Current Account (CA) imbalances reveal the unequal Trade and Foreign Direct Investment (T&FDI) flows between various countries. This paper investigates the performance of the CA component of the Balance of Payments (BoP) of major advanced economies following the recent global financial and economic crisis (2013–2017) using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) second-stage approach. Slack-based inefficiency (SBI) DEA models are proposed, using both a conventional perspective and a sustainability perspective that consider greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as an undesirable output. The efficiency assessment aims to identify output slacks (i.e. exports and income inflows shortfalls) as well as input slacks (i.e. import and income outflows excesses). In the second stage, explanatory factors of the observed CA inefficiencies have been investigated, using regression models under frequentist and Bayesian frameworks. Although some differences exist between the Conventional and Sustainability scenarios regarding the negative effects of trade diversification and external debt and energy dependency on CA inefficiency, in both scenarios the results indicate links between CA inefficiency and geographical regions, socio-economic development and the burden of customs procedures.

经常账户（CA）的不平衡表明，各国之间的贸易和外国直接投资（T＆FDI）不平等。本文使用数据包络分析（DEA）第二阶段方法研究了最近的全球金融和经济危机（2013-2017）后主要发达经济体的国际收支（BoP）中CA成分的绩效。提出了基于松弛的效率低下（SBI）DEA模型，该模型使用了常规观点和将温室气体（GHG）排放视为不良输出的可持续性观点。效率评估旨在确定产出松弛（即出口和收入流入缺口）和投入松弛（即进口和收入流出盈余）。在第二阶段，调查了观察到的CA效率低下的解释因素，在常客和贝叶斯框架下使用回归模型。尽管在常规和可持续性方案之间存在着关于贸易多样化和外债以及能源依赖对CA效率低下的负面影响的一些差异，但在这两种情况下，结果都表明CA效率低下与地理区域，社会经济发展和海关负担之间存在联系程序。