A Common Set of Weights for Ranking Decision-Making Units With Undesirable Outputs: A Double Frontiers Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

Major drawbacks of the traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) method include selecting optimal weights in a flexible manner, lacking adequate discrimination power for efficient decision-making units, and considering only desirable outputs. By introducing the concept of global efficiency optimization, this study proposed a double frontiers DEA approach with undesirable outputs to generate a common set of weights for evaluating all decision-making units from both the optimistic and pessimistic perspectives. For a unique optimal solution, compromise models for individual efficiency optimization were developed as a secondary goal. Finally, as an illustration, the models were applied to evaluate the energy efficiency of the Chinese regional economy. The results showed that the proposed approach could improve discrimination power and obtain a fair result in a case where both desirable and undesirable outputs exist