University merging process

Marisa Hidalgo Hidalgo () and Guadalupe Valera Blanes
Additional contact information
Marisa Hidalgo Hidalgo: Universidad de Alicante
Guadalupe Valera Blanes: Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Marisa Hidalgo-Hidalgo

Working Papers. Serie AD from Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie)

Abstract: There is a recent tendency toward encouraging universities to merge. This policy is based on the idea that mergers create synergy gains that enhance universities’ prestige by increasing their international visibility. However, this process may reduce competition for both research funds and professors. This paper analyzes whether or not mergers among universities are optimal from an aggregate excellence point of view. We find that the relationship between cost differentials of competing universities, the amount of research funds and universities’ recruitment standard plays a key role when comparing aggregate excellence in a merging and a competition settings. In particular, we show that the higher the heterogeneity between potential merger institutions in terms of their reputation the greater the amount of funds needed to make mergers profitable.

Keywords: Higher Education; University Competition; Mergers; University Funding System. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 H52 I22 I23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2013-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published by Ivie

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ivie.es/downloads/docs/wpasad/wpasad-2013-01.pdf Fisrt version / Primera version, 2013 (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:ivi:wpasad:2013-01

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers. Serie AD from Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Departamento de Edición ().