Evaluation of natural disaster treatment efficiency in 27 Chinese provinces

Research on disaster mitigation and prevention has tended to focus on the impact of natural disasters on the economy and strategies for risk reduction and mitigation. There has been significant research on disaster prevention and treatment efficiencies, however, most analyses have employed traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) radial models that do not consider undesirable output. Differing from previous research, this study employed a non-radial directional distance function DEA that included an undesirable output analysis to evaluate the natural hazard management efficiency in 27 provinces/municipalities/autonomous regions in China. Results show that: (a) economic losses from natural disasters were lower due to the increase in natural disaster prevention and control program expenditure; (b) the overall natural disaster control efficiencies varied significantly across the provinces; and (c) Tibet and Xinjiang, which have the lowest general disaster prevention efficiencies, could benefit from following the example set by provinces such as Sichuan and Guangdong, which have the highest disaster prevention efficiencies. Disaster prevention efficiencies measure the overall performance of each province in disaster prevention. This efficiency index is measured by input (disaster prevention expenditure) and output (number of natural disasters prevented and natural disaster economic losses), and its calculation method is the ratio of the actual value of each input and output to the target value. This ratio is called the efficiency score, and the efficiency score is between 0 and 1. An efficiency score of 1 represents the most efficient.