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Carbon efficiency of US colleges and universities: a nonparametric assessment

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  • Michael E. O’Hara
  • Philip Sirianni

Abstract

Under the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), institutes of higher education have pledged to pursue a goal of carbon neutrality. We utilize emissions reported under the ACUPCC agreement and a nonparametric data envelopment analysis approach in order to evaluate the relative performance of signatories to the agreement in terms of producing teaching and research with the least greenhouse gas emissions. We find that while many signatory institutions are now producing their desirable outputs relatively efficiently in terms of carbon emissions, there still exists considerable variation in efficiency and potential for improvement. Results of a second stage efficiency change analysis shows evidence of both movement towards the efficiency frontier since signing, and some movement of the frontier itself, though this evidence comes primarily from teaching-focused institutions.

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  • Michael E. O’Hara & Philip Sirianni, 2017. "Carbon efficiency of US colleges and universities: a nonparametric assessment," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(11), pages 1083-1097, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:49:y:2017:i:11:p:1083-1097
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2016.1210780
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    Cited by:

    1. Ding, Tao & Zhang, Yun & Zhang, Danlu & Li, Feng, 2023. "Performance evaluation of Chinese research universities: A parallel interactive network DEA approach with shared and fixed sum inputs," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).

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