A Novel Ratio-Based Parallel DEA Approach for Evaluating the Energy and Environmental Performance of Chinese Transportation Sectors

As a high-energy-consumption and high-CO2-emission industry in China,the transportation sector has been under increasing pressure to improve its performance.This paper develops a novel parallel DEA approach to measure Chinese transportation sector's energy and environmental performance (EEP) over all possible weights,which is to avoid the risk of using the extreme or the most favorable weights in performance evaluation.In our method,the transportation sector is consisted of two parallel subsystems (passenger transportation and freight transportation) with shared inputs and undesirable shared outputs.All possible weights are considered in the EEP evaluation,then the EEP of a transportation sector is represented by a ranking interval.Finally,the proposed approach is applied to the transportation sectors in 30 Chinese provinces.Results show that the best and the worst ranking of most provinces vary greatly.Besides,the EEP of most provinces is hard to dominate others strictly,but the general tendency is the EEP of eastern provinces better than western provinces.Furthermore,the EEP difference of some adjacent provinces with similar features is distinct.These findings are not all the same as previous studies,which verifies the necessity of considering all possible weights in performance evaluation.Therefore,our method provides a new point of view in performance evaluation and can give more robust results for decision makers.

Considering Monopoly Maintenance Cost for an Automobile Purchase in China: A DEA-Based Approach

With the fast growing economy,China has become the biggest automobile market in the world.Many Chinese families buy automobiles to promote individual wellbeing and facilitate the convenience of lives.Automobile purchase has become a general and important decision for a Chinese family.However,it is always difficult to make a decision on the automobile purchase that balance the automobiles performance and its cost.Moreover,the automobile maintenance market in China is monopolistic.Thus,the maintenance cost is a significant consideration in automobile purchase decision.This paper employs the concept of data envelopment analysis(DEA)to measure cost performance of the automobile with considering the monopoly maintenance cost.The RCA(ratio of the total price of accessories of an automobile to the price of the automobile)100 index system is used to represent the maintenance cost of each automobile.The structure of the automobile maintenance market can be reflected with including the RCA 100 index system in the performance evaluation.Results of the case study of 28 automobiles in China verify the necessity of considering the maintenance cost in automobile purchase decision.

Resource Allocation Based on DEA and Non-Cooperative Game

Resource allocation is one of the most important applications of data envelopment analysis(DEA).Usually,the resource to be allocated is directly related to the interests of decision-making units(DMUs),thus the dynamic non-cooperative game is one of the representative behaviours in the allocation process.However,it is rarely considered in the previous DEA-based allocation studies,which may reduce the acceptability of the allocation plan.Therefore,this paper proposes a DEA-based resource allocation method considering the dynamic non-cooperative game behaviours of DMUs.The authors first deduce the efficient allocation set under the framework of variable return to scale(VRS)and build the allocation model subjecting to the allocation set.Then an iteration algorithm based on the concept of the non-cooperative game is provided for generating the optimal allocation plan.Several interesting characteristics of the algorithm are proved,including i)the algorithm is convergent,ii)the optimal allocation plan is a unique Nash equilibrium point,and iii)the optimal allocation plan is unique no matter which positive value the initial allocation takes.Some advantages of the allocation plan have been found.For example,the allocation plan is more balanced,has more incentives and less outliers,compared with other DEA-based allocation plans.Finally,the proposed method is applied to allocate the green credit among the 30 Chinese iron and steel enterprises,and the results highlight the applicability of the allocation method and solution approach.Therefore,the approach can provide decision makers with a useful resource allocation tool from the perspective of dynamic non-cooperative game.