a certain student-to-staff ratio which points that there should be an approximately
proportional relationship between students and staff, at least in the medium to long
run.Adifferent example is an observation that the teaching of postgraduate students generally
requires more resources than the teaching of the same number of undergraduate students. In
order to incorporate such information in a DEA model, we propose a novel approach that
combines the recently developed hybrid returns-to-scale DEA model with the use of production
trade-offs. The suggested approach leads to a better-informed model of production
technology than the conventional DEA models. We illustrate this methodology by an application
to Malaysian public universities. This approach results in a tangibly better efficiency
discrimination than would be possible with the standard DEA models. |
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