Managerial efficiency and efficiency differentials in adult education: a conditional and bias-corrected efficiency analysis

Abstract

In efficiency studies, inputs and outputs are often noisy measures, especially when education data is used. This article complements the conditional efficiency model by correcting for bias within conditional draws, using the m out of n bootstrap procedure. With a unique panel dataset, we estimate managerial efficiency, which accounts for nondiscretionary variables, and explain efficiency differentials of adult education programs in Flanders. Our results suggest that the characteristics of learners in a program matter for managerial efficiency, and that teacher characteristics are strongly correlated with efficiency differentials, as more homogeneity in the teacher workforce appears to result in higher program efficiency.

Technical and managerial efficiency assessment of European banks using a conditional nonparametric approach

“…More recently, Schiltz et al. (2020) extended the efficiency of primary, secondary, and higher education literature and explored the adult education programs in Flanders, Belgium. They applied a conditional efficiency model that corrects the noisy measures of inputs and outputs and found that learners’ characteristics matter for managerial efficiency and that the characteristics of the teacher and program explain efficiency differentials between adult education programs.…”

Persistent and transient inefficiency in adult education

“…As adult education attracts an increasing share of the total education budget, it is particularly interesting to analyse its productive efficiency. Contrary to significant attention of scholars to the efficiency of the compulsory education system (see an overview by De Witte and Lopez-Torres 2017), evidence on the performance of adult education is rare (an exception is Schiltz et al 2019).…”

“…Previous literature has primarily focused on the inefficiency of compulsory education (see De Witte and López-Torres (2017) for a review) and higher education (see Sneyers and De Witte (2017) for a review). To the best of our knowledge, only one paper has evaluated the inefficiency of adult education programs (Schiltz et al 2019). Using a conditional and bias-corrected Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model on Belgian data, Schiltz et al (2019) found that adult education programs could improve their efficiency by 4%, on average.…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, only one paper has evaluated the inefficiency of adult education programs (Schiltz et al 2019). Using a conditional and bias-corrected Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model on Belgian data, Schiltz et al (2019) found that adult education programs could improve their efficiency by 4%, on average. Moreover, they observed that teacher and program characteristics explain inefficiency differentials between adult education programs.…”

“…Table 1 provides summary statistics for the outputs, inputs, and the determinants of both persistent and transient inefficiency. The outputs are based on the evaluation criteria set by the Flemish government, and several interviews conducted with adult education program directors (see Schiltz et al 2019). The output variables represent (1) the average score on the final exam, (2) whether the learner was present during the classes as reported by the teacher, and (3) whether the learner participated in the exam.…”