Efficiency and Economies of Scale in Academic Knowledge Production

Bernhard Felderer and Michael Obersteiner
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Bernhard Felderer: Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna
Michael Obersteiner: Department of Economics, Institute for Advanced Studies

No 63, Economics Series from Institute for Advanced Studies

Abstract: This paper investigates the properties of knowledge production in academic research using a panel of 17 OECD countries reaching from 1989 to 1996. The production process is modelled using capital and labour as inputs and the number of published international journal articles and/or the number of graduates as outputs. First, we test for the existence of economies of scale in academic research. Our results give indication for decreasing returns to scale in the production of new academic knowledge. This empirical result might contribute to the recent controversy on the properties of the innovation technology used in endogenous growth models. Second, we determine efficiency scores for each individual country. For the estimation of efficiencies we apply parametric and non-parametric methods. Although results differ slightly with the method used, a stable efficiency ranking is found.

Keywords: Academic Research; Education; Knowledge Production; Efficiency; Endogenous Growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A1 A2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 1999-04
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://irihs.ihs.ac.at/id/eprint/1156 First version, 1999 (application/pdf)

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