Directional marginal productivity: a foundation of meta-data envelopment analysis
本研究为方向性边际生产率（DMP）提供了理论基础，支持元数据包络分析（meta-DEA）通过边际利润最大化方向测量效率，并基于DMP开发了分段边际技术替代率，将事后DEA转化为事前DEA。
Differential characteristics of the production function represent elasticity measures and marginal rates of production technologies; in particular, marginal productivity (MP) plays an important role in economic theory and applications. This study provides a theoretical foundation of directional marginal productivity (DMP) supporting the meta-data envelopment analysis (meta-DEA) which measures the efficiency via marginal-profit-maximized orientation. In addition, the segmented marginal rate of technical substitution is developed based on DMP. In fact, DMP is developed to address finding the improving direction of the efficient firm on the frontier towards the marginal profit maximization. This approach, which emphasizes “planning” over “efficiency evaluation”, forms the basis for transforming a typical “ex-post” DEA into an “ex-ante” DEA study. Two case studies show that the DMP provides an explicit span of directions for productivity improvement via a trade-off between these distinct directions.