IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/econpa/v42y2023i3p282-305.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Influence of Administrative Intensity on Efficiency: An Empirical Analysis of Australian Universities

Author

Listed:
  • Carolyn‐Thi Thanh Dung Tran
  • Brian Dollery
  • Subba Reddy Yarram

Abstract

While a voluminous empirical literature has investigated university efficiency, much less attention has focused on the impact of administrative intensity on university performance. In this article, we seek to contribute to the empirical literature by examining the relationship between operational efficiency and administrative intensity in the Australian higher education sector over the period 2009/10–2018/19 using a second stage bootstrapping Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) fractional regression model. We find that administrative intensity positively affects the performance of universities for both the standard and bias‐corrected efficiency models. Moreover, administrative intensity exhibits an inverted U‐shaped relationship with university efficiency. We also find that administrative intensity has a differential impact on the efficiency of the different types of university. Various public policy implications are considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Carolyn‐Thi Thanh Dung Tran & Brian Dollery & Subba Reddy Yarram, 2023. "The Influence of Administrative Intensity on Efficiency: An Empirical Analysis of Australian Universities," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 42(3), pages 282-305, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econpa:v:42:y:2023:i:3:p:282-305
    DOI: 10.1111/1759-3441.12387
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1759-3441.12387
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1759-3441.12387?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johnes, Geraint & Johnes, Jill, 1993. "Measuring the Research Performance of UK Economics Departments: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 45(2), pages 332-347, April.
    2. Esmeralda Ramalho & Joaquim Ramalho & Pedro Henriques, 2010. "Fractional regression models for second stage DEA efficiency analyses," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 239-255, December.
    3. Antreas Athanassopoulos & Estelle Shale, 1997. "Assessing the Comparative Efficiency of Higher Education Institutions in the UK by the Means of Data Envelopment Analysis," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 117-134.
    4. Steven Kelman, 2006. "Downsizing, competition, and organizational change in government: Is necessity the mother of invention?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(4), pages 875-895.
    5. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 2008. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency and Productivity Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195183528.
    6. Avkiran, Necmi K., 2001. "Investigating technical and scale efficiencies of Australian Universities through data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 57-80, March.
    7. Celia Whitchurch, 2008. "Shifting Identities, Blurring Boundaries: The Changing Roles of Professional Managers in Higher Education," University of California at Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education qt3xk701cn, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
    8. Johnes, Geraint & Johnes, Jill, 2009. "Higher education institutions' costs and efficiency: Taking the decomposition a further step," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 107-113, February.
    9. Esmeralda A. Ramalho & Joaquim J.S. Ramalho & José M.R. Murteira, 2011. "Alternative Estimating And Testing Empirical Strategies For Fractional Regression Models," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 19-68, February.
    10. Lee, Boon L. & Worthington, Andrew C., 2016. "A network DEA quantity and quality-orientated production model: An application to Australian university research services," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 26-33.
    11. Abbott, M. & Doucouliagos, C., 2003. "The efficiency of Australian universities: a data envelopment analysis," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 89-97, February.
    12. Tommaso Agasisti & Geraint Johnes, 2009. "Beyond frontiers: comparing the efficiency of higher education decision-making units across more than one country," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 59-79.
    13. Galina Besstremyannaya & Jaak Simm, 2015. "Robust non-parametric estimation of cost efficiency with an application to banking industry," Working Papers w0217, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    14. John Robst, 2001. "Cost Efficiency in Public Higher Education Institutions," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(6), pages 730-750, November.
    15. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 1998. "Sensitivity Analysis of Efficiency Scores: How to Bootstrap in Nonparametric Frontier Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 49-61, January.
    16. Galina Besstremyannaya & Jaak Simm, 2015. "Robust non-parametric estimation of cost efficiency with an application to banking industry," Working Papers w0217, New Economic School (NES).
    17. C. Andersson & K. Sund, 2022. "Technical Efficiency and Productivity of Higher Education Institutions in the Nordic Countries," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 107-120, January.
    18. Timothy J. Coelli & D.S. Prasada Rao & Christopher J. O’Donnell & George E. Battese, 2005. "An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-25895-9, September.
    19. McDonald, John, 2009. "Using least squares and tobit in second stage DEA efficiency analyses," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(2), pages 792-798, September.
    20. Papke, Leslie E & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M, 1996. "Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables with an Application to 401(K) Plan Participation Rates," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 619-632, Nov.-Dec..
    21. Harrison, Jeffrey S. & Wicks, Andrew C., 2013. "Stakeholder Theory, Value, and Firm Performance," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 97-124, January.
