Do merger policies increase universities’ efficiency?
In this webinar, Tommaso Agasisti will discuss the effect of merger policies in Russia on universities’ efficiency.

The topic will consider a round of non-voluntary mergers conducted by the Ministry of Education on the basis of universities’ performance indicators.
Universities’ mergers are one policy instrument used to fashion higher education systems to meet current challenges, such as massification, international rankings and the more efficient use of scarce resources. Much of the existing literature suggests that mergers can have positive outcomes.
In the first stage, efficiency scores of merging universities were estimated using a bootstrapped data envelopment analysis (DEA) non-parametric technique (for an appropriate control group formed through a propensity score matching approach) before and after the implementation of the merger policy.
In the second stage a fuzzy regression discontinuity design was implemented in order to reveal the causal impact of mergers on the level of efficiency. We find that the merger policy had a statistically significant positive effect on universities’ efficiency. The merged universities also experienced greater efficiency gains after the merger was implemented.
This event will be particularly useful for those interested in Higher Education, university mergers and international higher education.
Related links
Tommaso Agasist
Politecnico di Milano School of Management Aleksei Egorov, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics
Further information
Ticketing
Pre-booking essential
Cost
Free
Open to
All
Availability
Yes