$Id: NEWS 232 2020-08-07 08:47:59Z lao $

Upcoming

* Directional distance efficiency for parametric function

* A fast version of dea.boot



Changes to Benchmarking version 0.29

* An implementation of the StoNED estimator which combines the axiomatic and non-parametric frontier (the DEA aspect) with a stochastic noise term (the SFA aspect); we appreciate the help from from Stefan Seifert in implementing StoNED.

* The function outlier.ap is much faster, and a version aoulierC.ap written in C++, but still not fast enough.

* Options for the LP solver can now also be used in dea.boot. This can be used to solve problems to find a solution for the dea LP problem when bootstrapping.

* The sign of the fitted values in sfa.cost is now positive just as the variable cost i positive; as a consequence the sign of the residuals is changed and has the calculation for effciencies when the function is a cost function.



Changes to Benchmarking version 0.28

* Changed test of class to use 'is' instead of 'class()==...'

* Added a set.basis in method for VRS="graph" to avoid numerical problems

* Expanded manual for Malmquist, also an example with chain index

* Functions to handle peers made faster and given an option to extract only peers for a few units.

* In dea.boot the options XREF and YREF need not have the same units as does X and Y

* The functions peers, get.number.peers, get.which.peers, and get.peers.lambda now have a parameter LAMBDA to limit extracted peers to weight above a certain value given by LAMBDA.

* The tolerance that lambda is zero or one is changed to 1e-7; the same tolerance that the efficiency is one.

* Default scaling method changed from 'geometric' to 'range' as it for problematic datasets gives results without the need to scale the data itself.



Changes to Benchmarking version 0.27

* An experimental implementing of the Malmquist index; minimal manual

* Now dea.plot and related plots accept data.frame as arguments for X and Y as do the dea methods

* It is possible to name the peers using the option \code{NAMES}

* Check for NA in dea.plot and in summary(E)

* Possible to set maximum number of peers to delete in eladder by parameter MAXELAD

* Name of collumn for count of peers changed from '#' to 'count'

* New technology "vrs+"; as "vrs", but with restrictins on individual lambda and sums of lambda by using the parameter \code{param}; note that the resulting technology set is not necessarily convex.


Changes to Benchmarking version 0.26

* Corrected bug in sfa such that it now works when hessian=1 even when the package numDeriv is missing

* All global functions are now imported in NAMESPACE; a demand from CRAN


Changes to Benchmarking version 0.25

* Corrected a feature/bug in dea.boot that could lead to negative bias corrected efficiencies (reported by sevaral). Implemented option SHEPHARD.INPUT to avoid negative bias corrected efficiencies if this is wanted.

* Corrected bug in summary percentages for direction out (reported by Dana Pancurova)

* Corrected a bug in the sfa function that could leed to wrong results and missing standard errors if the function was called two or more times.

* Direction graph does not work for the method mea; the function now stops with an error message and does no longer return ordinary dea efficiencies


Changes to Benchmarking version 0.24

* Corrected dea.plot.transform that in certain cases missed a segment on the frontier

* Corrected several manual pages

* Use of FEAR has been droped as FEAR is hard to install and is not free.

* The method mea can now be used for directions in, out, and in-out.


Changes to Benchmarking version 0.23

* Corrected setting of options CONTROL (suggested by Arne Henningsen).

* Changed from using the deprecated function is.real to use of
  is.numeric.


Changes to Benchmarking version 0.22

* Corrected bug in dea.direct when the option DIRECTION was given by a
  number (reported by Tomas Balezentis).


Changes to Benchmarking version 0.21

 * Corrected bug in dea.plot(.transform) when y1 contains a 0 (bug
   reported by John P Burkett) and also corrected a few other odd
   problems in the method.

 * data.frames now possible instead of matrices in dea.dual as it have
   been for long in dea (bug reported by Marco Giuliano)

 * Better formatting af lambda in several output functions. 


Changes to Benchmarking version 0.20

 * Changed email for the author/maintainer

 * The arguments RTS=fdh+ and param now also works for eladder and mea.

