Abstract: The homogeneity of the index structure is one of the basic assumptions for the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. However, the complexity of the practical problems always makes this assumption difficult to be fully satisfied. Aiming at the heterogeneous problem of outputs structure with the containment relationship, this paper constructs a phased DEA efficiency evaluation method by analyzing the internal relationship of production structure between decision making units (DMUs). This method takes the subjective preferences of DMUs with different structures into consideration, and avoids the unfairness of traditional DEA method in the process of efficiency evaluation, which has the DMUs with structural heterogeneity. Subsequently, this method is extended to the context of the inputs structure heterogeneity and the multiple structural heterogeneities, respectively. Finally, two examples are used to illustrate the effectiveness and practicability of the method proposed by this paper.

Key words: data envelopment analysis (DEA), structural heterogeneity, parallel network structure, containment relationship