2026-07-01http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/415451Inefficiency is commonplace, yet exercises aimed at improving provider performance efforts to date to measure inefficiency and use it in benchmarking exercises have not been altogether satisfactory. This paper proposes a new approach that blends the themes of Data Envelopment Analysis and the Stochastic Frontier Approach to measure overall efficiency. The hybrid approach nonparametrically estimates inefficiency by comparing actual performance with comparable real-life "best practice" on the frontier and could be useful in exercises aimed at improving provider performance. Four applications in the education and health sectors are used to illustrate the features and strengths of this hybrid approach.application/pdftext/plainCC BY 3.0 IGOhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/World BankACADEMIC YEARSADEQUATE EDUCATIONAGE GROUPSAGEDAMBULATORY CAREAPPROACHES TO EDUCATIONBEDSCANCERCAUSES OF DEATHCHILD HEALTHCOST PER STUDENTDEATHSDIABETESDISABILITIESDISABILITYDISEASEDISEASESECONOMICS OF EDUCATIONEDUCATION DATAEDUCATION EXPENDITUREEDUCATION SECTOREDUCATION SYSTEMSEDUCATIONAL OUTCOMESEDUCATORSELEMENTARY EDUCATIONELEMENTARY SCHOOLENROLLMENT DATAEXERCISESEXPENDITURESFAMILIESGRIDHEALTH CAREHEALTH CARE DELIVERYHEALTH ECONOMICSHEALTH INDICATORSHEALTH SECTORHEALTH SERVICESHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCHHEALTH SYSTEMHEALTH SYSTEM PERFORMANCEHEALTH SYSTEMSHEART DISEASEHIGH SCHOOLHOSPITALSHUMAN DEVELOPMENTILLNESSINCOMEINJURIESINPATIENT ADMISSIONSINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONSINTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONINTERVENTIONLEARNERSLEARNINGLEARNING OUTCOMESLIFE EXPECTANCYLITERATUREMATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTHMEASUREMENT TECHNIQUESMEDICAL CAREMORTALITYNATIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEMSNUMBER OF DROPOUTSOLDER AGE GROUPSOPEN ACCESSPAPERSPATIENTPATIENTSPUBLIC SCHOOLPUBLIC SCHOOLSQUALITY OF LIFEQUALITY STANDARDSREADINGREADING ACHIEVEMENTSCHOOL AGESCHOOL DISTRICTSCHOOL FINANCESCHOOL LEVELSCHOOL LEVELSSCHOOL PERFORMANCESCHOOL SYSTEMSCHOOL YEARSCHOOLINGSCHOOLSSECONDARY EDUCATIONSECONDARY SCHOOLSOCIAL SCIENCESTDSTUDENT ASSESSMENTSTUDENT PERFORMANCESTUDENTS WITH DISABILITIESSURGERYTEACHINGTEXTBOOKTREATMENT