The public and private service sector shows some specificity that classical measurement and benchmarking instruments normally fail to serve. Missing prices for public goods or distinct firm-specific solutions to the same problem - and, thus, different production techniques - are only two of the frequently arising problems. This volume emphasizes the possibilities to adjust and develop the methodology of Data Envelopment Analysis in order to meet the requirements of the service sector and highlights the widespread application of the instrument - especially to problems the orthodox methods fail to solve or to emerging fields within the service sector. Data Envelopment Analysis: Twenty Years Out.- Treating non-discretionary variables one way or the other: implications for efficiency scores and their interpretation.- Non-Radial Efficiency as Semi-Radial Efficiency.- Continuity of the BCC Efficiency Measure.- DEA Models via Goal Programming.- Bounded vs. Unbounded Noise in Efficiency Estimation: Performance of Alternative Estimators.- Price Indexes for Nonmarketed Goods.- Lessons Learned for DEA Practice from Health Care Applications in the UK.- Recent Advances in Data Envelopment Analysis: An Illustrative Application to the U.S. Public Accounting Industry.- Combining DEA and "Transformation-Stages": Management Strategies for the Disability Service Units of the St. Georg Association.- DEA in the ecological context - An overview.- Measuring Public Spending Efficiency in Brazilian Municipalities: A Nonparametric Approach.- Efficiency and Productivity of Norwegian Colleges.- Efficiency and financial performances in telecommunications. Dr. Georg Westermann is professor for Business Studies and Public Sector Management at the Hochschule Harz.
