Education production efficiency: evidence from Brazilian universities

Abstract

This paper investigates how efficient are the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in Brazil, and which institution – public or private – is more efficient in the production of knowledge. In addition, it was also verified the determinants of performance of Brazilian students in Higher Education. We estimated a Stochastic Production Function of Education for the Brazilian HEI based on information from the Higher Education Census of 2006 and the National Examination of Performance Evaluation of Student (Enade) of 2007. By using the difference between the scores of first-year and last-year college students of National Examination of Performance Evaluation of Student (Enade) aggregated by HEI as a product in the Stochastic Production Function, it was possible to contribute with a new element to the literature devoted to the estimation of the Production Function of Education. The results show that the characteristics of institutions are the variables that best explain their performance. Additionally, public institutions are more inefficient than private ones.