Efficiency in the provision of university teaching and research: An empirical analysis of UK universities

A flexible three-output, two-input cost function model is used to examine the cost efficiency of UK universities as producers of teaching and research `outputs'. Unlike previous studies, a comprehensive peer review of research quality is incorporated. Overall, product-specific and input-specific economies of scale, global and product-specific economies of scope, marginal costs and cost complementarities are estimated. Overall and product-specific scale results indicate considerable increasing returns, while the scope results generally suggest neither economies nor diseconomies. Sensitivity analysis is used to simulate the impact of current government policy, regarding the expansion of undergraduate teaching output, on these results.