Evaluate the Investment Efficiency by Using Data Envelopment Analysis: The Case of China

Although investment is regarded as a key force of China’s economic growth, little study has been done to measure China’s investment efficiency. The present paper applies the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to Chinese provincial panel data from the year 2003 to 2008 for measuring the investment efficiencies and identifying their trends of Chinese 30 provinces and autonomous regions. A cross-efficient DEA model with considering benevolent formulation is used for providing accurate efficiency scores and completely ranking. The empirical results suggest that the differences of investment efficiency in different regions are distinct but tending to diminish year by year, and the investment effi-ciencies in some provinces are significantly correlated to their investment rates to the national total investment