The main aim of this paper is to compare two alternative methods for estimating frontier functions and measuring efficiency in production. The application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to the same data panel provides insights in estimating technical...

Early microeconomic theory established its framework under the assumption that producers’ behaviour is optimal towards input allocation and output level. Since Debreu and Farrell this basic neoclassical approach has been extended, allowing for producers’ decisions to diverge from the optimum...