determinating the efficiency of electricity distribution companies of iran and factors affecting it by using data envelopement analysis and two - stage approach

in this article, we have used 36 electricity distribution companies of iran and by using input-oriented dea, we analysis the companies technical efficiency with respect to group frontier and metafrontier following restructuring, then we investigate the factors affecting efficiency. the companies decomposed to two groups in terms of high and low circuit density. for discussing the impact of structural and environmental variables, we used two-stage approach. the results show that khorasan company in first group have had maximum efficiency with respect to metafrontier. west tehran and isfahan city distribution companies in second group have had maximum efficiency scores and shiraz city have had minimum efficiency score with respect to metafrontier. privatization have had positive impact and network load factor have had negative and significant impact on technical efficiency with respect to group frontier and metafrontier. in contrast, companies with higher circuit density have had higher technical and scale efficiency. jel classifications: d43، l16، l94، o13، q48