Performance analysis for three pillars of sustainability
Résumé
Gross domestic product (GDP) has come under criticism as the only objective countries’ should pursue for societal well-being. In this paper we apply an innovative Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach for including two other pillars including an environmental dimension, reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and a social dimension such as: increasing employment, and expanding healthcare and education expenditures. By linking together three DEA sub-technologies, we model a global technology which combines the objectives of the three pillars. Finally, by weighting each of them by different schemes, we demonstrate the practicality of our approach for policy tradeoffs governments can make among economic, environmental and social objectives.