Efficiency of Italian universities: the effect of controllable and non-controllable environmental and operational variables

In recent years, Italian universities have undergone deep reform processes that have innovated organisational structures, teachers' careers and courses. Based on data collected for 75 Italian universities, this study presents a comparative analysis of the efficiency of Italian universities using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique, and attempts to explain the different efficiency levels found in light of environmental and organisation-specific factors such as size, ownership, geographical location and human resources composition. Adopting a robust DEA bootstrapping procedure, the article demonstrates that the presence of private investors boosts efficiency; similarly, the largest universities and those located in the northern regions have the best performance.