A general model framework for DEA

Analyzing the efficiency of actions, productions, or organizational units is a fundamental problem of economic research. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is designed to measure the efficiency of decision making units. The set of reference units in DEA is generated on the assumption of a specific production technology. From a decision theoretical view, DEA models are based on scalarizing functions known from Multi-Criteria Decision Making. On these grounds it is possible to formulate a general DEA model. This formulation is a basis for well-known and new DEA approaches, as a classification scheme for DEA models shows.