An assessment of the efficiency of Spanish Courts using DEA

Abstract

The objective is to provide a measure of technical efficiency of the Administrative Litigation Division of the Spanish High Courts. The concept of efficiency to be measured and the most adequate technique for carrying out the efficiency analysis are selected by considering the specific characteristics of public production. The analysis is undertaken by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and various homogeneity tests (returns to scale and restrictions on weights) are applied in order to ensure a correct comparison between Courts. Some additional extensions to the analysis (such as the calculus of efficient delays and an approximation to the calculus of global efficiency) are carried out.