    22. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    23. Hoff, Ayoe, 2007. "Second stage DEA: Comparison of approaches for modelling the DEA score," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 181(1), pages 425-435, August.
    24. A. T. Flegg & D. O. Allen & K. Field & T. W. Thurlow, 2004. "Measuring the efficiency of British universities: a multi-period data envelopment analysis," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 231-249.
    25. Carolyn-Dung T. T. Tran & Renato A. Villano, 2021. "Financial Efficiency Of Tertiary Education Institutions: A Second-Stage Dynamic Network Data Envelopment Analysis Method," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 66(05), pages 1421-1442, September.
    26. Siew King Ting & Brian Dollery & Rene Villano, 2014. "Administrative scale economies in local government: An empirical analysis of Sabah municipalities, 2000 to 2009," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(13), pages 2899-2915, October.
    27. Casu, B. & Thanassoulis, E., 2006. "Evaluating cost efficiency in central administrative services in UK universities," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 417-426, October.
    28. Mammadov, Rza & Aypay, Ahmet, 2020. "Efficiency analysis of research universities in Turkey," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    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. Kristof De Witte & Laura López-Torres, 2017. "Efficiency in education: a review of literature and a way forward," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 339-363, April.
    2. Renato A. Villano & Carolyn‐Dung T. T. Tran, 2021. "Survey on technical efficiency in higher education: A meta‐fractional regression analysis," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 110-135, February.
    3. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Capozza, Claudia & Porcelli, Francesco, 2015. "Hotelling competition and teaching efficiency of Italian university faculties. A semi-parametric analysis," MPRA Paper 62927, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Mehdi Rhaiem, 2017. "Measurement and determinants of academic research efficiency: a systematic review of the evidence," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(2), pages 581-615, February.
    5. Eucabeth Majiwa & Boon L. Lee & Clevo Wilson & Hidemichi Fujii & Shunsuke Managi, 2018. "A network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) model of post-harvest handling: the case of Kenya’s rice processing industry," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(3), pages 631-648, June.
    6. Yang, Guo-liang & Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Song, Yao-yao, 2018. "Measuring the inefficiency of Chinese research universities based on a two-stage network DEA model," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 10-30.
    7. Shamohammadi, Mehdi & Oh, Dong-hyun, 2019. "Measuring the efficiency changes of private universities of Korea: A two-stage network data envelopment analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    8. Cossani, Gianfranco & Codoceo, Loreto & Cáceres, Hernán & Tabilo, Jorge, 2022. "Technical efficiency in Chile’s higher education system: A comparison of rankings and accreditation," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    9. Manuel Salas-Velasco, 2020. "Measuring and explaining the production efficiency of Spanish universities using a non-parametric approach and a bootstrapped-truncated regression," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 825-846, February.
    10. Vanesa D’Elia & Gustavo Ferro, 2019. "Empirical Efficiency Measurement in Higher Education: An Overview," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 708, Universidad del CEMA.
    11. Veronese da Silva, Aline & Costa, Marcelo Azevedo & Lopes-Ahn, Ana Lúcia, 2022. "Accounting multiple environmental variables in DEA energy transmission benchmarking modelling: The 2019 Brazilian case," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    12. Gralka, Sabine, 2018. "Stochastic frontier analysis in higher education: A systematic review," CEPIE Working Papers 05/18, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    13. Gutiérrez, Ester & Lozano, Sebastián, 2016. "Efficiency assessment and output maximization possibilities of European small and medium sized airports," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 3-14.
    14. Lee, Boon L. & Worthington, Andrew C., 2016. "A network DEA quantity and quality-orientated production model: An application to Australian university research services," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 26-33.
    15. Agasisti, Tommaso & Barra, Cristian & Zotti, Roberto, 2016. "Evaluating the efficiency of Italian public universities (2008–2011) in presence of (unobserved) heterogeneity," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 47-58.
    16. Tzeremes, Nickolaos & Halkos, George, 2010. "A DEA approach for measuring university departments’ efficiency," MPRA Paper 24029, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Laureti, Tiziana & Secondi, Luca & Biggeri, Luigi, 2014. "Measuring the efficiency of teaching activities in Italian universities: An information theoretic approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 147-164.
    18. Yolanda Fernández-Santos & Almudena Martínez-Campillo & José Miguel Fernández-Fernández, 2015. "Determinantes de la eficiencia en las universidades públicas españolas: un análisis DEA en dos etapas," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 10, in: Marta Rahona López & Jennifer Graves (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 10, edition 1, volume 10, chapter 25, pages 491-508, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    19. Calogero Guccio & Marco Ferdinando Martorana & Luisa Monaco, 2016. "Evaluating the impact of the Bologna Process on the efficiency convergence of Italian universities: a non-parametric frontier approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 275-298, June.
    20. Sanjeet Singh & Prabhat Ranjan, 2018. "Efficiency analysis of non-homogeneous parallel sub-unit systems for the performance measurement of higher education," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 269(1), pages 641-666, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:econpa:v:42:y:2023:i:3:p:282-305. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.html .

    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.