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The Strange Case of Matthew Effect and Beauty Contest: Research Evaluation and Specialisation in the Italian Universities

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The paper aims to examine whether the distribution of funds that prizes relatively more the most performing institutions has the effect of replicating the Matthew effect within them in terms of personnel policies and allocate proportionally more resources to the best departments to strengthen their output in the prospect of future assessments. Data from the Italian public university system between 2011 and 2017 as well as outcomes of the national evaluation of research produced between 2004 and 2010 and between 2011 and 2014 in 14 disciplinary research areas have been used. The empirical evidence shows that the Italian universities tended to increase their specialisation in the research areas, where they ranked below or slightly above the national mean, revealing that the universities chose to the mean try strengthening the weak sectors, both through promotions and new recruitments. Results suggest the existence of a dual policy. When the Ministry of Education, University and Research tries to foster a Matthew-effect mechanism, allocating more resources to the best-performing universities, these last seem opting to implement a beauty-contest strategy to make their weak areas to converge towards the national mean. When the effects of the recruiting strategies following the national evaluation of research, have been considered, results indicate the existence of some Matthew’s effects showing that increasing specialization is more fruitful for the best than for the worst universities.

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  • Migheli, Matteo & Zotti, Roberto, 2018. "The Strange Case of Matthew Effect and Beauty Contest: Research Evaluation and Specialisation in the Italian Universities," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201814, University of Turin.
    • Handle: RePEc:uto:dipeco:201814
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    2. Filandri, Marianna & Pasqua, Silvia & Priori, Eleonora, 2023. "Breaking through the glass ceiling. Simulating policies to close the gender gap in the Italian academia," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education

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