IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jomega/v67y2017icp123-133.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the efficiency of Mexican universities: Integrating Data Envelopment Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling

Author

Listed:
  • Sagarra, Marti
  • Mar-Molinero, Cecilio
  • Agasisti, Tommaso

Abstract

National policy initiatives require the expenditure of large amounts of resources over several years. It is common for these initiatives to generate large amounts of data that are needed in order to assess their success. Educational policies are an obvious example. Here we concentrate on Mexico׳s “Educational Modernisation Programme” and try to see how this plan has affected efficiency in teaching and research at Mexico׳s universities. We use a combined approach that includes traditional ratios together with Data Envelopment Analysis models. This mixture allows us to assess changes in efficiency at each individual university and explore if these changes are related to teaching, to research, or to both. Using official statistics for 55 universities over a six year period (2007–2012), we have generated 12 ratios and estimated 21 DEA models under different definitions of efficiency. In order to make the results of the analysis accessible to the non-specialist we use models that visualise the main characteristics of the data, in particular scaling models of multivariate statistical analysis. Scaling models highlight the important aspects of the information contained in the data. Because the data is three-way (variables, universities, and years) we have chosen the Individual Differences Scaling model of Carroll and Chang. We complete the paper with a discussion of efficiency evolution in three universities.

Suggested Citation

  • Sagarra, Marti & Mar-Molinero, Cecilio & Agasisti, Tommaso, 2017. "Exploring the efficiency of Mexican universities: Integrating Data Envelopment Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 123-133.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:67:y:2017:i:c:p:123-133
    DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2016.04.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305048316301530
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.omega.2016.04.006?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    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. Liu, W.B. & Zhang, D.Q. & Meng, W. & Li, X.X. & Xu, F., 2011. "A study of DEA models without explicit inputs," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 472-480, October.
    3. Marti Sagarra & Cecilio Mar-Molinero & Miguel García-Cestona, 2015. "Spanish savings banks in the credit crunch: could distress have been predicted before the crisis? A multivariate statistical analysis," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 195-214, February.
    4. C Serrano Cinca & C Mar Molinero, 2004. "Selecting DEA specifications and ranking units via PCA," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(5), pages 521-528, May.
    5. Jill Johnes, 2008. "Efficiency And Productivity Change In The English Higher Education Sector From 1996/97 To 2004/5," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 76(6), pages 653-674, December.
    6. Charles Jones, 1983. "A note on the use of directional statistics in weighted euclidean distances multidimensional scaling models," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 473-476, September.
    7. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min & Lin, Bruce J.Y., 2013. "A survey of DEA applications," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 893-902.
    8. J. Carroll & Jih-Jie Chang, 1970. "Analysis of individual differences in multidimensional scaling via an n-way generalization of “Eckart-Young” decomposition," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 35(3), pages 283-319, September.
    9. Premachandra, I. M., 2001. "A note on DEA vs principal component analysis: An improvement to Joe Zhu's approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(3), pages 553-560, August.
    10. Ledyard Tucker, 1966. "Some mathematical notes on three-mode factor analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 31(3), pages 279-311, September.
    11. Andrew Johnson & John Ruggiero, 2014. "Nonparametric measurement of productivity and efficiency in education," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 221(1), pages 197-210, October.
    12. Jesús T. Pastor & JosÉ L. Ruiz & Inmaculada Sirvent, 2002. "A Statistical Test for Nested Radial Dea Models," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(4), pages 728-735, August.
    13. Yin, Yong & Yasuda, Kazuhiko, 2006. "Similarity coefficient methods applied to the cell formation problem: A taxonomy and review," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 329-352, June.
    14. David Parkin & Bruce Hollingsworth, 1997. "Measuring production efficiency of acute hospitals in Scotland, 1991-94: validity issues in data envelopment analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(11), pages 1425-1433.
    15. Liu, John S. & Lu, Wen-Min, 2010. "DEA and ranking with the network-based approach: a case of R&D performance," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 453-464, December.
    16. Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Serrano-Cinca, Carlos & Mar Molinero, Cecilio, 2007. "Microfinance institutions and efficiency," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 131-142, April.
