IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceps/v48y2014i1p4-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring efficiency in Australian Schools: A preliminary analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Blackburn, Vincent
  • Brennan, Shae
  • Ruggiero, John

Abstract

In this paper, we apply a public sector Data Envelopment Analysis model to estimate the efficiency of Australian primary and secondary schools. Standard microeconomic production theory showing the transformation of inputs into outputs is extended to allow nondiscretionary environmental variables characteristic of educational production. Failure to properly control for the socioeconomic environment leads to inappropriate comparisons and biased efficiency estimates. We employ a conditional estimator that does not allow a school with a better environment to serve as a benchmark for a school with a worse environment. The results suggest that Australian schools are moderately inefficient and that efficiency increases for the quintile of schools with the most favorable environment. Further, efficiency gains are realized with increasing enrollment.

Suggested Citation

  • Blackburn, Vincent & Brennan, Shae & Ruggiero, John, 2014. "Measuring efficiency in Australian Schools: A preliminary analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 4-9.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:48:y:2014:i:1:p:4-9
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2013.08.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038012113000499
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.seps.2013.08.002?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. Ruggiero, John, 1998. "Non-discretionary inputs in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(3), pages 461-469, December.
    2. Kirjavainen, Tanja & Loikkanent, Heikki A., 1998. "Efficiency differences of finnish senior secondary schools: An application of DEA and Tobit analysis," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 377-394, October.
    3. De Witte, Kristof & Rogge, Nicky & Cherchye, Laurens & Van Puyenbroeck, Tom, 2013. "Economies of scope in research and teaching: A non-parametric investigation," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 305-314.
    4. B. Hollingsworth & P. Smith, 2003. "Use of ratios in data envelopment analysis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(11), pages 733-735.
    5. Emmanuel Thanassoulis & Maria Da Conceicao & A. Silva Portela, 2002. "School Outcomes: Sharing the Responsibility Between Pupil and School1," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 183-207.
    6. Afriat, Sidney N, 1972. "Efficiency Estimation of Production Function," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 13(3), pages 568-598, October.
    7. Subhash C. Ray, 1991. "Resource-Use Efficiency in Public Schools: A Study of Connecticut Data," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(12), pages 1620-1628, December.
    8. M-J Mancebón & J Calero & Á Choi & D P Ximénez-de-Embún, 2012. "The efficiency of public and publicly subsidized high schools in Spain: Evidence from PISA-2006," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 63(11), pages 1516-1533, November.
    9. Silva Portela, Maria Conceicao A. & Thanassoulis, Emmanuel, 2001. "Decomposing school and school-type efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(2), pages 357-373, July.
    10. Podinovski, V. V., 2005. "Selective convexity in DEA models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(2), pages 552-563, March.
    11. M. Portela & A. Camanho & A. Keshvari, 2013. "Assessing the evolution of school performance and value-added: trends over four years," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 1-14, February.
    12. A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper & E. Rhodes, 1981. "Evaluating Program and Managerial Efficiency: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis to Program Follow Through," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(6), pages 668-697, June.
    13. Haelermans, Carla & Ruggiero, John, 2013. "Estimating technical and allocative efficiency in the public sector: A nonparametric analysis of Dutch schools," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 227(1), pages 174-181.
    14. Haelermans, Carla & De Witte, Kristof, 2012. "The role of innovations in secondary school performance – Evidence from a conditional efficiency model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(2), pages 541-549.
    15. J Ruggiero, 2000. "Nonparametric estimation of returns to scale in the public sector with an application to the provision of educational services," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 51(8), pages 906-912, August.
    16. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    17. Ruggiero, John, 2004. "Performance evaluation when non-discretionary factors correlate with technical efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(1), pages 250-257, November.
    18. Rajiv D. Banker & Richard C. Morey, 1986. "Efficiency Analysis for Exogenously Fixed Inputs and Outputs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 513-521, August.
    19. Ruggiero, John, 1996. "On the measurement of technical efficiency in the public sector," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 553-565, May.
    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. 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.
    2. Abolghasem, Sepideh & Gómez-Sarmiento, Juliana & Medaglia, Andrés L. & Sarmiento, Olga L. & González, Andrés D. & Díaz del Castillo, Adriana & Rozo-Casas, Juan F. & Jacoby, Enrique, 2018. "A DEA-centric decision support system for evaluating Ciclovía-Recreativa programs in the Americas," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 90-101.
    3. Tavana, Madjid & Ebrahimnejad, Ali & Santos-Arteaga, Francisco J. & Mansourzadeh, Seyed Mehdi & Matin, Reza Kazemi, 2018. "A hybrid DEA-MOLP model for public school assessment and closure decision in the City of Philadelphia," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 70-89.
    4. Kalyan Chakraborty & Richard K. Harper, 2017. "Measuring the Impact of Socio-Economic Factors on School Efficiency in Australia," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 45(2), pages 163-179, June.
    5. Luque, Mariano & Marcenaro-Gutierrez, Oscar D. & Ruiz, Ana B., 2020. "Evaluating the global efficiency of teachers through a multi-criteria approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Ben Yahia, Fatma & Essid, Hédi & Rebai, Sonia, 2018. "Do dropout and environmental factors matter? A directional distance function assessment of tunisian education efficiency," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 120-127.
    7. Olesen, Ole Bent & Petersen, Niels Christian & Podinovski, Victor V., 2017. "Efficiency measures and computational approaches for data envelopment analysis models with ratio inputs and outputs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(2), pages 640-655.
    8. Ana B. Ruiz & Mariano Luque & Oscar D. Marcenaro-Gutierrez, 2022. "On the use of Synthetic Indexes Based on Multi-Criteria Decision Making to Study the Efficiency of Teachers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 1269-1300, October.
    9. Carla Haelermans & John Ruggiero, 2017. "Non-parametric estimation of the cost of adequacy in education: the case of Dutch schools," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 390-398, April.
    10. Fritz Schiltz & Kristof Witte & Deni Mazrekaj, 2020. "Managerial efficiency and efficiency differentials in adult education: a conditional and bias-corrected efficiency analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 288(2), pages 529-546, May.
    11. K. Kounetas & G. Androulakis & M. Kaisari & G. Manousakis, 2023. "Educational reforms and secondary school's efficiency performance in Greece: a bootstrap DEA and multilevel approach," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-29, March.
    12. Aatzaz Hassan & Muhammad Ramzan Sheikh & Rana Zafar Hayat & Neelam Asghar Ali, 2022. "An Efficiency Analysis of Public and Private Elementary Schools in Dera Ghazi Khan," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 8(3), pages 135-150, September.
    13. Yahia, F.B. & Essid, H., 2019. "Determinants of Tunisian Schools’ Efficiency: A DEA-Tobit Approach," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 8(1), pages 44-56, February.
    14. Konrad, Renata A. & Trapp, Andrew C. & Palmbach, Timothy M. & Blom, Jeffrey S., 2017. "Overcoming human trafficking via operations research and analytics: Opportunities for methods, models, and applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(2), pages 733-745.
    15. Rebai, Sonia & Ben Yahia, Fatma & Essid, Hédi, 2020. "A graphically based machine learning approach to predict secondary schools performance in Tunisia," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    16. Manuel Salas‐Velasco, 2020. "Assessing the performance of Spanish secondary education institutions: Distinguishing between transient and persistent inefficiency, separated from heterogeneity," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(4), pages 531-555, July.
    17. López-Torres, Laura & Nicolini, Rosella & Prior, Diego, 2017. "Does strategic interaction affect demand for school places? A conditional efficiency approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 89-103.

