Assessment of regional efficiency in Croatia. An application of data envelopment analysis

      Аннотация: Achieving balanced national development and reducing interregional socio-economic disparities is a comprehensive economic challenge. In this book, regional efficiency of Croatian counties is measured and compared over the three-year period (2005-2007) using Data Envelopment Analysis. Efficient counties are identified as benchmark members, while inefficient counties are analysed in detail to determine not only the sources but also the amounts of their inefficiency in each source. Proper longitudinal monitoring of development dynamics is enabled by the application of window analysis. In order to alleviate naturally, historically and politically conditioned unequal county positions that affect regional efficiency but over which economic policy makers do not have total control, categorical approach is used. Combined with window analysis, this approach changes relations among efficiency scores. By identifying regional disparity determinants, the results obtained using an improved Data Envelopment Analysis model should assist policy makers in formulating the most beneficial regional policy decisions.

Ключевые слова: Data Envelopment Analysis, regional efficiency, County, window analysis, categorical variables