Performance analysis for three pillars of sustainability

Gross domestic product (GDP) has come under criticism as the only objective that 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 social efforts for employment, health and education. By linking together three DEA models, we model a global technology that combines the objectives of the three pillars. Finally, by weighting each of them by different schemes, we illustrate the practicality of our approach to analyze policy trade-offs among economic, environmental, and social objectives.