IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-20-00710.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economies of scale and scope of universities – towards bigger size and specialization?

Author

Listed:
  • Tommaso Agasisti

    (Politecnico di Milano, School of Management)

  • Alice Bertoletti

    (Politecnico di Milano, School of Management)

  • Giacomo Pignataro

    (Politecnico di Milano, School of Management and University of Catania)

Abstract

This paper provides an estimation of the specific cost structure of the Italian public universities, considering their complex function of producing teaching and research. The analysis employs a quadratic cost function and an innovative dataset for the year 2016. When modelling the cost structure, we explicitly take the potential inefficiency into account, using a Stochastic Frontier Analysis. Current levels of marginal and average costs suggest that economies of scale can be still exploited. Strong diseconomies of scope between teaching and research also exist. Policies dealing with mergers and specialization are justified from the cost-efficiency point of view.

Suggested Citation

  • Tommaso Agasisti & Alice Bertoletti & Giacomo Pignataro, 2021. "Economies of scale and scope of universities – towards bigger size and specialization?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(2), pages 405-416.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-20-00710
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2021/Volume41/EB-21-V41-I2-P36.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Baumol, William J, 1982. "Contestable Markets: An Uprising in the Theory of Industry Structure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(1), pages 1-15, March.
    3. Tommaso Agasisti & Geraint Johnes, 2010. "Heterogeneity and the evaluation of efficiency: the case of Italian universities," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(11), pages 1365-1375.
    4. Wolszczak-Derlacz, Joanna, 2017. "An evaluation and explanation of (in)efficiency in higher education institutions in Europe and the U.S. with the application of two-stage semi-parametric DEA," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1595-1605.
    5. Elchanan Cohn & Samuel T. Cooper, 2004. "Multi-product Cost Functions for Universities: Economies of Scale and Scope," Chapters, in: Geraint Johnes & Jill Johnes (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Education, chapter 15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Tommaso Agasisti & Carlo Salerno, 2007. "Assessing the Cost Efficiency of Italian Universities," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 455-471.
    7. 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.
    8. Tommaso Agasisti, 2016. "Cost structure, productivity and efficiency of the Italian public higher education industry 2001--2011," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 48-68, January.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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).
    4. Tommaso Agasisti & Ralph Hippe & Giuseppe Munda, 2017. "Efficiency of investment in compulsory education: empirical analyses in Europe," JRC Research Reports JRC106678, Joint Research Centre.
    5. 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.
    6. Lars Herberholz & Berthold U. Wigger, 2020. "Efficiency of European Universities: A Comparison of Peers," CESifo Working Paper Series 8044, CESifo.
    7. Tommaso Agasisti & Giuseppe Munda, 2017. "Efficiency of investment in compulsory education: An Overview of Methodological Approaches," JRC Research Reports JRC106681, Joint Research Centre.
    8. Shukhrat Kholmuminov & Robert E Wright, 2017. "Cost efficiency analysis of public higher education institutions in Uzbekistan," Working Papers 1704, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
    9. Johnes, Geraint & Johnes, Jill & Virmani, Swati, 2022. "Performance and efficiency in Indian universities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    10. 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.
    11. Berardino Cesi & Dimitri Paolini, 2014. "Peer Group and Distance: When Widening University Participation is Better," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 82, pages 110-132, December.
    12. 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.
    13. Barra, Cristian & Lagravinese, Raffaele & Zotti, Roberto, 2018. "Does econometric methodology matter to rank universities? An analysis of Italian higher education system," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-120.
    14. 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.
    15. Keiji Hashimoto & Elchanan Cohn, 1997. "Economies of Scale and Scope in Japanese Private Universities," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 107-115.
    16. 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.
    17. G. Thomas Sav, 2004. "Higher education costs and scale and scope economies," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(6), pages 607-614.
    18. Lenton, Pamela, 2008. "The cost structure of higher education in further education colleges in England," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 471-482, August.
    19. 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.
    20. Liang Zhang & Wei Bao & Liang Sun, 2016. "Resources and Research Production in Higher Education: A Longitudinal Analysis of Chinese Universities, 2000–2010," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 57(7), pages 869-891, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Universities; cost functions; economies of scale; economies of scope; stochastic frontier;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • H8 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-20-00710. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.