Understanding Productivity Changes in Public Universities: Evidence from Spain

This paper describes the dynamic changes in productivity in Spanish public universities (SPU) in the period 1994 to 2008. The Malmquist index is used to illustrate the contribution of efficiency and technological change to changes in the productivity of university activities. The results indicate that annual productivity growth is attributable more to efficiency improvements than technological progress. Gains in scale efficiency appear to play only a minor role in productivity gains. The fact that technical efficiency contributes more than technological progress suggests that most universities are not operating close to the best-practice frontier.