Non-frontier measures of efficiency, progress and regress

We deal in this paper wih efficiency, progress and regress without using the frontier concept. For describing the relation between inputs and outputs in production, we introduce a notion that we call “benchmark production correspondence” with which to measure progress and regress without running into the problems of distinguishing between efficiency gains and progress, or between efficiency losses and regress. An illustration with a monthly time series covering almost 15 years of the activities of an urban transit company is presented and contrasted with DEA and FDH nonparametric frontier approaches.