efficiencyof majnr universities in iran (using dea method)

study of economic efficiency is of particular significance in evaluation of the public sector of the economy. there two alternative critorias for the measurement of efficiency: namely ratio analysis, and frontier 'analysis. the first criteria takes the ratio of inputs as compared to the outputs. the second criteria, however.first attempts to stablisb the product and cost efficiency frontiers. then it indicates those activities onthe frontier as optimal operations. while the activities under the frontier are considered as inefficient. estimation ofefficiency frontiers and comparing the position of each firm's location to them is the main stage of analysis. both econometric methods and linear programming methods can be employed for this purpose. data envelope analysis (dea) is a particular linear programming method where there is no special depency form. this paper intends to use the dea method for the measurement of factor ejficiency in 36 major universities in iran. the study concludes that 14 of the institutions are found to be ehident under constant return to scale condition. while under a variable return to scale criteria there are 16 universities categorized as ehicient. the average ejjldency ratio is estimated as 0.808 under the first asumption, and it is 0.858 underthe second asumption.