Undesirable Epsilon-Based Model DEA Application for Chinese Natural Disaster Mitigation Efficiency

As natural disasters cause significant damage, many countries have developed disaster mitigation plans to reduce losses. Because China has frequent natural disasters in its geographically diverse territory, over the past few decades, the Chinese government has promulgated regulations and developed plans to mitigate the loss of life and property in natural disasters. To analyze the natural disaster mitigation efficiency in 27 Chinese provinces, this article employed a modified Epsilon-Based Measure (EBM) Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. It was found that while Sichuan, Guangdong, Hebei, Shandong, and Chongqing had good efficiencies, there were significant variances across the provinces, and, in general, significant improvements were needed. Previous natural disaster efficiency research has examined disaster management and performance evaluations, employed static DEA models, and tended to ignore the radial and non-radial characteristics. Therefore, this article is the first comprehensive examination of recent natural disaster mitigation efficiencies in Chinese provinces.