Measuring of the economic efficiency of priority provinces in development by using data envelopment analysis

In this study, it is examined that the economies of Turkey?s Priority Provinces in Development are efficient or not efficient during the period of 1995-2000. This study has determined the public investment, investment with incentives and total bank deposits as inputs, while the gross domestic product, the employment with incentives, the number of opening work place and the balance of trade as outputs. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is a nonparametric efficiency measurement model by departing from the homogeneous structure of provinces, has been used in this study.The most suitable DEA model for this study is Super Slacks Based Model (SupSBM) and the efficiency score of SupSBM model is measured by using a licensed computer software, which is called DEA Solver Pro 4.1. It is determined that the numbers of efficient provinces are relatively less than the numbers of non-efficient provinces for each year between 1995 and 2000, and 1996 has been defined to be the year when the highest number of efficient provinces has been succeeded and when a peak point of the average efficiency value curve has been reached. It is expected that policies of priority provinces in development carried out by governments must be in effect as a supportive and competitive policy for the economies of the provinces in question.