Efficiency vs effectiveness: an analysis of tertiary education across Europe

Ozana Nadoveza Jelic () and Margareta Gardijan Kedzo ()
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Ozana Nadoveza Jelic: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business, Zagreb, Croatia
Margareta Gardijan Kedzo: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business, Zagreb, Croatia

Public Sector Economics, 2018, vol. 42, issue 4, 381-414

Abstract: This paper deals with tertiary education efficiency and effectiveness across 24 European Union countries in four sub-periods between 2004 and 2015. The efficiency scores are computed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We try to raise awareness of the quality, and not of the quantity, of educational outputs and inputs by introducing quality-based correction of the DEA efficiency score, which we regard as effectiveness. Our results show that quality considerations affect the relative positions of countries regarding their efficiency scores. In other words, some less developed countries, which are efficient in the quantity-based model, fail to reach the defined efficiency border when considering some quality indicators of outputs. On the other hand, some inefficient developed countries increase their DEA-based ranking and achieve effectiveness (quality-based efficiency). The same is true for input quality considerations. Since tertiary education cannot be expected to provide the same quality of outcomes with different input qualities, efficiency improves (deteriorates) in the input-output quality-based model in many countries with low (high) quality student bases.

Keywords: tertiary education; data envelopment analysis; educational efficiency and effectiveness; EU (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I22 I23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ipf:psejou:v:42:y:2018:i:4:p:381-414

DOI: 10.3326/pse.42.4.2

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