Environmental DEA method for assessing productivity of European countries

Abstract

The article presents the concept of environmental efficiency analysis based on the method of Data Envelopment Analysis in the case of the existence of desirable and undesirable results. Theoretical considerations are illustrated by a case study of European countries and evaluation of productivity taking into account not only economic growth but also effects which are undesirable and impossible to eliminate entirely, such as the impact on the environment. The differences in the results are explained by the relationship between policies aiming at supporting research and development with the use of the Tobit regression model. The added value of this work is to propose an integration of environmental DEA method with the concept of technological competitors. The possibility of applying the concept of DEA to technological competition was presented in the form of classification and benchmarking of the European countries. It is concluded that European countries are highly diversified in regard to the efficiency of environmental performance.

Keywords:

• environmental performance
• data envelopment analysis (DEA)
• undesirable outputs
• efficiency
• Tobit regression
• benchmarking

JEL Classification:

• C44
• O44

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ewa Chodakowska

Ewa CHODAKOWSKA. Received her PhD degree in management sciences from the Faculty of Management at the Warsaw University. Member of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society, Section of Classification and Data Analysis of the Polish Statistical Association and the Polish Society of Production Management. Area of research interests: productivity, data analysis, forecasting and data science.

Joanicjusz Nazarko

Joanicjusz NAZARKO is a Professor of both technical and economic sciences, ordinary member of the Polish Academy of Engineering and a Presidium member of the Production Engineering Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is currently serving as the Director of International China and Central-Eastern Europe Institute of Logistics and Service Science. He also holds the posts of an Professeur Associé at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Canada) and an Honorary Professor of Zhejiang University Ningbo Institute of Technology (China). He was a Rector of Bialystok University of Technology in the years 2005–2008. His academic interests include technology foresight, forecasting, modelling and simulation in technical and economic systems, logistic systems as well productivity analysis and benchmarking. He is the author or co-author of more than 200 technical and scholarly works published in reputable journals. He regularly speaks and presents his work at numerous Polish and international conferences. He has been a visiting professor at universities in China, Finland, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Lithuania and USA.