IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/enp/wpaper/eprg0717.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Distinguishing Weak and Strong Disposability among Undesirable Outputs in DEA: The Example of the Environmental Efficiency of Chinese Coal-Fired Power Plants

Author

Listed:
  • Hongliang Yang

    (Judge Business School, University of Cambridge)

  • Michael Pollitt

    (Judge Business School, University of Cambridge)

Abstract

Different from traditional efficiency research and previous studies considering undesirable outputs, this paper proposes models which distinguish weak and strong disposability features among various undesirable outputs based on the technical nature of the undesirable outputs. The paper illustrates the approach using a research sample covering 582 base-load Chinese coal-fired power plants in 2002. Our final results show that (1) imposing the technically correct disposability features on undesirable outputs makes a significant difference to the final efficiency evaluation. This suggests the necessity of properly distinguishing disposability features among undesirable outputs in efficiency models; (2) compared to their US and European counterparts, Chinese power plants relatively waste more resources. This suggests a great urgency for the Chinese electricity industry to improve its efficiency in coal-fired electricity generation sector.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Hongliang Yang & Michael Pollitt, 2007. "Distinguishing Weak and Strong Disposability among Undesirable Outputs in DEA: The Example of the Environmental Efficiency of Chinese Coal-Fired Power Plants," Working Papers EPRG 0717, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:enp:wpaper:eprg0717
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/eprg-wp0717.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "Multilateral Comparisons of Output, Input, and Productivity Using Superlative Index Numbers," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(365), pages 73-86, March.
    2. Yaisawarng, Suthathip & Klein, J Douglass, 1994. "The Effects of Sulfur Dioxide Controls on Productivity Change in the U.S. Electric Power Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(3), pages 447-460, August.
    3. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Tyteca, Daniel, 1996. "An activity analysis model of the environmental performance of firms--application to fossil-fuel-fired electric utilities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 161-175, August.
    4. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 1993. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency: Techniques and Applications," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072181.
    5. Fare, Rolf, et al, 1989. "Multilateral Productivity Comparisons When Some Outputs Are Undesirable: A Nonparametric Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(1), pages 90-98, February.
    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. Pittman, Russell W, 1983. "Multilateral Productivity Comparisons with Undesirable Outputs," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 93(372), pages 883-891, December.
    8. Patrick L. Brockett & Boaz Golany, 1996. "Using Rank Statistics for Determining Programmatic Efficiency Differences in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(3), pages 466-472, March.
    9. Daniel Tyteca, 1997. "Linear Programming Models for the Measurement of Environmental Performance of Firms—Concepts and Empirical Results," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 183-197, May.
    10. Korhonen, Pekka J. & Luptacik, Mikulas, 2004. "Eco-efficiency analysis of power plants: An extension of data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(2), pages 437-446, April.
    11. Pun-Lee Lam & Alice Shiu, 2004. "Efficiency and Productivity of China's Thermal Power Generation," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 24(1), pages 73-93, February.
    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. Yang, Hongliang & Pollitt, Michael, 2009. "Incorporating both undesirable outputs and uncontrollable variables into DEA: The performance of Chinese coal-fired power plants," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(3), pages 1095-1105, September.
    2. Gómez-Calvet, Roberto & Conesa, David & Gómez-Calvet, Ana Rosa & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2014. "Energy efficiency in the European Union: What can be learned from the joint application of directional distance functions and slacks-based measures?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 137-154.
    3. Wei, Xiao & Zhang, Ning, 2020. "The shadow prices of CO2 and SO2 for Chinese Coal-fired Power Plants: A partial frontier approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Halkos, George & Petrou, Kleoniki Natalia, 2018. "A critical review of the main methods to treat undesirable outputs in DEA," MPRA Paper 90374, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Sahoo, Biresh K. & Luptacik, Mikulas & Mahlberg, Bernhard, 2011. "Alternative measures of environmental technology structure in DEA: An application," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 215(3), pages 750-762, December.
    6. Ather Hassan Dar & Somesh Kumar Mathur & Sila Mishra, 2021. "The Efficiency of Indian Banks: A DEA, Malmquist and SFA Analysis with Bad Output," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 19(4), pages 653-701, December.
