$Id: NEWS 114 2011-04-10 20:55:50Z Lars $


Changes to Benchmarking version 0.19

 * Speed of dea with ORIENTATION="graph" has been almost doubled do to
   splicing in the bisection algorithmen; and now it gives the right
   efficiency for firms outside the technology set (before the highest
   possible value was 2)

 * The function eladder now accepts the arguments XREF and YREF as
   well as RTS="fdh" anf RTS="fdh+"

 * The function dea with DIRECT and dea.direct now accepts RTS="fdh+"

 * Corrected bug for missing names of peers when using NAMES=TRUE in
   peers for RTS="fdh".

 * Slack is now ok for directinal efficiency


Changes to Benchmarking version 0.18

 * The function eladder now also accept the argument DIRECT for for
   use with directional efficiency; a case of a forgotten argument.
 
 * The function peers now just return NA when there are no peers at all.

 * A new function dea.boot to bootstrap without the FEAR
   package. Changed the name of the wrapper boot.fear for bootstrap
   using the FEAR package (a wrap of FEAR::boot.sw98).

 * Corrected bug in dea.dual and dea for output directional efficiency.

 * The basis is reset to default basis for each firm in mea efficiency
   to avoid numerical failures (status code 5).

 * In the function dea RTS=irs2 now bounds the individual lambdas to 0
   or greater than or equal 1 and not just that their sum is greater
   than or equal 1 as for RTS=irs.

 * On request, numerical data frames are now accepted as arguments for
   X and Y. And as a byproduct vectors or arrays are condisered to be
   1 good (input og output) for many firms.

 * Firms with missing values are removed in the function sfa.



Changes to Benchmarking version 0.17

 * The function dea now accepts the argument RTS="fdh+", a technology
   the combines free disposability and restricted or local constant
   return to scale.

 * Changed internal use of matrices such that the corresponds to
   standard R use, and, therefore, are not transposed in the start of
   many functions. For normal use this speeds up the functions
   marginally, but the internal structure of the functions are nicer.

 * Directional efficiency now works for RTS="fdh", but still waiting
   for RTS="fdh+".

 * Every group of functions are now documented in a separate file

 * Efficiencies with no solutions returns -Inf or Inf depending on the
   orientation. This is in agreement with the use in super efficiency.

 * Better summaries for Farrell and slack objects

 * Fixed bug in slack when either input and/or outputs have big values



Changes to Benchmarking version 0.16

 * eff() now returns efficiencies as array and not as matrix; makes it
   easier with further calculations with eff as dimensions are now a
   lesser problem.   

 * Use of S3 method for efficiencies, compatible with the package
   frontier.

 * New function excess returns excess input and/or output for Farrell
   objects.

 * The function dea checks if X and Y are matrices and aborts if not.

 * make.merge can now use a named list to define mergers.

 * New function eladder and eladder.plot.

 * New function dea.direct for simplified directional efficiency with
   an interpretation a la Farrell.

 * The function slack works for directional efficiency

 * sdea (super-efficiency)  works with directional efficiency

 * A wrapper around FEAR::boot.sw89 such that it can be called and
   deliver results as other functions in Benchmarking.

 * A new value for RTS in dea.plot: "fdh+". At the moment, however, it
   only works for in-out direction.

 * The documentation has been corrected and somewhat expanded.

 

Changes to Benchmarking version 0.15

  * The methods now stops if there is an unknown value for RTS
    or ORIENTATION

  * dea.dual now has argument DIRECT same way as dea
 
  * new function mea calculates multi-directional efficiencies

  * new function mea.lines draw lines in connection with mea

  * minor clarifications in the manual for dea.dual

  bug fixes

  * dea argument DIRECT fixed for DIRECTION="out"; only worked
    when number of inputs and outputs was equal



Changes to Benchmarking version 0.14
  * make.merge can now use a factor to define mergers
  * data sets included
  * dea new argument DIRECT for directional efficiency
  * opdated all manuals
