| Article ID: | iaor20042733 |
| Country: | Netherlands |
| Volume: | 148 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Start Page Number: | 312 |
| End Page Number: | 322 |
| Publication Date: | Jul 2003 |
| Journal: | European Journal of Operational Research |
| Authors: | Gomes Eliane Gonalves, Lins Marcos Pereira Estellita, Mello Adelino Joo R. Soares de, Mello Joo Carlos Correia Baptista Soares de |
| Keywords: | statistics: data envelopment analysis |
It is usual to rank the participant countries in the Olympic Games in accordance with the number of medals they have won. An alternative ranking is suggested in this paper. This ranking is based on each country's ability to win medals in relation to its available resources. This is an efficiency that can be measured with the help of data envelopment analysis (DEA) for which two models exist: the traditional DEA model, that takes into account variable returns to scale, and a DEA model based on the premise that the sum of the gains is zero (constant sum of outputs). It is the latter that is developed in this paper.