IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v99y2014i2d10.1007_s11192-013-1207-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are there scale economies in scientific production? On the topic of locally increasing returns to scale

Author

Listed:
  • Torben Schubert

    (Lund University
    Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research
    Technological University Berlin)

Abstract

In this paper the question of returns to scale in scientific production is analysed using non-parametric techniques of multidimensional efficiency measurement. Based on survey data for German research groups from three scientific fields, it is shown that the multidimensional production possibility sets are weakly non-convex and locally strictly non-convex. This suggests that the production functions for the groups in the sample are characterised by increasing returns to scale in some regions and at least constant returns to scale otherwise. This has two implications for the organisation of scientific research: first, the size of at least some groups in our sample is suboptimal and they would benefit from growth. Second, greater specialisation in certain tasks in science (e.g. transfer-oriented groups vs. research-oriented groups) would increase the output of the overall system.

Suggested Citation

  • Torben Schubert, 2014. "Are there scale economies in scientific production? On the topic of locally increasing returns to scale," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 99(2), pages 393-408, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:99:y:2014:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-013-1207-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-013-1207-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-013-1207-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-013-1207-1?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. Schubert, Torben, 2009. "Empirical observations on New Public Management to increase efficiency in public research--Boon or bane?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1225-1234, October.
    2. Carayol, Nicolas & Matt, Mireille, 2004. "Does research organization influence academic production?: Laboratory level evidence from a large European university," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1081-1102, October.
    3. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    4. 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.
    5. Glass, J C & McKillop, Donal G & Hyndman, N, 1995. "Efficiency in the Provision of University Teaching and Research: An Empirical Analysis of UK Universities," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(1), pages 61-72, Jan.-Marc.
    6. 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.
    7. Worthington, Andrew C. & Higgs, Helen, 2014. "Economies of scale and scope in Australian urban water utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 52-62.
    8. Susanne Warning, 2004. "Performance Differences in German Higher Education: Empirical Analysis of Strategic Groups," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 24(4), pages 393-408, June.
    9. Izadi, Hooshang & Johnes, Geraint & Oskrochi, Reza & Crouchley, Robert, 2002. "Stochastic frontier estimation of a CES cost function: the case of higher education in Britain," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 63-71, February.
    10. Kneip, Alois & Park, Byeong U. & Simar, Léopold, 1998. "A Note On The Convergence Of Nonparametric Dea Estimators For Production Efficiency Scores," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(6), pages 783-793, December.
    11. Dundar, Halil & Lewis, Darrell R., 1995. "Departmental productivity in American universities: Economies of scale and scope," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 119-144, June.
    12. Ulrich Schmoch & Torben Schubert & Dorothea Jansen & Richard Heidler & Regina von Görtz, 2010. "How to use indicators to measure scientific performance: a balanced approach," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 2-18, March.
    13. Cohn, Elchanan & Rhine, Sherrie L W & Santos, Maria C, 1989. "Institutions of Higher Education as Multi-product Firms: Economies of Scale and Scope," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(2), pages 284-290, May.
    14. Tasso Brandt & Torben Schubert, 2013. "Is the university model an organizational necessity? Scale and agglomeration effects in science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(2), pages 541-565, February.
    15. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Cinzia Daraio, 2005. "Exploring size and agglomeration effects on public research productivity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 63(1), pages 87-120, March.
    16. Ulrich Schmoch & Torben Schubert, 2009. "Sustainability of incentives for excellent research — The German case," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(1), pages 195-218, October.
    17. Nicolas Carayol & Mireille Matt, 2004. "Does research organization influence academic production ?," Post-Print hal-00279014, HAL.
    18. Johnes, Geraint, 1997. "Costs and Industrial Structure in Contemporary British Higher Education," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(442), pages 727-737, May.
    19. de Groot, Hans & McMahon, Walter W & Volkwein, J Fredericks, 1991. "The Cost Structure of American Research Universities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(3), pages 424-431, August.
    20. Geraint Johnes, 1999. "The Management of Universities; Scottish Economic Society/Royal Bank of Scotland Annual Lecture, 1999," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 46(5), pages 505-522, November.
    21. David N. Laband & Bernard F. Lentz, 2003. "New Estimates of Economies of Scale and Scope in Higher Education," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(1), pages 172-183, July.
    22. G. Thomas Sav, 2004. "Higher education costs and scale and scope economies," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(6), pages 607-614.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Guo-liang & Rousseau, Ronald & Yang, Li-ying & Liu, Wen-bin, 2014. "A study on directional returns to scale," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 628-641.
    2. Tommaso Agasisti & Cristian Barra & Roberto Zotti, 2019. "Research, knowledge transfer, and innovation: The effect of Italian universities’ efficiency on local economic development 2006−2012," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(5), pages 819-849, November.
    3. 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.
    4. Hamid Bouabid & Hind Achachi, 2022. "Size of science team at university and internal co-publications: science policy implications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 6993-7013, December.
    5. Yang, Guoliang & Ahlgren, Per & Yang, Liying & Rousseau, Ronald & Ding, Jielan, 2016. "Using multi-level frontiers in DEA models to grade countries/territories," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 238-253.
    6. Torben Schubert & Guoliang Yang, 2016. "Institutional change and the optimal size of universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(3), pages 1129-1153, September.
    7. Kroll, Henning & Meyer, Niclas, 2016. "Analysing FP7 from a systemic perspective: What role for the delineation and the set up of the sub-programmes?," Working Papers "Firms and Region" R3/2016, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).