    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. 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.
    2. Johnes, Jill, 2015. "Operational Research in education," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(3), pages 683-696.
    3. Brennan, Shae & Haelermans, Carla & Ruggiero, John, 2014. "Nonparametric estimation of education productivity incorporating nondiscretionary inputs with an application to Dutch schools," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(3), pages 809-818.
    4. Huguenin, Jean-Marc, 2015. "Adjusting for the environment in DEA: A comparison of alternative models based on empirical data," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 41-54.
    5. Paolo Liberati & Raffaele Lagravinese & Giuliano Resce, 2017. "How Does Economic Social And Cultural Status Affect The Efficiency Of Educational Attainments? A Comparative Analysis On Pisa Results," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0217, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    6. Andrew Johnson & John Ruggiero, 2014. "Nonparametric measurement of productivity and efficiency in education," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 221(1), pages 197-210, October.
    7. Hua, Zhongsheng & Bian, Yiwen & Liang, Liang, 2007. "Eco-efficiency analysis of paper mills along the Huai River: An extended DEA approach," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 578-587, October.
    8. Davutyan, Nurhan & Demir, Mert & Polat, Sezgin, 2010. "Assessing the efficiency of Turkish secondary education: Heterogeneity, centralization, and scale diseconomies," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 35-44, March.
    9. Haelermans, Carla & Ruggiero, John, 2013. "Estimating technical and allocative efficiency in the public sector: A nonparametric analysis of Dutch schools," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 227(1), pages 174-181.
    10. Alexander Arévalo S & Víctor Giménez G & Diego Prior J, 2022. "Análisis de eficiencia en educación: una aplicación del método StoNED," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, vol. 92(2), pages 45-91, October.
    11. Aparicio, Juan & López-Torres, Laura & Santín, Daniel, 2018. "Economic crisis and public education. A productivity analysis using a Hicks-Moorsteen index," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 34-44.
    12. Ole Bent Olesen & Niels Christian Petersen & Victor V. Podinovski, 2022. "Scale characteristics of variable returns-to-scale production technologies with ratio inputs and outputs," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 318(1), pages 383-423, November.
    13. Papaioannou, Grammatoula & Podinovski, Victor V., 2023. "Production technologies with ratio inputs and outputs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(3), pages 1164-1178.
    14. Aparicio, Juan & Ortiz, Lidia & Santín, Daniel, 2021. "Comparing group performance over time through the Luenberger productivity indicator: An application to school ownership in European countries," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(2), pages 651-672.
    15. Lagravinese, Raffaele & Liberati, Paolo & Resce, Giuliano, 2020. "The impact of economic, social and cultural conditions on educational attainments," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 112-132.
    16. Syrjanen, Mikko J., 2004. "Non-discretionary and discretionary factors and scale in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(1), pages 20-33, October.
    17. Lee, Boon L. & Worthington, Andrew C., 2014. "Technical efficiency of mainstream airlines and low-cost carriers: New evidence using bootstrap data envelopment analysis truncated regression," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 15-20.
    18. Alexandra Medina-Borja & Konstantinos Triantis, 2014. "Modeling social services performance: a four-stage DEA approach to evaluate fundraising efficiency, capacity building, service quality, and effectiveness in the nonprofit sector," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 221(1), pages 285-307, October.
    19. José Manuel Cordero & Daniel Santín & Rosa Simancas, 2017. "Assessing European primary school performance through a conditional nonparametric model," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 364-376, April.
    20. Ruggiero, John, 2004. "Performance evaluation when non-discretionary factors correlate with technical efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(1), pages 250-257, November.

    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:soceps:v:48:y:2014:i:1:p:4-9. 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/seps .

    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.