Measuring Relative Efficiency of Commercial Banks in Bahrain Using Data Envelopment Analysis

The study aims at measuring relative efficiency of seven banks listed on Bahrain Bourse under the commercial banks sub-sector over the period 2008-2012 by employing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a special linear programming model that assesses relative efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs) using multiple incommensurable input and multiple incommensurable output measures. By adopting the production approach of DEA with restricted choice of variables, the study has isolated the relatively efficient banks that achieved total efficiency score from those that could not achieve it. The study has also identified input and output slacks of inefficient banks and suggested the efficient input and output targets for improvement.