Title: Ranking and measuring efficiency using secondary goals of cross-efficiency evaluation - a study of railway efficiency in Iran

Authors: Mohammad Mahallati Rayeni; Faranak Hosseinzadeh Saljooghi

Addresses: Faculty of Bahonar, Technical and Vocational University, Ghalambor Blvd., P.O. Box 98135-671, Zahedan, Iran ' Department of Mathematics, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, University Blvd., P.O. Box 98155-987, Zahedan, Iran

Abstract: This paper makes use of cross-efficiency measures, as an extension to data envelopment analysis (DEA). The cross-efficiency evaluation not only provides a ranking among the decision-making units (DMUs) but also eliminates unrealistic DEA weighting schemes without requiring a priori information on weight restrictions. A problem that possibly reduces the usefulness of the cross-efficiency evaluation method is that the cross-efficiency scores may not be unique due to the presence of alternate optima. So, it is recommended that secondary goals be introduced in cross-efficiency evaluation. In some cases, pursuing the best ranking is more important than maximising the individual score. This paper develops a new secondary goal based on symmetric weights selection. For illustration of models, the railway activities from 1977 to 2010 are considered and the efficiency of each year is calculated and compared to the other years.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis; DEA; cross-efficiency evaluation; secondary goals; symmetric weights; ranking; Iran; railway efficiency; railways; efficiency measures.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2014.057992

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2014 Vol.17 No.1, pp.1 - 16

Published online: 17 Jun 2014 *

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