    7. Grebel, Thomas & Islam, Rohidul, 2022. "Endogenous cap reduction in Emission Trading Systems," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 169, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    8. Kaneko, Shinji & Fujii, Hidemichi & Sawazu, Naoya & Fujikura, Ryo, 2010. "Financial allocation strategy for the regional pollution abatement cost of reducing sulfur dioxide emissions in the thermal power sector in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2131-2141, 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. Yang, Hongliang & Pollitt, Michael, 2010. "The necessity of distinguishing weak and strong disposability among undesirable outputs in DEA: Environmental performance of Chinese coal-fired power plants," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4440-4444, August.
    2. Yang, Hongliang & Pollitt, Michael, 2009. "Incorporating both undesirable outputs and uncontrollable variables into DEA: The performance of Chinese coal-fired power plants," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(3), pages 1095-1105, September.
    3. Zhou, Peng & Poh, Kim Leng & Ang, Beng Wah, 2007. "A non-radial DEA approach to measuring environmental performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 178(1), pages 1-9, April.
    4. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2008. "A survey of data envelopment analysis in energy and environmental studies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Mirhedayatian, Seyed Mostafa & Azadi, Majid & Farzipoor Saen, Reza, 2014. "A novel network data envelopment analysis model for evaluating green supply chain management," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(PB), pages 544-554.
    6. Lynes, Melissa & Brewer, Brady & Featherstone, Allen, 2016. "Greenhouse Gas Emissions Effect on Cost Efficiencies of U.S. Electric Power Plants," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235890, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Hoang, Viet-Ngu & Coelli, Tim, 2011. "Measurement of agricultural total factor productivity growth incorporating environmental factors: A nutrients balance approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 462-474.
    8. E G Gomes & M P E Lins, 2008. "Modelling undesirable outputs with zero sum gains data envelopment analysis models," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(5), pages 616-623, May.
    9. M. Lábaj & M. Luptáčik & E. Nežinský, 2014. "Data envelopment analysis for measuring economic growth in terms of welfare beyond GDP," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 407-424, August.
    10. Van Ha, Nguyen & Kant, Shashi & Maclaren, Virginia, 2008. "Shadow prices of environmental outputs and production efficiency of household-level paper recycling units in Vietnam," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 98-110, March.
    11. George Halkos & George Papageorgiou, 2016. "Spatial environmental efficiency indicators in regional waste generation: a nonparametric approach," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(1), pages 62-78, January.
    12. Hailu, Atakelty & Hailu, Atakelty, 2003. "Pollution abatement and productivity performance of regional Canadian pulp and paper industries," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 5-25.
    13. Behrouz Arabi & Susila Munisamy Doraisamy & Ali Emrouznejad & Alireza Khoshroo, 2017. "Eco-efficiency measurement and material balance principle: an application in power plants Malmquist Luenberger Index," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 255(1), pages 221-239, August.
    14. Charles, Vincent & Kumar, Mukesh & Irene Kavitha, S., 2012. "Measuring the efficiency of assembled printed circuit boards with undesirable outputs using data envelopment analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 194-206.
    15. Bruce Domazlicky & William Weber, 2004. "Does Environmental Protection Lead to Slower Productivity Growth in the Chemical Industry?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 28(3), pages 301-324, July.
    16. Halkos, George & Petrou, Kleoniki Natalia, 2018. "A critical review of the main methods to treat undesirable outputs in DEA," MPRA Paper 90374, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Zhou, Guanghui & Chung, William & Zhang, Xiliang, 2013. "A study of carbon dioxide emissions performance of China's transport sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 302-314.
    18. Tsolas, Ioannis E., 2011. "Performance assessment of mining operations using nonparametric production analysis: A bootstrapping approach in DEA," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 159-167, June.
    19. Makiko Nakano & Shunsuke Managi, 2012. "Waste generations and efficiency measures in Japan," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 14(4), pages 327-339, October.
    20. Halkos, George & Petrou, Kleoniki Natalia, 2019. "Treating undesirable outputs in DEA: A critical review," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 97-104.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economics: input-output analysis; Environment; Government: energy policies; Industries: electric; Statistics: nonparametric.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities

    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:enp:wpaper:eprg0717. 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: Ruth Newman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/jicamuk.html .

    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.