Eco-efficiency analysis of French firms: a data envelopment analysis approach

This paper addresses the issue of assessing eco-efficiency when good and undesirable outputs are jointly produced. We propose that eco-efficiency can be decomposed into two parts: resource efficiency and ecological efficiency. We provide a conceptual framework based on data envelopment analysis (DEA...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental economics and policy studies 2016-07, Vol.18 (3), p.395-416
Main Author: Lahouel, Béchir Ben
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business metrics
Data envelopment analysis
Decision making
Economics
Economics and Finance
Energy
Environmental Economics
Environmental management
Environmental policy
Externality
Innovations
Natural resources
Product life cycle
Raw materials
Research Article
Resource efficiency
Social Policy
Studies
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Value added
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Summary:This paper addresses the issue of assessing eco-efficiency when good and undesirable outputs are jointly produced. We propose that eco-efficiency can be decomposed into two parts: resource efficiency and ecological efficiency. We provide a conceptual framework based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to measure and benchmark eco-efficiency. The study is conducted between 2011 and 2012 using real data from 17 French firms belonging to the services to consumers industry, by developing DEA-based models. The results indicate that only three firms in the sample of the study are relatively eco-efficient. We find that eco-efficiency is closely related to environmental efficiency. The results also show that company size, expressed in terms of turnover and number of employees, is inversely related to eco-efficiency scores.
ISSN:1432-847X
1867-383X
DOI:10.1007/s10018-015-0115-4