Performance measurement and data envelopment analysis – rankings are rank!

The use, and in the public and regulatory sectors the publication, of performance measures is pervasive. Data envelopment analysis is a method of producing a relative aggregate performance measure where there exist sets of organisational units such as schools and bank branches which have incommensurate multiple inputs and outputs. Performance measures can manifest themselves in performance indicators, classifications, league tables and rankings. A number of consequences of these forms of performance measures are considered as is the role and purpose of data envelopment analysis in performance measurement.