Data Envelopment Analysis: A Nonparametric Approach to Efficiency Assessment

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a nonparametric approach to efficiency analysis that was introduced by Charnes et al. (1978) in the field of academic research. DEA aims to compare the relative efficiency of decision units without imposing any specific assumptions about the functional form of the production process or the criteria used for evaluation. It utilizes input-output data to evaluate the efficiency of each unit in terms of their input-output relationship.