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, 1,569 hits)

The current global economic crisis was ignited in the financial markets of the major developed economies but soon the real economy was affected. The developing world, Romania in particular, has not been isolated from its impact. International trade and capital flows serve as a transmission mechanism that illustrated that the hypothesis of a de-coupling between the developed and developing world does not hold. Romanian economy mostly does not have fully developed financial systems and is less integrated into the global financial market, hence the initial expectation in some circles that our national economy would be isolated from the contagion of the crisis. This paper argues that this was an unrealistic presumption and that the disease had a serious fall-out in Romania. Consumer spending was cut back, investment plans were cancelled and stock levels were run down. The economic situation is serious. GDP has shrunk, the unemployment level is rising, investments are still slowing, lending is tight and budget deficits are growing fast. Fiscal policies implemented by our country are subordinated to our lack of necessary funding and access to. However, that generated a monopoly on this sector of the IMF. Also, a social crisis became imminent.

  Romanian Vulnerabilities in the Current Financial and Economic Crises Context (690.2 KiB, 2,624 hits)