Gli effetti del contesto territoriale sull’efficienza delle università in Italia

Caruso, Giuliana;Mallus, Elisabetta;Marrocu, Emanuela;Paci, Raffaele

2020-01-01

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Abstract

The paper analyses public universities' efficiency levels in Italy over the period 2010-2017, using a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, we use the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis method to calculate each university's internal technical efficiency score in a model with two outputs (teaching and research) and four inputs (students, academic staff, technical staff and financial resources). In the second stage, we employ linear regression models to evaluate the impact on the internal efficiency generated by the socio-economic contextual factors of the region in which the university is located. The first stage analysis indicates a general increase of relative technical efficiency from 2010 to 2017, coupled with a noticeable decrease in dispersion mainly due to efficiency improvements of Southern universities. This finding could be interpreted as evidence of the ability of universities to respond to the specific incentives brought about by recent reforms. The second stage provides convincing evidence on how the level of per capita income, students competences and the quality of local institutions affect universities' efficiency. These results call for policies tackling disparities in territorial conditions to in order to break a vicious circle as fewer resources for universities operating in lagging areas entails less local capacity to produce human capital and technological innovation, and this further worsens local socio-economic conditions.