    17. 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.
    18. Andrew Worthington, 2001. "An Empirical Survey of Frontier Efficiency Measurement Techniques in Education," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 245-268.
    19. Robert MacCallum, 1976. "Transformation of a three-mode multidimensional scaling solution to indscal form," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 41(3), pages 385-400, September.
    20. J. Kruskal, 1964. "Nonmetric multidimensional scaling: A numerical method," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 29(2), pages 115-129, June.
    21. M. Mozaffari & J. Gerami & J. Jablonsky, 2014. "Relationship between DEA models without explicit inputs and DEA-R models," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 22(1), pages 1-12, March.
    22. Johnes, Jill, 2006. "Data envelopment analysis and its application to the measurement of efficiency in higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 273-288, June.
    23. Jenkins, Larry & Anderson, Murray, 2003. "A multivariate statistical approach to reducing the number of variables in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(1), pages 51-61, May.
    24. M M Segovia-Gonzalez & I Contreras & C Mar-Molinero, 2009. "A DEA analysis of risk, cost, and revenues in insurance," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(11), pages 1483-1494, November.
    25. Geraint Johnes & Jill Johnes (ed.), 2004. "International Handbook on the Economics of Education," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2847.
    26. E Thanassoulis & M Kortelainen & G Johnes & J Johnes, 2011. "Costs and efficiency of higher education institutions in England: a DEA analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(7), pages 1282-1297, July.
    27. Ozren Despić & Mladen Despić & Joseph Paradi, 2007. "DEA-R: ratio-based comparative efficiency model, its mathematical relation to DEA and its use in applications," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 33-44, October.
    28. Cinca, C.S. & Molinero, C.M. Larraz, J.L.G., 1999. "A Multivariate Study of the EU Economy via Financial Statement Analysis," Papers 99-150, University of Southampton - Department of Accounting and Management Science.
    29. Chen, Wen-Chih & McGinnis, Leon F., 2007. "Reconciling ratio analysis and DEA as performance assessment tools," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 178(1), pages 277-291, April.
    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. Aparicio, Juan & López-Torres, Laura & Santín, Daniel, 2018. "Economic crisis and public education. A productivity analysis using a Hicks-Moorsteen index," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 34-44.
    3. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min, 2016. "Research fronts in data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 33-45.
    4. 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.
    5. Victor V. Podinovski & Wan Rohaida Wan Husain, 2017. "The hybrid returns-to-scale model and its extension by production trade-offs: an application to the efficiency assessment of public universities in Malaysia," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 250(1), pages 65-84, March.
    6. 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.
    7. Agasisti, Tommaso & de Oliveira Ribeiro, Celma & Montemor, Daniel Sanches, 2022. "The efficiency of Brazilian elementary public schools," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Kaffash, Sepideh & Azizi, Roza & Huang, Ying & Zhu, Joe, 2020. "A survey of data envelopment analysis applications in the insurance industry 1993–2018," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(3), pages 801-813.
    9. Cristian Barra & Roberto Zotti, 2016. "Measuring Efficiency in Higher Education: An Empirical Study Using a Bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 22(1), pages 11-33, February.
    10. Wang, Derek D., 2019. "Performance-based resource allocation for higher education institutions in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 66-75.
    11. Dag Fjeld Edvardsen & Finn R. Førsund & Sverre A. C. Kittelsen, 2017. "Productivity development of Norwegian institutions of higher education 2004–2013," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 399-415, April.
    12. Calogero Guccio & Marco Ferdinando Martorana & Isidoro Mazza, 2016. "Efficiency assessment and convergence in teaching and research in Italian public universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1063-1094, June.
    13. Tzeremes, Nickolaos & Halkos, George, 2010. "A DEA approach for measuring university departments’ efficiency," MPRA Paper 24029, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Worthington, Andrew C. & Lee, Boon L., 2008. "Efficiency, technology and productivity change in Australian universities, 1998-2003," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 285-298, June.
    19. Yaisawarng, Suthathip & Ng, Ying Chu, 2014. "The impact of higher education reform on research performance of Chinese universities," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 94-105.
    20. Marcel Clermont & Julia Schaefer, 2019. "Identification of Outliers in Data Envelopment Analysis," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 71(4), pages 475-496, October.

    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:eee:jomega:v:67:y:2017:i:c:p:123-133. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/375/description#description .

    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.