Finding Common Ground: Efficiency Indices

The last two decades have witnessed a revival in interest in the measurement of productive efficiency pioneered by (1957) and (1951). 1978 was a watershed year in this revival with the christening of DEA by (1978) and the critique of Farrell technical efficiency in terms of axiomatic production and index number theory in Fare and (1978). These papers have inspired many others to apply these methods and to add to the debate on how best to define technical efficiency.