How does a situation of economic crisis influence the cost efficiency of public universities? A convergence analysis in the Spanish University System (2008-2019)
¿Cómo influye una situación de crisis económica en la eficiencia en costes de las universidades públicas? Un análisis de convergencia en el Sistema Universitario Español (2008-2019)
Abstract
Managers of public universities are increasingly required to manage resources effectively and efficiently when carrying out core university functions, in order to achieve cost cuts without eliminating services or compromising quality. In this context, the two objectives of this work are: first, to evaluate cost (in)efficiency in the Spanish Public University System during the period 2008-2020, comparing the situation during and after the global economic crisis of 2008; and, second, to study the convergence of the cost efficiency of universities –throughout these periods, within the sector and towards best practices– as well as its possible dependence on the crisis situation. To achieve these objectives, on the one hand, the conditional panel data Data Envelopment Analysis model is applied and, on the other, different regression models are used to determine the convergences β, σ and λ. Our findings show an improvement in average cost efficiency between 2008 and 2019, revealing a reduction in university costs to achieve a given level of outputs. In that period, furthermore, the universities that initially managed their funds worse improved their cost efficiency more than those that initially behaved better, also reducing inequality between them at the end of the period. There was also intense convergence towards the best practice frontier. When distinguishing between sub-periods, compared to the crisis stage (2008-2013), Spanish public universities, on average, made better cost reduction decisions when providing their services during the post-crisis period (2014- 2019), also producing greater institutional convergence both over time and towards the sector average and best practices.
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