Efficiency in the community college sector: stochastic frontier analysis

Abstract

This paper estimates technical efficiency scores across the community college sector in the United States. Using stochastic frontier analysis and data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System for 2003–2010, we estimate efficiency scores for 950 community colleges and perform a series of sensitivity tests to check for robustness. We find that community colleges have become more efficient over time, but no evidence of economies of scale. We also find significant variation in efficiency across colleges, with only part of this variation explained by exogenous differences by state and across student characteristics.

Keywords:

• efficiency
• community colleges

Acknowledgements

Tommaso is grateful to the Teachers College (Columbia University), which hosted me during the writing of this paper’s first draft (Summer 2013), and to the H2CU College Italia, which provided him with accommodation services during this period.