MEASURING PERFORMANCE OF EUROPEAN ICT SECTORS USING OUTPUT-ORIENTED DEA MODELS

The economic impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) has been already examined in many empirical studies and respected international economic organizations. An acceleration of productivity in the ICT sector is one of the channels through which ICT can affect economic growth (OECD, 2004). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of ICT sectors (manufacturing, trade, service) in 15 countries of EU during the period 1995-2007. Two output-oriented DEA models were used - model with constant returns to scale (CCR) and model assuming variable returns to scale (BCC). The obtained results based on the data from the EU KLEMS database provide evidence that Hungary, Ireland and France are countries where ICT sectors are the most efficient. A comparison of efficiency of three ICT sectors shows that ICT service sector is the most efficient sector while ICT manufacturing sector is the least efficient.