This study analyses the technical efficiency of the forestry sector in Europe which comprises 40 countries. The novelty of this study is the stochasticity of the data and the existence of contextual variables in the two-stage production process of the forest sector. We first developed a two-stage chance-constrained data envelopment analysis model in which the forestry and exploitation stages occur at country-specific levels within the European forest production sector. It was found that the forest management stage is generally more efficient than the exploitation stage and total production at the country-specific level. Contextual variables have a significant impact on efficiency scores, which means that efficiency calculations in the subsequent stage need to be adjusted to take these influences into account. By mitigating these contextual effects, the study improved technical efficiency scores, highlighting top performers like the Russian Federation (DMU31 in North zone), Switzerland (DMU37 in Central-West zone), and Iceland (DMU16 in North zone) with TE scores of 1.0322, 1.0209, and 1.0198 respectively, while also identifying areas for enhancement in countries such as Turkey (DMU38 in South-East zone), Slovakia (DMU33 in Central-East zone), and Romania (DMU30 in Central-East zone) which fall into the lowest three ranks based on their performance with TE scores of 0.5583, 0.5058, and 0.4482 respectively. An important conclusion is that these findings are crucial for policymakers and stakeholders in Europe when developing strategies to improve efficiency and sustainability in the forest sector.

中文翻译：

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探索欧洲林业行业的技术效率：两阶段机会约束数据包络分析


本研究分析了由 40 个国家组成的欧洲林业部门的技术效率。这项研究的新颖之处在于数据的随机性以及林业部门两阶段生产过程中存在上下文变量。我们首先开发了一个两阶段机会约束的数据包络分析模型，其中林业和开发阶段发生在欧洲林业生产部门的特定国家层面。研究发现，森林管理阶段通常比特定国家层面的开发阶段和总产量更有效。上下文变量对效率分数有重大影响，这意味着需要调整后续阶段的效率计算以考虑这些影响。通过减轻这些环境影响，该研究提高了技术效率得分，突出了俄罗斯联邦（北部区的 DMU31）、瑞士（中西部区的 DMU37）和冰岛（北部区的 DMU16）等表现最好的国家，TE 得分分别为 1.0322、1.0209 和 1.0198，同时还确定了土耳其（东南区 DMU38）等国家需要改进的领域。 斯洛伐克（中东部地区的 DMU33）和罗马尼亚（中东部地区的 DMU30）根据其表现排名倒数前三，TE 得分分别为 0.5583、0.5058 和 0.4482。一个重要的结论是，这些发现对于欧洲的政策制定者和利益相关者在制定提高林业部门效率和可持续性的战略至关重要。