    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. Tasso Brandt & Torben Schubert, 2013. "Is the university model an organizational necessity? Scale and agglomeration effects in science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(2), pages 541-565, February.
    2. Tasso Brandt & Torben Schubert, 2014. "Is the university model an organizational necessity? Scale and agglomeration effects in science," Chapters, in: Andrea Bonaccorsi (ed.), Knowledge, Diversity and Performance in European Higher Education, chapter 8, pages iii-iii, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Brandt, Tasso & Schubert, Torben, 2012. "Is the University Model an Organizational Necessity? Scale and Agglomeration Effects in Science," Papers in Innovation Studies 2012/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    4. Torben Schubert & Guoliang Yang, 2016. "Institutional change and the optimal size of universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(3), pages 1129-1153, September.
    5. Schubert , Torben, 2013. "Are there Scale Economies in Scientific Production? On the Topic of Locally Increasing Returns to Scale," Papers in Innovation Studies 2013/43, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    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. Kerstin Pull & Birgit Pferdmenges & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2017. "Do Research Training Groups Operate at Optimal Size?," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 18(2), pages 129-145, May.
    8. Liang-Cheng Zhang & Andrew C. Worthington, 2018. "Explaining Estimated Economies of Scale and Scope in Higher Education: A Meta-Regression Analysis," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(2), pages 156-173, March.
    9. Tzeremes, Nickolaos & Halkos, George, 2010. "A DEA approach for measuring university departments’ efficiency," MPRA Paper 24029, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Daraio, Cinzia & Bonaccorsi, Andrea & Simar, Léopold, 2015. "Efficiency and economies of scale and specialization in European universities: A directional distance approach," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 430-448.
    11. repec:lan:wpaper:4358 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. T Agasisti & G Johnes, 2009. "Cost Structure, Efficiency and Heterogeneity in US Higher Education: An Empirical Analysis," Working Papers 599308, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    13. repec:lan:wpaper:4487 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Bonaccorsi, Andrea & Belingheri, Paola & Secondi, Luca, 2021. "The research productivity of universities. A multilevel and multidisciplinary analysis on European institutions," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2).
    15. Longlong, Hou & Fengliang, Li & Weifang, Min, 2009. "Multi-product total cost functions for higher education: The case of Chinese research universities," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 505-511, August.
    16. repec:lan:wpaper:4792 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Luca Secondi, 2017. "The determinants of research performance in European universities: a large scale multilevel analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1147-1178, September.
    18. George E. Halkos & Nickolaos G. Tzeremes & Stavros A. Kourtzidis, 2010. "An application of statistical interference in DEA models: An analysis of public owned university departments' efficiency," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2010_17, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    19. Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz & Aleksandra Parteka, 2011. "Efficiency of European public higher education institutions: a two-stage multicountry approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 89(3), pages 887-917, December.
    20. Izadi, Hooshang & Johnes, Geraint & Oskrochi, Reza & Crouchley, Robert, 2002. "Stochastic frontier estimation of a CES cost function: the case of higher education in Britain," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 63-71, February.
    21. Marvin A. Titus & Adriana Vamosiu & Kevin R. McClure, 2017. "Are Public Master’s Institutions Cost Efficient? A Stochastic Frontier and Spatial Analysis," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 58(5), pages 469-496, August.
    22. repec:lan:wpaper:1043 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Mehdi Rhaiem & Nabil Amara, 2020. "Determinants of research efficiency in Canadian business schools: evidence from scholar-level data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 53-99, October.
    24. E Thanassoulis & G Johnes & J Johnes, 2005. "An analysis of costs in institutions of higher education in England," Working Papers 566942, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Research units; Specialisation; Production; Efficiency; Returns to scale; DEA;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

    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:spr:scient:v:99:y:2014:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-013-1207-1. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.