IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v183y2019ic19.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring the efficiency of humanitarian aid

Author

Listed:
  • Alda, Erik
  • Cuesta, Jose

Abstract

We do not know the extent to which billions of dollars in aid can save lives or prevent forced displacement globally. We propose the adaption of data envelopment analysis (DEA), a well-known nonparametric organizational performance method, to fill this critical gap in humanitarian assistance. Applying this new technique to 106 countries receiving aid between 2010 and 2016, we show that countries could improve their aid efficiency by an average of between 20 percent and 50 percent with respect to best performers. This tailored methodology, Humanitarian DEA, can be applied to monitor the efficiency of aid nationally and globally every year.

Suggested Citation

  • Alda, Erik & Cuesta, Jose, 2019. "Measuring the efficiency of humanitarian aid," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1-1.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:183:y:2019:i:c:19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2019.108618
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176519303040
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2019.108618?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jyotsna Puri & Anastasia Aladysheva & Vegard Iversen & Yashodhan Ghorpade & Tilman Brück, 2017. "Can rigorous impact evaluations improve humanitarian assistance?," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 519-542, October.
    2. Rachel Scott, 2014. "Imagining More Effective Humanitarian Aid: A Donor Perspective," OECD Development Co-operation Working Papers 18, OECD Publishing.
    3. Hannah Tappis & Shannon Doocy, 2018. "The effectiveness and value for money of cash-based humanitarian assistance: a systematic review," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 121-144, January.
    4. Honaker, James & King, Gary & Blackwell, Matthew, 2011. "Amelia II: A Program for Missing Data," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 45(i07).
    5. Afsharian, Mohsen, 2017. "Metafrontier efficiency analysis with convex and non-convex metatechnologies by stochastic nonparametric envelopment of data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 1-3.
    6. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    7. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Kokkelenberg, Edward C, 1989. "Measuring Plant Capacity, Utilization and Technical Change: A Nonparametric Approach," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(3), pages 655-666, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Geri L. Dimas & Malak El Khalkhali & Alex Bender & Kayse Lee Maass & Renata A. Konrad & Jeffrey S. Blom & Joe Zhu & Andrew C. Trapp, 2023. "Estimating Effectiveness of Identifying Human Trafficking via Data Envelopment Analysis," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 53(6), pages 408-424, November.
    2. Sena Kimm Gnangnon, 2023. "Duration of the Membership in the GATT/WTO, Structural Economic Vulnerability and Trade Costs," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-32, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jens Kjærsgaard & Niels Vestergaard & Kristiaan Kerstens, 2009. "Ecological Benchmarking to Explore Alternative Fishing Schemes to Protect Endangered Species by Substitution: The Danish Demersal Fishery in the North Sea," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(4), pages 573-590, August.
    2. Mustapha Daruwana Ibrahim & Sahand Daneshvar & Hüseyin Güden & Bela Vizvari, 2020. "Target setting in data envelopment analysis: efficiency improvement models with predefined inputs/outputs," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 57(4), pages 1319-1336, December.
    3. Afsharian, Mohsen & Ahn, Heinz & Harms, Sören Guntram, 2019. "Performance comparison of management groups under centralised management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(3), pages 845-854.
    4. Arnab Deb, 2013. "Economic Reforms, Capacity Utilization, and Productivity Growth in Indian Manufacturing," Alumni working papers 2013-05, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    5. Minyan Zhu & Antonio Peyrache, 2017. "The quality and efficiency of public service delivery in the UK and China," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 285-296, February.
    6. Maha Kalai, 2019. "Nonparametric Measures of Capacity Utilization of the Tunisian Manufacturing Industry: Short- and Long-Run Dual Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(1), pages 318-334, March.
    7. Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Liu, Hui-hui & Song, Yao-yao & Yang, Guo-liang, 2021. "Measuring the capacity utilization of the 48 largest iron and steel enterprises in China," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(2), pages 648-665.
    8. Xiangyu Guo & Canhui Deng & Dan Wang & Xu Du & Jiali Li & Bowen Wan, 2021. "International Comparison of the Efficiency of Agricultural Science, Technology, and Innovation: A Case Study of G20 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-16, March.
    9. Wu, Zai Bin & Yeung, Godfrey & Mok, Vincent & Han, Zhaozhou, 2007. "Firm-specific knowledge and technical efficiency of watch and clock manufacturing firms in China," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 317-332, June.
    10. Kjærsgaard, Jens, 2010. "Quest for appropriate overcapacity in the fisheries industry," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 141-150, September.
    11. Athanassopoulos, Antreas D. & Lambroukos, Nikos & Seiford, Lawrence, 1999. "Data envelopment scenario analysis for setting targets to electricity generating plants," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 413-428, June.
    12. Ray, Subhash C. & Walden, John & Chen, Lei, 2021. "Economic measures of capacity utilization: A nonparametric short-run cost function analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(1), pages 375-387.
    13. Iparraguirre, José Luis & Ma, Ruosi, 2015. "Efficiency in the provision of social care for older people. A three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis using self-reported quality of life," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 33-46.
    14. Peggy Schrobback & Sean Pascoe & Louisa Coglan, 2014. "Shape Up or Ship Out: Can We Enhance Productivity in Coastal Aquaculture to Compete with Other Uses?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(12), pages 1-25, December.
    15. Lindebo, Erik & Hoff, Ayoe & Vestergaard, Niels, 2007. "Revenue-based capacity utilisation measures and decomposition: The case of Danish North Sea trawlers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 180(1), pages 215-227, July.
    16. Färe, Rolf & Karagiannis, Giannis, 2022. "Aggregating Farrell efficiencies without value data: The case of hospitals," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    17. Núñez, F. & Arcos-Vargas, A. & Villa, G., 2020. "Efficiency benchmarking and remuneration of Spanish electricity distribution companies," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    18. Le Floc’H, Pascal & Mardle, Simon, 2006. "Comparaison des indicateurs d’efficacité et des indicateurs économiques des navires de pêche dans le cas d’une multi-production," Cahiers d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales (CESR), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 81.
    19. Sulamaa, Pekka, . "Essays in Deregulated Finnish and Nordic Electricity Markets," ETLA A, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, number 34, June.
    20. Chen, Zhenling & Zhao, Weigang & Zheng, Heyun, 2021. "Potential output gap in China's regional coal-fired power sector under the constraint of carbon emission reduction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Efficiency; Aid; Emergencies; Impacts; Data envelopment analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • P47 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Performance and Prospects
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:183:y:2019:i:c:19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.