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Contribution Details

Type Working Paper
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title How to compete in the higher education market? - Empirical evidence for economies of scale and scope of German higher education institutions
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Maria Olivares
  • Heike Wetzel
Language
  • English
Institution University of Zurich
Series Name Swiss Leading House "Economics of Education" Working Paper
Number 70
Number of Pages 32
Date 2011
Abstract Text Since the late 1990s, the European higher education system has had to face deep structural changes. With the public authorities seeking to create an environment of quasi-markets in the higher education sector, the increased competition induced by recent reforms has pushed all publicly financed higher education institutions to use their resources more efficiently. Higher education institutions increasingly now aim at differentiating themselves from their competitors in terms of the range of outputs they produce. Assuming that different market positioning strategies will have different effects on the performance of higher education institutions, this paper explores the existence of economies of scale and scope in the German higher education sector. Using an input-oriented distance function approach, we estimate the economies of scale and scope and the technical efficiency for 154 German higher education institutions from 2001 through 2007. Our results suggest that comprehensive universities should indeed orientate their activities to the concept of a full-university that combines teaching and research activities across a broad range of subjects. In contrast, praxis-oriented small and medium-sized universities of applied sciences should specialise in the teaching and research activities they conduct.
Official URL http://www.isu.uzh.ch/leadinghouse/WorkingPapers/0070_lhwpaper.pdf
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Additional Information The paper was presented at XII European Workshop on Efficiency and Productivity Analysis (EWEPA), Verona, Italy, 21 June 2011 - 24 June 2011