Families of linear efficiency programs based on Debreu’s loss function

Gerard Debreu introduced a well known radial efficiency measure which he called a “coefficient of resource utilization.” He derived this scalar from a much less well known “dead loss” function that characterizes the monetary value sacrificed to inefficiency, and which is to be minimized subject to a normalization condition. We use Debreu’s loss function, together with a variety of normalization conditions, to generate several popular families of linear efficiency programs. Our methodology also can be employed to generate entirely new families of linear efficiency programs. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012