IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/edecon/v15y2007i4p455-471.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the Cost Efficiency of Italian Universities

Author

Listed:
  • Tommaso Agasisti
  • Carlo Salerno

Abstract

This study uses Data Envelopment Analysis to evaluate the cost efficiency of 52 Italian public universities. In addition to being one of the first such cost studies of the Italian system, it explicitly takes into account the internal cost structure of institutions' education programs; a task not prevalent in past Data Envelopment Analysis studies on higher education institutions. The findings highlight biases in efficiency measurement arising from not separating the sample into those institutions with medical faculties and those without. Efficiency scores are also shown to vary considerably when education quality measures are input-based or output-based. From a policy perspective, our findings suggest that limiting the enrollment growth of some institutions while expanding enrollments in others could reduce system-wide costs and improve overall efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Tommaso Agasisti & Carlo Salerno, 2007. "Assessing the Cost Efficiency of Italian Universities," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 455-471.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:15:y:2007:i:4:p:455-471
    DOI: 10.1080/09645290701273491
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09645290701273491
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09645290701273491?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geraint Johnes & Jill Johnes (ed.), 2004. "International Handbook on the Economics of Education," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2847.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kristinn Hermannsson & Patrizio Lecca, 2016. "Human Capital in Economic Development: From Labour Productivity to Macroeconomic Impact," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(1), pages 24-36, March.
    2. Andersson, Christian, 2007. "Teacher density and student achievement in Swedish compulsory schools," Working Paper Series 2007:4, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    3. repec:lan:wpaper:1115 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Agasisti, Tommaso & de Oliveira Ribeiro, Celma & Montemor, Daniel Sanches, 2022. "The efficiency of Brazilian elementary public schools," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    5. Monks James & Schmidt Robert M., 2011. "The Impact of Class Size on Outcomes in Higher Education," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-19, September.
    6. repec:lan:wpaper:1043 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Robert E. Martin & R. Carter Hill & Melissa S. Waters, 2017. "Baumol and Bowen Cost Effects in Research Universities," Departmental Working Papers 2017-03, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    8. Johnes, Jill & Yu, Li, 2008. "Measuring the research performance of Chinese higher education institutions using data envelopment analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 679-696, December.
    9. Cristina Ciumas & Claudia-Andreea Urean & Gabriela Mihaela Muresan & Gabriel Armean, 2017. "Education And Employment Rate In Romania," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 81-86, July.
    10. Machin, Stephen & McNally, Sandra & Ruiz-Valenzuela, Jenifer, 2020. "Entry through the narrow door: The costs of just failing high stakes exams," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    11. Floreani, Vincent Arthur, 2014. "Fixing Europe's youth unemployment and skills mismatch, can public financial support to SMEs be effective? The case of the European Commission and European Investment Bank joint initiatives," MPRA Paper 55849, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Geraint Johnes, 2008. "Book Review," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 109-110.
    13. Thomas Bolli & Mehdi Farsi, 2015. "The dynamics of productivity in Swiss universities," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 21-38, August.
    14. Göke, Michael, 2008. "Homo oeconomicus im Hörsaal: Die Rationalität studentischer Nebengespräche in Lehrveranstaltungen," Arbeitspapiere der FOM 9, FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management.
    15. Yeo Khee Yong & Toh Mun Heng & Shandre Mugan Thangavelu & James Wong, 2007. "Premium on Fields of Study : The Returns to Higher Education in Singapore," Microeconomics Working Papers 21921, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    16. Abbas, Qaisar & Foreman-Peck, James, 2007. "The Mincer Human Capital Model in Pakistan: Implications for Education Policy," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2007/24, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    17. Alloush, M., 2018. "Income, Psychological Well-being, and the Dynamics of Poverty: Evidence from South Africa," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274223, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Hermannsson, Kristinn & Lisenkova, Katerina & Lecca, Patrizio & McGregor, Peter G & Swales, J Kim, 2010. "The Importance of Graduates for the Scottish Economy: A Micro-to-Macro Approach," SIRE Discussion Papers 2010-80, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    19. Darragh Flannery & Cathal O’Donoghue, 2011. "The Life-cycle Impact of Alternative Higher Education Finance Systems in Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 42(3), pages 237-270.
    20. E Thanassoulis & G Johnes & J Johnes, 2005. "An analysis of costs in institutions of higher education in England," Working Papers 566942, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    21. Agénor, Pierre-Richard & Canuto, Otaviano, 2015. "Gender equality and economic growth in Brazil: A long-run analysis," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 155-172.
    22. Zara Daghbashyan & Björn Hårsman, 2014. "University choice and entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 729-746, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:15:y:2007:i:4:p:455-471. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CEDE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.