Profile
Emmanuel is a specialist in performance measurement, with particular emphasis on the theory and application of data envelopment analysis, as a method for measuring and managing performance. He has measured efficiency for a variety of organisations, including the Department for Education and Skills, the Home Office, HM Treasury and the Audit Commission. He has developed numerous assessment models for utilities on behalf of Ofwat, Royal Mail, Transco, United Utilities, Vivendi Water UK and Severn Trent Water. He has developed software for DEA, and has delivered the annual training course on DEA for the Operational Research Society since 1988. He is Professor in Management Sciences at Aston Business School, Aston University, teaching optimisation methods, statistics and DEA.
Selected project experience
- Review of the regulator’s total cost efficiency modelling for the Finnish energy industry (2012)
- Advice on efficiency issues for a Belgian energy distribution network (2011–12)
- Advice to a European Energy Regulator on alternative performance assessment approaches in electricity and gas networks (2010–12)
- Examined consumption efficiency in the retail investment products market (2010)
- Efficiency advice for Thames Water (2008–10)
- Assessments of efficiencies of delivery offices and mail centres for Royal Mail (2005–10)
- A critical review of comparative efficiency on behalf of Telecom New Zealand (2003)
- Advised Vivendi Water UK for the Competition Commission merger inquiry with Southern Water (2002)
- Assessment of the cost efficiencies of gas distribution zones for Transco (2000)
- Development of econometric models on capital maintenance in the water industry, on behalf of Severn Trent Water (1997)
- Comparative efficiencies of water companies using operating and capital costs for Ofwat, and consultant to Ofwat for the 1999 periodic review of water companies (1996–99)
Selected publications
- Silva Portela, M.C., Thanassoulis, E., Horncastle, A. and Maugg, T. (2011), ‘Productivity change in the Water Industry in England and Wales: Application of the Meta-Malmquist Index’, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 62, pp. 2173–88.
- Silva Portela, M.C. and Thanassoulis, E. (2008), ‘Malmquist-type indices in the presence of negative data: An application to bank branches’, Journal of Banking and Finance 34:7, pp. 1472–83.
- Emrouznejad, A. and Thanassoulis, E. (2010), ‘Measurement of productivity index with dynamic DEA’, International Journal of Operational Research, 8:2, pp. 247–60, May.
- Johnes, G., Johnes, J. and Thanassoulis, E. (2008), ‘An Analysis of Costs in Institutions of Higher Education in England’, Studies in Higher Education, 33:5, pp. 527–49, October.
- Thanassoulis, E. (2007), ‘Improving Discrimination in Data Envelopment Analysis: Some Practical Suggestions’, Journal of Productivity Analysis, 28, pp. 117–26.
- Silva Portela, M.C. and Thanassoulis, E. (2007), ‘Comparative Efficiency Analysis of Portuguese Bank Branches’, European Journal of Operational Research, 177, pp. 1275–88.
- Silva Portela, M.C. and Thanassoulis, E. (2007), ‘Developing a decomposable measure of profit efficiency using DEA’, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 58:4, pp. 481–90, April.
- Horncastle, A., Jevons, D., Dudley, P. and Thanassoulis, E. (2006), ‘Efficiency Analysis of Delivery Offices in the Postal Sector Using Stochastic Frontier and Data Envelopment Analyses’, chapter 10, pp. 149–64, in A. Crew and P.R. Kleindorfer (eds), Liberalization of the Postal and Delivery Sector, Edward Elgar.
- Emrouznejad, A. and Thanassoulis, E. (2005), ‘A Mathematical Model for Dynamic Efficiency Using Data Envelopment Analysis’, Applied Mathematics and Computation, 160:2, pp. 363–78, January.
- Silva Portela, M.C. and Thanassoulis, E. (2005), ‘Profitability of a Sample of Portuguese Bank Branches and its Decomposition into Technical and Allocative Components’, European Journal of Operational Research, 162:3, pp. 850–66, May.
- Silva Portela, M.C., Thanassoulis, E. and Simpson, G. (2004), ‘Negative Data in DEA: A Directional Distance Approach Applied to Bank Branches’, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 55, 1111–21.
- Maniadakis, N. and Thanassoulis, E. (2004), ‘A Cost Malmquist Productivity Index’, European Journal of Operational Research, 154:2, pp. 396–409, April.
- Thanassoulis, E., Silva Portela, M.C. and Allan, R. (2004), ‘Incorporating Value Judgments in DEA’, chapter 4, in W.W. Cooper, L.W. Seiford and J. Zhu (eds), Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
- Thanassoulis, E. and Silva Portela, M.C. (2002), ‘School Outcomes: Sharing the Responsibility between Pupil and School’, Education Economics, 10:2, pp. 183–207.
- Thanassoulis, E. (2002), ‘Comparative Performance Measurement in Regulation: The Case of English and Welsh Sewerage Services’, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 53:3, pp. 292–302.
- Thanassoulis, E. (2001), Introduction to the Theory and Application of Data Envelopment Analysis: A Foundation Text with Integrated Software, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
- Thanassoulis, E. (2000), ‘The Use of Data Envelopment Analysis in the Regulation of UK Water Utilities: Water Distribution’, European Journal of Operational Research, 126:2, pp. 436–53.
- Thanassoulis, E. (2000), ‘DEA and its Use in the Regulation of Water Companies’, European Journal of Operational Research, 127:1, pp. 1–13.
- Maniadakis, N. and Thanassoulis, E. (2000), ‘Changes in Productivity of a Sample of Scottish Hospitals: A Cost Index Approach’, Applied Economics, 32, pp. 1575–89.
Qualifications
- PhD Industrial and Business Studies, University of Warwick
- MSc Management Science and Operational Research, University of Warwick
- BSc Engineering with Operational Research, University of Sussex
