Cross-efficiency evaluation approach to Olympic ranking and benchmarking: the case of Beijing 2008

A number of studies have used data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the performance of the countries in the Olympic Games. In this paper, an extension tool of DEA, namely cross-efficiency evaluation method, is used to measure the performance of the nations participating in the Summer Olympic Games of Beijing 2008. The model in the paper considers two inputs (GDP per capita and population) and three outputs (number of gold, silver and bronze medals won) and the weight restrictions are included to guarantee a higher valuation for gold medals than for silver medal and higher for the latter than for bronze medals. The results for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games are analysed and a unique ordering of the participants based on average cross-efficiency is provided, also cluster analysis technique is used to select the more appropriate targets for poorly performing countries to use as benchmarks.