Assessment of efficiency in Visegrad countries and regions using DEA models

Abstract

This paper applies Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methods to evaluate the performances of Visegrad Four (V4) countries and their NUTS 2 regions. It analyses the degree of efficiency achieved in individual countries and regions of V4, which is perceived as a reflection of the development potential in the reference period 2000–2010. The theoretical part of the paper is devoted to the fundamental bases of efficiency analysis in the context of performance theory and the methodology of the DEA method. The empirical part measures the effectiveness of the four countries and 35 NUTS 2 regions using six selected DEA models. When applying the DEA method in the analysis, we use selected indicators of inputs and outputs, which are part of the EU's growth strategies. Using the DEA method for efficiency evaluation is preferable because it evaluates a set of factors that determine the degree of economic development. The DEA method is based on the inputs and outputs of used indicators and it evaluates how efficiently countries and regions are able to transform their inputs into outputs. Therefore, the efficiency of countries and regions can be considered to be a mirror of performance. Each country and region is ranked in terms of its effective and ineffective economic positions within V4. The final part of the paper offers a comprehen-sive comparison of the results obtained using the selected DEA models, namely the CCR model, BCC model and SBM.