Cinzia Daraio

Advanced indicators of productivity of universitiesAn application of robust nonparametric methods to Italian data

SummaryThis paper explores scale, scope and trade-off effects in scientific research and education. External conditions may dramatically affect the measurement of performance. We apply theDaraio&Simars (2005) nonparametric methodology to robustlytake into account these factors and decompose the indicators of productivity accordingly. From a preliminary investigation on the Italian system of universities, we find that economies of scale and scope are not significant factors in explaining research and education productivity. We do not find any evidence of the trade-off research vs teaching. About the trade-off academic publications vs industry oriented research, it seems that, initially, collaboration with industry may improve productivity, but beyond a certain level the compliance with industry expectations may be too demanding and deteriorate the publication profile. Robust nonparametric methods in efficiency analysis are shown as useful tools for measuring and explaining the performance of a public research system of universities.

Scale and research specialization in European universities: a directional distance approach to teaching efficiency

For the first time, data on individual European higher education institutions (rather than data aggregated at the country level) is used in order to examine a wide range of issues that are both theoretically challenging and relevant from policy-making and societal perspectives. The contributors integrate statistics on universities and colleges with other sources of information such as patents, start-up firms and bibliometric data, and employ rigorous empirical methods to address a range of key questions, including: what is the role of non-university tertiary education, such as vocational training? How important is the private sector? Are European universities internationalized? Are they efficient from the point of view of costs and educational output? Are there pure research universities in Europe? How do universities contribute to economic growth?