Assessment of TFP in European and American higher education institutions - Application of malmquist indices

Abstract

In this study we apply Malmquist methodology, based on the estimation of distance measures through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), to a sample of 500 universities (in 10 European countries and the U.S.) over the period 2000 to 2010 in order to assess and compare their productivity. On average, a rise in TFP is registered for the whole European sample (strongest for Dutch and Italian HEIs), while the productivity of American HEIs suffered a slight decline. Additionally, we show that productivity growth is negatively associated with size of the institution and revenues from government, and positively with regional development in the case of the European sample, while American HEI productivity growth is characterised by a negative association with GDP and a positive one with the share of government resources out of total revenue.