Abstract: This book is an update of the 1993 publication of The Measurement of Productive Efficiency: Techniques and Applications. The same editors have here compiled over ten years of the most recent research in this changing field, and expanded on those seminal chapters and written this new edition. The book guides from the basic models to the latest, cutting-edge extensions, and is reinforced by references to classic and current theoretical and applied research. The book focuses on measuring and explaining producer performance. It views performance as a function of the state of technology and economic efficiency. It shows that insights can be gained by allowing for the possibility of a divergence between the economic objective and actual performance, and by associating this inefficiency with causal variables subject to managerial or policy influence.

Keywords: producer performance, technology, economic efficiency, economic objective, actual performance, managerial influence, policy influence