Evaluating the Efficiency of Regional Management by DEA

Abstract

Regional management has become an important aspect of Regional Science. Such management should be considered not only from an economical standpoint but also from the standpoint of satisfaction with life.
This study evaluates the regional management efficiency of Japan's 46 prefectures by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a method of determining efficiency in terms of output per input for each Decision Making Unit (DMU).
DEA makes it possible to evaluate the efficiency by multiple input-output item analyses, to conduct relative evaluation by non-uniform weighting of input-output item, and to produce an improvement plan of management efficiency for each DMU.
Analyzing the efficiency of Japan's 46 prefectures, we compared the case in which only economics were considered to the case in which both economics and satisfaction with life were considered. These comparisons highlighted the importance of satisfaction with life as an aspect of regional management. The improvement plans of management efficiency for each prefecture were analyzed, and the improvement methods of regional management efficiency were pointed out.

JFL classification: R11, R15, R50