Efficiency of investment in compulsory education: An Overview of Methodological Approaches

Tommaso Agasisti () and Giuseppe Munda

No JRC106681, JRC Research Reports from Joint Research Centre

Abstract: The policy discourses often refer to the term "efficiency" for indicating the necessity of reducing resources devoted to interventions and whole sub-sectors, while keeping the output produced constant. In this technical report, we review the theoretical and empirical foundations of efficiency analysis as applicable to the educational policy. After introducing some key concepts and definitions (technical, allocative, spending and scale efficiency), the report illustrates which variables of inputs, outputs and contextual factors are used in applied studies that assess efficiency in compulsory education. Then, an explanation of methods for conducting efficiency studies is proposed; in particular frontier methods such as non-parametric approaches (as Data Envelopment Analysis) and parametric models (as Stochastic Frontier Analysis) and multi-criteria approaches (such as Multi-Objective Optimisation and Discrete Methods) are reviewed. The main objective of this report is to present to the interested reader the main technical tools which can be applied for carrying out real-world efficiency analyses. A tween report presents an application of efficiency analysis for European compulsory education, at country level.

Keywords: Compulsory Education; Human Capital, Efficiency Analysis; Data Envelopment Analysis; Multiple-Criteria Evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C61 H52 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 64 pages
Date: 2017-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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