Determination of bounds in DEA assurance region method: Its application to evaluation of baseball players and chemical companies

In Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) many optimal weights (multipliers) for inputs and outputs may become zeros. This means that corresponding inputs or outputs are neglected. To improve this shortcoming the assurance region methods which have bounds on the ratios of weights have been proposed. Deciding bounds depends on the data, and in some cases it requires judgments from experts. However, it is generally a difficult task to put their judgments into the quantitative bounds. We propose new methods by which the bounds are derived easily from limited information, i.e., partial ranking data. The methods are applied to the evaluation of baseball players and chemical companies.