An investigation into the relationship between size and efficiency of the Italian hospitality sector: A window DEA approach

This paper analyses the efficiency of hotels across all of the 20 regions in Italy using a data envelopment analysis (DEA). The empirical results indicate that Sardinia can be considered as a region "falling further behind", whereas some regions in the North and Centre of Italy can be regarded as "moving ahead". Using the island of Sardinia as a case study, approximately 150 firms are analysed in detail over the time span 2002-2005. Via a window DEA, both technical and scale efficiencies are computed. An efficiency comparison amongst hotels categorised by size and municipality is run. Finally, policy implications are drawn from the empirical findings that advise how to improve hotels that attained low efficiency scores. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.