DEA models with production trade-offs and weight restrictions

There is a large literature on the use of weight restrictions in multiplier DEA models. In this chapter we provide an alternative view of this subject from the perspective of dual envelopment DEA models in which weight restrictions can be interpreted as production trade-offs. The notion of production trade-offs allows us to state assumptions that certain simultaneous changes to the inputs and outputs are technologically possible in the production process. The incorporation of production trade-offs in the envelopment DEA model, or the corresponding weight restrictions in the multiplier model, leads to a meaningful expansion of the model of production technology. The efficiency measures in DEA models with production trade-offs retain their traditional meaning as the ultimate and technologically realistic improvement factors. This overcomes one of the known drawbacks of weight restrictions assessed using other methods. In this chapter we discuss the assessment of production trade-offs, provide the corresponding theoretical developments and suggest computational methods suitable for the solution of the resulting DEA models.