The Evaluation of University Departments. A Case Study for Firenze

Abstract

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 envisaged a fiscal stimulus of approximately $800 billion, the largest in American history. Chodorow-Reich et al. (2012a) show that the state fiscal relief that was part of this stimulus increases employment. The other objective of ARRA was to "promote economic recovery". We therefore examine its effect on states' economic growth. Since the stimulus each state received is endogenous to a state's economic environment, ordinary least squares underestimates the effect. This endogeneity problem is addressed by using a state's pre-recession Medicaid spending level to instrument for the ARRA fiscal relief each state receives. We find that the ARRA state fiscal relief has indeed had a positive effect on gross state products.

Evaluating the efficiency of Italian public universities (2008–2011) in presence of (unobserved) heterogeneity

“… See Agasisti (2009),Potì and Reale (2005),Bini and Chiandotto (2003) andBuzzigoli et al (2010) for a brief review of the university system in Italy.…”

A Directional Distance Approach Applied to Higher Education: An Analysis of Teaching‐related Output Efficiency

“…See also Agasisti (), Potì and Reale (), Bini and Chiandotto () and Buzzigoli et al () for a brief review of the university system in Italy.…”

What affects average net price at four-year public and not-for-profit private institutions in the USA?

“…The issue of efficiency for full-time faculty is considered an area to be improved upon. However, it has been noted that analysing faculty productivity is complex (Buzzigoli et al, 2010;Porter and Umbach, 2001) because it is difficult to measure the inputs and outputs of faculty (Bowen, 2012). Items that would be considered important to include when determining efficiency, such as student time and quality, might be difficult to capture (Bowen, 2012).…”

“…In light of diminishing governmental funding, similar analyses were done by Kao and Hung (2008) and Buzzigoli et al (2010). Kao and Hung (2008) performed a Data Envelopment Analysis on the 41 departments at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan to evaluate departmental efficiencies whereas the Buzzigoli et al (2010) study analysed 70 departments at the University of Firenze.…”