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The German excellence initiative and efficiency change among universities, 2001-2011

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  • Gawellek, Bastian
  • Sunder, Marco

Abstract

The "Excellence Initiative" is a prestigious third-party funding program for German universities, organized as a research contest. We investigate whether universities in this program (or that prepared an application) had different trends in terms of productivity and technical efficiency than universities that did not apply for the program, albeit these dimensions were not the target of the program. While universities became more efficient if the extra funding through the program is included, we do not find a substantially positive effect that extends beyond this funding. The evidence even suggests that applicants suffered a drop in efficiency at the time of applying. All this does not rule out, however, that research-oriented universities jointly gained productivity through increased competition between them.

Suggested Citation

  • Gawellek, Bastian & Sunder, Marco, 2016. "The German excellence initiative and efficiency change among universities, 2001-2011," Working Papers 142, University of Leipzig, Faculty of Economics and Management Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:leiwps:142
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    Cited by:

    1. Erik E. Lehmann & Michele Meoli & Stefano Paleari & Sarah A. E. Stockinger, 2018. "Approaching effects of the economic crisis on university efficiency: a comparative study of Germany and Italy," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(1), pages 37-54, March.
    2. Ibrahim Shehatta & Khalid Mahmood, 2016. "Correlation among top 100 universities in the major six global rankings: policy implications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 1231-1254, November.
    3. Cantner, Uwe & Grashof, Nils & Grebel, Thomas & Zhang, Xijie, 2023. "When Excellence is not Excellent: The Impact of the Excellence Initiative on the Relative Productivity of German Universities," MPRA Paper 118139, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Matthias Menter & Erik E. Lehmann & Torben Klarl, 2018. "In search of excellence: a case study of the first excellence initiative of Germany," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(9), pages 1105-1132, December.
    5. Congbin Guo & Xiaowei Hao & Jiaqi Wu & Tizhen Hu, 2023. "The effect of national higher education initiatives on university rankings," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Uwe Cantner & Nils Grashof & Thomas Grebel & Anna Kosmützky & Georg Krücken & Xijie Zhang, 2023. "Competitive positioning of German Universities: Deliberate Decision, Fate, or Fiction?," Jena Economics Research Papers 2023-012, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    7. Tommaso Agasisti & Ekaterina Shibanova & Daria Platonova & Mikhail Lisyutkin, 2018. "The Russian Excellence Initiative For Higher Education: An Econometric Evaluation Of Short-Term Results," HSE Working papers WP BRP 201/EC/2018, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    8. Civera, Alice & Lehmann, Erik E. & Paleari, Stefano & Stockinger, Sarah A.E., 2020. "Higher education policy: Why hope for quality when rewarding quantity?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(8).
    9. Sabine Gralka & Klaus Wohlrabe & Lutz Bornmann, 2018. "How to Measure Research Efficiency in Higher Education? Research Grants vs. Publication Output," CESifo Working Paper Series 7055, CESifo.
    10. Krieger, Bastian, 2023. "Heterogeneous regional university funding and firm innovation: An empirical analysis of the German excellence initiative," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-006, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Efficiency; Malmquist index; German Research Foundation; DFG;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

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