Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
2017
College/Unit
College of Business and Economics
Document Number
17-28
Department/Program/Center
Economics
Abstract
West Virginia schools are consistently below the national average on the NAEP. Using Data Envelopment Analysis, we estimate the technical efficiency of West Virginia school districts. We find less variation in technical efficiency in West Virginia than in similar studies conducted in other states. This appears to be because of state policy imposing homogeneity of input usage. Due to the limited variation in technical efficiency across districts, we cannot analyze how non-school inputs such as socioeconomic factors affect technical efficiency across districts. Summary statistics organized by county economic status, however, suggest that socioeconomic status plays a role. Our results highlight an important limitation of DEA analysis on schools.
Digital Commons Citation
Minuci, Eduardo; Neto, Amir B.; and Hall, Joshua C., "Efficiency, But At What Cost? Evidence from a DEA Analysis of WV School Districts" (2017). Economics Faculty Working Papers Series. 17.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/econ_working-papers/17