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Efficiency of public spending in education: A challenge among Italian regions

In: Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 6

Author

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  • Piergiacomo Sibiano

    (Politecnico di Milano)

  • Tommaso Agasisti

    (Politecnico di Milano)

Abstract

The Italian educational system is strictly regulated by the Ministry of Education. However, there are strong differences in educational inputs and outputs among Regions, as can be noticed by analyzing the allocation of public budgets to the Regions and their students' (average) performance in national and international test scores. A general institutional change is ongoing in Italy, that is, the decentralization of competencies from the State to the Regions (federalism). Some insights are necessary about the efficiency of public spending on education in a comparative perspective across Regions. To estimate efficiency scores, a non-parametric technique called DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) was used. The units of analysis are the 18 Italian Regions, with the focus on the lower-secondary education. Then a second-stage Tobit regression was used to detect the factors affecting efficiency. The results corroborate the difference between the North and South of Italy (the Regions in the North outperform their counterparts in the South). When looking at the Regional socio-economic context, GDP per capita appears as the key determinant of efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Piergiacomo Sibiano & Tommaso Agasisti, 2011. "Efficiency of public spending in education: A challenge among Italian regions," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 6, in: Antonio Caparrós Ruiz (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 6, edition 1, volume 6, chapter 31, pages 503-516, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    • Handle: RePEc:aec:ieed06:06-31
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Agasisti, Tommaso & Longobardi, Sergio & Prete, Vincenzo & Russo, Felice, 2021. "The relevance of educational poverty in Europe: Determinants and remedies," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 692-709.
    3. Lipeng Chen & Yang Yu & Amsalu K. Addis & Xiao Guo, 2022. "Empirical Assessment and Comparison of Educational Efficiency between Major Countries across the World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Agasisti, Tommaso & Cordero-Ferrera, Jose M., 2013. "Educational disparities across regions: A multilevel analysis for Italy and Spain," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1079-1102.
    5. 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.
    6. Oleg V. Leshukov & Daria P. Platonova & Dmitry S. Semyonov, 2015. "Does Competition Matter? The Efficiency of Regional Higher Education Systems and Competition: The Case of Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 29/EDU/2015, National Research University Higher School of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    efficiency; standard cost;

    JEL classification:

    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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