Journal of Environmental Management (I 995) 43, 49-66 Using Data Envelopment Analysis to Measure the Achievement and Change of Regional Development in Taiwan

The purpose of this paper is to extend the use of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, developed by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes, and which proposes a mathematical programming model for measuring the relative effectiveness of an organization, which is used in evaluating the relative achievement of regional developments in 23 administrative r gions of Taiwan in 1990. At the same time, this paper also extends the model for measuring the relative ffectiveness of an organization to become a model for measuring the effectiveness change of an organization by merging it with the Malmquist productivity approach, as expressed by F/ire et al. (1985, The Measurement of Efficiency. Boston: Kluwer-Nijhoft), and uses the model to determine whether the relative change of the regional development of the 23 administrative r gions in Taiwan moved forwards or backwards between 1983 and 1990. The model in this paper can be used to measure the relative ffectiveness and relative effectiveness change of an organization under multiple criteria, wherein each criterion represents a familiar performance ratio. The case in this paper also can provide useful information for the formulation of a regional development plan of Taiwan