Mergers Without Uniformity:The Effects of Heterogeneous Mergers on Internal Funding Allocation in Universities
Mergers are an important tool for higher education reforms worldwide,but the related effectiveness assessment lacks empirical evidence by type and across time from the perspective of economies of scale.Based on the 1993-2016 education expenditure statistics of 134 universities,this study utilized the two-way fixed effect model,and found that mergers only had a weak impact on a few expenditure indicators of universities in individual periods on the whole.Heterogeneity analysis further showed that the impact of mergers on the internal fund allocation varied across the level of operation,type of institution,and disciplinary category.The"project 211"university-related mergers,undergraduate mergers,and comprehensive mergers all led to a significant increase in the total expenditures and some sub-items,while the opposite types of mergers resulted in a significant decrease in the expenditures,and the pattern of impacts persisted and strengthened after the mergers occurred.Based on the co-existence of economies of scale and diseconomies of scale after the merger,countermeasures such as comprehensively assessing the risks and examining the benefits of the merger,and strengthening the cost management are proposed.
university mergerinternal funding allocationeducational expensesheterogeneity
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万方数据
