Showing papers by "Abraham Charnes published in 1988"

A goal programming/constrained regression review of the Bell system breakup

Abstract: The recently implemented court decision to break up Bell (=American Telephone & Telegraph Co.) to accord with U.S. anti-trust laws represents a highly significant policy decision which is proving to be influential in other countries as well as the U.S. The telecommunication industry is of such size and importance that even relatively small economies that might be lost with Bell's breakup as a “natural monopoly” could involve substantial welfare losses to consumers and producers. Studies commissioned by the U.S. Justice Department that approached this topic by econometric methods reported that the evidence failed to support the contention that Bell was a natural monopoly. Here a goal programming/constrained regression, as developed in the Management Science literature, uses the same functional form and the same data but nevertheless reverses the main findings of the econometric studies in every one of the 20 years covered. This kind of difference in results obtained by two different methods of analysis poi...

Some statistical and DEA evaluations of relative efficiencies of public and private institutions of higher learning

Abstract: This paper uses the Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR) ratio form of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) (1) to examine how DEA can be utilized in analyzing different aspects of production behavior of institutions of higher learning (IHLs) as an alternative to more traditional approaches such as econometric-regression models, and (2) to compare “specifically” relative efficiencies of public and private doctoral-granting universities in the U.S. and to analyze technical and scale efficiencies of those universities. The separation of doctoral-granting universities into universities with and without medical colleges represents a departure from preceding studies. This division proved very important in uncovering substantial differences in behavior between the two groups even when using the “statistical averaging” approaches that were customary in previous studies. For both groups, public universities proved more efficient than private universities when managerial and program inefficiencies are present in the data. When managerial inefficiencies are disentangled from the data and medical schools are not present, private universities have more efficient programs. However, their managers are less efficient users of program opportunities than are managers in public universities. Another portion of the current study dealt with returns-to-scale possibilities. These differed markedly (even on average) between IHLs with and without medical schools. Moreover, analyses by DEA showed marked ranges of variation for returns-to-scale possibilities for individual IHLs within each group. These possibilities have generally been concealed by the statistical averaging utilized in previous econometric studies. Further, their identification is beyond the ability of the usual types of one-at-a-time ratio and trend analyses.

Efficiency characterizations in different DEA models

Abstract: Relations of efficiency and non-efficiency for the same sets of DMUs (Decision Making Units) are developed for the Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR) and Barker, Charnes, Cooper (BCC) ratio models, as well as DEA Additive and Multiplicative Models Surprisingly, additively efficient DMUs are not necessarily multiplicatively efficient A geometric “stretching” phenomenon is identified for the latter case

A Comparison of DEA and Translog Estimates of Production Frontiers Using Simulated Observations from a Known Technology

Abstract: Data envelopment analysis (DEA), introduced in Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (1978), provides a new approach to the estimation of relative efficiencies of decision making units (DMUs). As described by Banker (1980b) and Banker, Charnes, and Cooper (1984), DEA also encompasses estimation of production frontiers making minimal assumptions—such as convexity—about the production possibility set. DEA may be employed to estimate technical and scale efficiencies as in Banker, Charnes, and Cooper, rates of substitution between inputs as in Banker, Charnes, and Cooper and Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (1978), and returns to scale and most productive scale sizes as in Banker (1984) and Banker, Charnes, and Cooper (1984). These estimates of different production characteristics pertain to the efficient production surface, unlike the commonly employed regression techniques which estimate the average production correspondence. In this chapter, we report on the results of a simulation study in which DEA was employed to estimate the production frontier from input and output data randomly generated from a known technology.

Cone extremal solutions of multi-payoff games with cross-constrained strategy sets

Abstract: A new solution class of T-nondominated efficient outcomes, extending to games with nontopological product strategy sets and multiple payoffs to players, is developed without point-to-set mappings or quasi-variational inequalities. Some essential properties are developed, and two illustrative examples provide comparison to existing notions with respect to Pareto efficiency and generalized Nash equilibria.

Optimal design modifications by geometric programming and constrained stochastic network models

Abstract: A new class of constrained stochastic network models is formulated in a manner that can be used to support a variety of analyses of optimal design modifications for special weapons systems under budgetary and other constraints. Alternative expressions in terms of geometric programming are also explored. These, however, are far more inconvenient to compute or manipulate especially as the model size increases. Component modifications to the B52G system are considered in a prototype example.