MONASH UNIVERSITY - ACER CENTRE FOR THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING TECHNICAL AND SCALE EFFICIENCY OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING INSTITUTIONS: The Case of the New Zealand Polytechnics

In recent years vocational education and training has been recognised as having a crucial impact on worker productivity, enterprise performance and the overall performance of the New Zealand economy. The importance of vocational education and training gives rise to the issue of the efficient operation of educational institutions. In this paper Data Envelopment Analysis is used to derive estimates of technical and scale efficiency. Comparisons are also made with Victorian TAFE institutes. The results indicate the existence of significant technical and scale inefficiency and that there is scope to improve efficiency and to take advantage of economies of size within the sector. ∗ The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of their employers.