Data Envelopment Analysis and Commercial Bank Performance: A Primer with Applications to Missouri Banks

This paper describes a particular methodology called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), that has been used previously to analyze the relative efficiencies of industrial firms, universities, hospitals, military operations, baseball players and, more recently, commercial banks. The use of DEA is demonstrated by evaluating the management of 60 Missouri commercial banks for the period from 1984 to 1990.