 * Solved a bug in cost.opt when number of firms defining the
   technology differ from the number of firms for for which optimal
   input is to be calculated. This makes it possible to calculate cost
   efficiency for a group of firms that differ for the group that
   defines the technology.



Changes to Benchmarking version 0.19

 * Speed of dea with ORIENTATION="graph" has been almost doubled do to
   splicing in the bisection algorithmen; and now it gives the right
   efficiency for firms outside the technology set (before the highest
   possible value was 2)

 * The function eladder now accepts the arguments XREF and YREF as
   well as RTS="fdh" anf RTS="fdh+"

 * The function dea with DIRECT and dea.direct now accepts RTS="fdh+"

 * Corrected bug for missing names of peers when using NAMES=TRUE in
   peers for RTS="fdh".

 * Slack is now ok for directinal efficiency


Changes to Benchmarking version 0.18

 * The function eladder now also accept the argument DIRECT for for
   use with directional efficiency; a case of a forgotten argument.
 
 * The function peers now just return NA when there are no peers at all.

 * A new function dea.boot to bootstrap without the FEAR
   package. Changed the name of the wrapper boot.fear for bootstrap
   using the FEAR package (a wrap of FEAR::boot.sw98).

 * Corrected bug in dea.dual and dea for output directional efficiency.

 * The basis is reset to default basis for each firm in mea efficiency
   to avoid numerical failures (status code 5).

 * In the function dea RTS=irs2 now bounds the individual lambdas to 0
   or greater than or equal 1 and not just that their sum is greater
   than or equal 1 as for RTS=irs.

 * On request, numerical data frames are now accepted as arguments for
   X and Y. And as a byproduct vectors or arrays are condisered to be
   1 good (input og output) for many firms.

 * Firms with missing values are removed in the function sfa.



Changes to Benchmarking version 0.17

 * The function dea now accepts the argument RTS="fdh+", a technology
   the combines free disposability and restricted or local constant
   return to scale.

 * Changed internal use of matrices such that the corresponds to
   standard R use, and, therefore, are not transposed in the start of
   many functions. For normal use this speeds up the functions
   marginally, but the internal structure of the functions are nicer.

 * Directional efficiency now works for RTS="fdh", but still waiting
   for RTS="fdh+".

 * Every group of functions are now documented in a separate file

 * Efficiencies with no solutions returns -Inf or Inf depending on the
   orientation. This is in agreement with the use in super efficiency.

 * Better summaries for Farrell and slack objects

 * Fixed bug in slack when either input and/or outputs have big values



Changes to Benchmarking version 0.16

 * eff() now returns efficiencies as array and not as matrix; makes it
   easier with further calculations with eff as dimensions are now a
   lesser problem.   

 * Use of S3 method for efficiencies, compatible with the package
   frontier.

 * New function excess returns excess input and/or output for Farrell
   objects.

 * The function dea checks if X and Y are matrices and aborts if not.

 * make.merge can now use a named list to define mergers.

 * New function eladder and eladder.plot.

 * New function dea.direct for simplified directional efficiency with
   an interpretation a la Farrell.

 * The function slack works for directional efficiency

 * sdea (super-efficiency)  works with directional efficiency

 * A wrapper around FEAR::boot.sw89 such that it can be called and
   deliver results as other functions in Benchmarking.

 * A new value for RTS in dea.plot: "fdh+". At the moment, however, it
   only works for in-out direction.

 * The documentation has been corrected and somewhat expanded.

 

Changes to Benchmarking version 0.15

  * The methods now stops if there is an unknown value for RTS
    or ORIENTATION

  * dea.dual now has argument DIRECT same way as dea
 
  * new function mea calculates multi-directional efficiencies

  * new function mea.lines draw lines in connection with mea

  * minor clarifications in the manual for dea.dual

  bug fixes

  * dea argument DIRECT fixed for DIRECTION="out"; only worked
    when number of inputs and outputs was equal



Changes to Benchmarking version 0.14
  * make.merge can now use a factor to define mergers
  * data sets included
  * dea new argument DIRECT for directional efficiency
  * opdated all manuals
