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Universities as nail factories? An evaluation of the Italian public funding of higher education

Author

Listed:
  • Livio Ferrante

    (Department of Economics and Business - University of Catania)

  • Simona Monteleone

    (Department of Science of Education - University of Catania)

  • Francesco Reito

    (Department of Economics and Business - University of Catania)

Abstract

We use data on graduates from public Italian universities and show that socio-economic factors, external to the control of the university management, can play a crucial role in determining the performance of students in terms of study completion time. We argue that the recent reform of the Italian public funding policy, which rewards universities for the number of students who complete their studies on time, can have perverse effects on the quality of undergraduate education.

Suggested Citation

  • Livio Ferrante & Simona Monteleone & Francesco Reito, 2017. "Universities as nail factories? An evaluation of the Italian public funding of higher education," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(3), pages 1490-1495.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-16-00610
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. 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..
    3. Guido Ferrari & Tiziana Laureti, 2005. "Evaluating technical efficiency of human capital formation in the Italian university: Evidence from Florence," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 14(2), pages 243-270, November.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Italy; university; reform; performance; funding system; moral-hazard; quality; efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • C1 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

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