%0 Journal Article %T Application of distance function and data envelopment analysis in efficiency evaluation of Islamic Azad University branches in East Azerbaijan province %J Iranian Industrial Economics Studies %I Urmia University, Faculty of Economics and Management %Z 2588-6312 %A Jahangiri, Khalil %A Rezazadeh, Ali %A Poorebadollahan, Mohsen %D 2017 %\ 12/01/2017 %V 1 %N 1 %P 53-62 %! Application of distance function and data envelopment analysis in efficiency evaluation of Islamic Azad University branches in East Azerbaijan province %K efficiency %K Stochastic Frontier Analysis %K Distance Function %K Islamic Azad University %K East Azarbaijan Province %R 10.30466/iies.2018.51174.1010 %X The main aim of the study was to evaluate the efficiency of Islamic Azad University branches in East Azerbaijan using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and to compare the findings with the results of data envelopment analysis (DEA). In this respect, SFA and DEA techniques were applied to measure production efficiency of 28 branches of East Azerbaijan Islamic Azad University considering the following variables as either output or input: 3 variables as output (including the number of graduated students and students accepted for the further pursuit of their studies, as well as the number of articles, books, and research projects) and 6 variables as input (including the number of university faculty members, educational fields, current students, staff working in different sections of the university, and the total university campus in square meters as well as university costs). Estimation of DEA and obtaining of the units' efficiency indicated that the average efficiency of the universities under investigation were 0.66 and 0.80 in SFA and DEA techniques, respectively. In addition, efficiency distributions in SFA and DEA methods were tremendously different from each other so that in SFA method nearly 40% while in DEA method more than 60% of unit efficiency was between 0.8-1 intervals. The minimum level of estimated efficiency (0.14) was observed for Hadishahr using SFA method, and in DEA approach, the minimum level of efficiency belonged to Khoda Afarin branch (0.065). %U https://iies.urmia.ac.ir/article_120577_36ca3e32273550834cf63fc0791a848d.pdf