ABSTRACT
The purpose of this book is to address the widely debated concepts of productivity and efficiency, whether in academia or among business professionals and government agencies. Normally, productivity and efficiency are utilized to measure system performance, which may be at a macro level, a country for example, or at a micro level, such as a company department. The authors seek to support analysis of productivity and efficiency on the basis of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a technique widely used in the scientific community for the most diverse applications. However, its utilization in the quotidian and in the corporate environment is still incipient. Conducted by Brazilian researchers, this work has arisen from a particular line of research and set of investigations. This research focus has been highlighted by recent discussions about the need to increase productivity and efficiency in Brazil, as well as internationally, across a broad spectrum of different spheres of interest. With regard to the future, the authors are confident that their productivity and efficiency research will remain relevant, along with a need to incorporate and deepen the economic analyses.
