IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/infome/v5y2011i4p618-628.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A field-standardized application of DEA to national-scale research assessment of universities

Author

Listed:
  • Abramo, Giovanni
  • Cicero, Tindaro
  • D’Angelo, Ciriaco Andrea

Abstract

The current work proposes an application of DEA methodology for measurement of technical and allocative efficiency of university research activity. The analysis is based on bibliometric data from the Italian university system for the five-year period 2004–2008. Technical and allocative efficiency is measured with input being considered as a university's research staff, classified according to academic rank, and with output considered as the field-standardized impact of the research product realized by these staff. The analysis is applied to all scientific disciplines of the so-called hard sciences, and conducted at subfield level, thus at a greater level of detail than ever before achieved in national-scale research assessments.

Suggested Citation

  • Abramo, Giovanni & Cicero, Tindaro & D’Angelo, Ciriaco Andrea, 2011. "A field-standardized application of DEA to national-scale research assessment of universities," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 618-628.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:5:y:2011:i:4:p:618-628
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2011.06.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157711000654
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.joi.2011.06.001?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. J. Glass & Donal McKillop & Gary O'Rourke, 1998. "A Cost Indirect Evaluation of Productivity Change in UK Universities," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 153-175, October.
    2. 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.
    3. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D'Angelo & Flavia Di Costa, 2008. "Assessment of sectoral aggregation distortion in research productivity measurements," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 111-121, June.
    4. Saul Lach & Mark Schankerman, 2008. "Incentives and invention in universities," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(2), pages 403-433, June.
    5. repec:adr:anecst:y:1998:i:49-50:p:05 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Daniel Coronado & Manuel Acosta, 2005. "The effects of scientific regional opportunities in science-technology flows: Evidence from scientific literature in firms patent data," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 39(3), pages 495-522, September.
    7. Kao, Chiang & Hung, Hsi-Tai, 2008. "Efficiency analysis of university departments: An empirical study," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 653-664, August.
    8. Jaffe, Adam B, 1989. "Real Effects of Academic Research," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(5), pages 957-970, December.
    9. Abbott, M. & Doucouliagos, C., 2003. "The efficiency of Australian universities: a data envelopment analysis," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 89-97, February.
    10. James D. Adams & Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Research Productivity in a System of Universities," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 49-50, pages 127-162.
    11. Gary Madden & Scott Savage & Steven Kemp, 1997. "Measuring Public Sector Efficiency: A Study of Economics Departments at Australian Universities," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 153-168.
    12. Lundberg, Jonas, 2007. "Lifting the crown—citation z-score," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 145-154.
    13. Abramo, Giovanni & D'Angelo, Ciriaco Andrea & Caprasecca, Alessandro, 2009. "Allocative efficiency in public research funding: Can bibliometrics help?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 206-215, February.
    14. Van Looy, Bart & Callaert, Julie & Debackere, Koenraad, 2006. "Publication and patent behavior of academic researchers: Conflicting, reinforcing or merely co-existing?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 596-608, May.
    15. Ahn, Taesik & Charnes, Abraham & Cooper, William W., 1988. "Some statistical and DEA evaluations of relative efficiencies of public and private institutions of higher learning," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 259-269.
    16. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Cinzia Daraio, 2003. "A robust nonparametric approach to the analysis of scientific productivity," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 47-69, April.
    17. Meng, Wei & Zhang, Daqun & Qi, Li & Liu, Wenbin, 2008. "Two-level DEA approaches in research evaluation," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 950-957, December.
    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. 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.
    2. Marcel Clermont & Alexander Dirksen & Harald Dyckhoff, 2015. "Returns to scale of Business Administration research in Germany," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(2), pages 583-614, May.
    3. Abramo, Giovanni & Cicero, Tindaro & D’Angelo, Ciriaco Andrea, 2012. "The dispersion of research performance within and between universities as a potential indicator of the competitive intensity in higher education systems," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 155-168.
    4. Tzeremes, Nickolaos & Halkos, George, 2010. "A DEA approach for measuring university departments’ efficiency," MPRA Paper 24029, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Mad Ithnin Salleh & Nurul Fadly Habidin & Abdul Halim Masnan & Nordin Mamat, 2017. "Estimating Technical Efficiency and Bootstrapping Malmquist Indices: Analysis of Malaysian Preschool Sector," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(3), pages 440-457, March.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Kong, Wei-Hsin & Fu, Tsu-Tan, 2012. "Assessing the performance of business colleges in Taiwan using data envelopment analysis and student based value-added performance indicators," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 541-549.
    9. 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.
    10. Fatih KARASAÇ, 2020. "Efficiency Analysis of Turkish Higher Education Institutions: Stochastic Frontier Model," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. George E. Halkos & Nickolaos G. Tzeremes & Stavros A. Kourtzidis, 2012. "Measuring Public Owned University Departments' Efficiency: A Bootstrapped DEA Approach," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 55(2), pages 1-24.
    14. Barra, Cristian & Lagravinese, Raffaele & Zotti, Roberto, 2015. "Explaining (in)efficiency in higher education: a comparison of parametric and non-parametric analyses to rank universities," MPRA Paper 67119, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. 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.
    16. Kuo, Jenn-Shyong & Ho, Yi-Cheng, 2008. "The cost efficiency impact of the university operation fund on public universities in Taiwan," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 603-612, October.
    17. 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.
    18. Mad Ithnin Salleh & Shariffah Nur Illiana Syed Ismail & Nurul Fadly Habidin & Nor Azrin Md Latip, 2016. "Efficiency and Productivity Changes of the Malaysian Community Colleges," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 6(12), pages 407-424, December.
    19. Wipo, 2011. "World Intellectual Property Report 2011- The Changing Face of Innovation," WIPO Economics & Statistics Series, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division, number 2011:944, April.
    20. Lee Branstetter & Kwon Hyeog Ug, 2004. "The Restructuring Of Japanese Research And Development: The Increasing Impact Of Science On Japanese R&D," Discussion papers 04021, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).

    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:infome:v:5:y:2011:i:4:p:618-628. 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/locate/joi .

    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.