Does sector-specific experience matter? The case of European higher education ministers

Julien Jacqmin and Mathieu Lefebvre

Working Papers of BETA from Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg

Abstract: This paper looks at the relationship between higher education ministers and the performance of the sector that they govern. Using an original panel dataset with the characteristics of European higher education ministers, we find that having a past experience in the sector leads to a higher level of performance, as measured by ranking data. Making a parallel with the literature about the impact of education on the educated, we discuss potential explanations behind the impact of this on-the-job learning experience. As we find that this characteristic has no impact on the spendings of the sector, we argue that this academic experience makes them more prone to introduce adequate reforms. Furthermore, we find that this result is driven by ministers with both this sector-specific and an electoral experience, the latter measured by a succesful election at the regional or national level. This tends to show that political credibility should not be overshadowed by the importance of the sector-specific experience of ministers.

Keywords: Research performance; Higher education minister; leadership; Political economy. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D7 H11 I23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse and nep-edu
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2015/2015-07.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does sector-specific experience matter? The case of European higher education ministers (2016)
Working Paper: Does sector-specific experience matter ? The case of European higher education ministers (2016)
Working Paper: Does sector-specific experience matter? The case of European higher education ministers (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2015-07

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers of BETA from Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).