New Directions: Efficiency and Productivity

The key unifying conceptual tool of this important entry in the study of efficiency and productivity is the directional distance function. In this book, the authors take up this new performance measure while also maintaining their "traditional" axiomatic production theoretic approach. The directional distance function includes traditional distance functions and efficiency measures as special cases providing a unifying framework for existing productivity and efficiency measures. As a generalization of the traditional distance functions, it turns out to be a dual to the profit function, opening a range of new tools for empirical and theoretical research.