Determination of R&D and innovation activities in the country level by data envelopment analysis

Scientific and technological improvement is based on Research and Development (R&D) and innovation activities. With those activities, it is aimed to contribute to the economic growth of the country and increase the welfare of society. Today, private sector allocate the biggest portion of their budget in R&D, which is also similar for countries. In this thesis, we aim to quantify the R&D and innovation efficiency scores of 28 EU-countries and Turkey. The efficiency scores are found by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) through input oriented CCR and BCC models. Totally 12 factors (6 input and 6 output) are determined and by using combinations of these factors 4 different models are generated. In this study, technical, pure technical and scale efficiency scores of countries are calculated for the 4 models, separately. Firstly, the input oriented CCR Model formulation is coded and solved on GAMS. Later, both CCR and BCC models are solved on MaxDEA, which is a special purpose DEA software. In addition, for inefficient countries, obtaining the reference sets (countries to take reference from) and the needed improvement of any factor in order to make those countries efficient are also analyzed. In the study, Turkey is examined in detail. Although, it is not so bad in general, it seems that, Turkey is very weak for the monetary income of R&D and innovation activities.