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Abstract
A two-stage approach is employed to analyze the efficiency of cooperatives responsible for ruminants’ disease
control (OPP) at the farm level in Northwest Portugal. In the first stage, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to
estimate and decompose input-based overall inefficiency for each OPP. The input-based inefficiency measures are
generated using the directional input distance function. In the second stage, the inefficiency estimates are regressed
on environmental and organizational factors in order to explain efficiency differentials. Despite substantial
environmental differences, the empirical results indicate that most cooperatives can reduce costs by improving scale
efficiency and pure technical efficiency.