A Method for Evaluating the Whole Developing Level of China's Cities

Data envelopment analysis is an important method of systematic analysis, especially fit for evaluation of complex system. But in practice, some shortcomings in DEA are hard to be conquered, which is mainly reflected in the following aspects. Sometimes, it is hard to determine input-output nature, evaluation results overemphasize the impacts of subsidiary indicators, most units are efficient in analysis results, and improvement of one index efficiency requires that all indexes be improved at the same time. However, by indicator integration, the improvement information of original indicators can not be found. To solve these problems, we propose sample DEA (Com-DEA) used for evaluation of complex system, then we also discuss the model meaning, model nature and model solution approach of Com-DEA based on the system analysis theory. Meanwhile, we evaluate the whole developing level of China's cities by applying this method in this paper. The application shows that com-DEA method not only has the advantages of traditional DEA but also conquers the shortcomings of the method by indicator integration.