Working papers, Department of Economics, WU (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien)
No 77:
Measuring Productivity of Research in Economics. A Cross-Country Study Using DEA
Martin G. Kocher ()
, Mikulas Luptacik ()
and Matthias Sutter ()
Abstract: Using a sample of 21 OECD-countries we measure
productivity in top-edge economic research by using data envelopment
analysis (DEA). DEA is a tool for evaluating relative efficiency and is
widely used when there are multiple inputs and outputs and one lacks a
specific functional form of a production function. The publications in 10
economics journals with the highest average impact factor over the time
period 1980-1998 are taken as research output. Inputs are measured by R&D
expenditures, number of universities with economics departments and (as
uncontrolled variable) total population. Under constant returns-to-scale
the USA are in dominant position with remarkable distance to other
countries. Under variable returns-to-scale the efficiency frontier is
created by the USA with most productive scale size (MPSS), and by Ireland
and New Zealand, which are technical efficient but scale inefficient. All
countries - except the USA - display increasing returns-to-scale, which
shows that they have a possibility to improve their efficiency by scaling
up their research activities.
Keywords: research in economics; productivity analysis; cross-country study; data envelopment analysis (DEA); (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: A11; A14; C61; D24; (follow links to similar papers)
August 2001
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