Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology

Using data envelopment analysis and Malmquist index decompositions this paper focuses on the impacts of the Great Recession on the efficiency and productivity changes of U.S. publicly funded prestigious research universities in comparison to their lower level comprehensive university counterparts. Do elite research relative to comprehensive universities have more political clout and resources to better ward off the financial impacts and production demands of the? Results, based on ten academic years from 2004-05 through 2013-14, are somewhat mixed, but indicate that research universities have a technological edge that acts as the primary advantage driver to total productivity gains over their counterparts. However, comprehensive universities outperform research universities in both managerial and scale gains. Overall, there is significant variability among both groups of universities in their adjustments to the dramatic recessionary forces imposed upon them. While the paper greatly improves upon three previous studies, there remains the question of how publicly funded and managed U.S. universities will continue future adjustments to the some of the lingering and more permanent effects of the recession.

  Differential Recessionary Impacts on U.S. Research Relative to Comprehensive University Efficiencies and Productivities: 2004-2014 Panel Data Estimates (734.2 KiB, 1,564 hits)

The article attempts to measure relative efficiency in utilizing public education expenditures in the new EU member states in comparison to the selected EU (plus Croatia) and OECD countries. As resources allocated to education are significantly limited, a special emphasis should be given to their efficient use regarding the institutional and legal constraints. By applying non-parametric methodology, i.e. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a relative efficiency is defined as the deviation from the efficiency frontier which represents the maximum output/outcome attainable from each input level. An analysis of (output-oriented) efficiency measures shows that among the new EU member states Hungary, Estonia and Slovenia seem to be good benchmark countries in the field of primary, secondary and tertiary education, respectively. The empirical results also suggest that, in general, new EU member states show relatively high efficiency in tertiary education efficiency measures.

  Relative Efficiency of Education Expenditures in Eastern Europe: A Non-parametric Approach (906.9 KiB, 3,744 hits)