Allocation Efficiency of Higher Education Resources in China

Abstract

This paper uses the super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to measure the higher education resource allocation efficiency (HERAE) of 30 provinces from China 2005-2018, and analyzes the regional difference and dynamic evolution law of the HERAE with Theil index and kernel density estimation, respectively. The results show that: The HERAEs of most provinces are DEA effective, but the HERAEs of a few provinces are DEA ineffective, calling for further improvement to the allocation of higher education resources in these places. There was a certain difference in the HERAE trend between eastern, central, and western regions. In the sample period, eastern region had higher HERAE than central and western regions. With the elapse of time, the internal gap of HERAE decreased to different degrees in the three regions. Eastern region had the largest gap, followed in turn by central and western regions. In addition, China’s HERAEs were polarized in time. With the passage of time, the polarization of regional HERAEs slowly weakened.