外文翻译澳大利亚高等教育的成本函数Word格式.docx
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外文翻译澳大利亚高等教育的成本函数Word格式.docx
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本科毕业论文(设计)
外文翻译
原文:
ACostFunctionforHigherEducationinAustralia
(extract)
1.Introduction
ThisstudyestimatesacostfunctionforhighereducationinAustralianuniversities.Theestimatedfunctionisusedtoexaminethecostofprovidinghighereducationtooverseasstudents.Inthehighereducationsector,productionfunctionsareusefulforevaluatingthestructureoftheindustryandcanserveasguidesforindividualinstitutionsonpoliciesaffectingtheirsizeandscope.Moreover,inviewoftherelaxationofprovisionsunderwhichuniversitiescanprovidehighereducationtofull-feepayingdomesticstudents,informationfromcostfunctionscanassistinstitutionstodevelopappropriatepricingstrategies.
Costfunctionsalsoprovideanopportunitytoevaluatethecostofprovidinghighereducationtooverseasstudents.Highereducationcostsforanindividualuniversitycanbeestablishedfromadetailedaccountingexerciseinwhichtheexplicitandimplicitcostsallocatedtocoursesandlevelsarecollected.However,inobtainingthecostsofoverseasstudents,thereisstillbeaneedforacostfunctionbecauseitisnecessarytoexaminewhatthecostswouldbeunderalternativestudentnumbers,thatis,withandwithoutoverseasstudents.Someideaofthevariationincostswithdifferentnumberscanbeobtainedbycomparinguniversitiesatthesamedatebutwithdifferentstudentprofiles.Hencetheuseofcostfunctionsprovidesamethodformeasuringthenetbenefits(orcosts)oftheprovidingeducationtooverseasstudents.
Thepaperisorganisedasfollows.Section2reviewssomeofthepreviousworkdoneontheAustralianhighereducationsectoranddiscussessomerelevantissues.Section3presentsthebasiccostfunctionmodel,describesthedataandpresentsempiricalresults.Section4presentsresultsfromtheapplicationofthecostfunction,includingthecostspredictionsfortheprovisionofhighereducationforoverseasstudents.Section5drawspolicyimplicationsandconclusions.
2.PreviousWorkandSomeIssues
Throsby(1986)estimatedthecostofprovidinghighereducationusingdatafrom18Australianuniversitiesfortheperiod1978to1982.ThiswasfollowedbyLloydetal.(1993)andLloyd(1994),whichdefinedtheconditionsunderwhichthefunctionalformofthecostfunctionallowseconomiesofscaleandscopeintheproductionofmultipleoutputs,thatisresearchandteachinginvariousdisciplinesandatdifferentlevels.Estimatesfromthesestudieswereusedtoanalysetheimpactoftheamalgamationsthatfollowedthe1987reforms.Inparticular,theestimatedequationwasusedtoevaluatethelikelycostsavingsarisingfromtheamalgamationoftwoormoreinstitutions.ThemostrecentcostfunctionestimateforAustraliaisreportedinThrosbyandHeaton(1995).Using1991cross-sectionaldataon42institutions,ThrosbyandHeatonanalysedtherelationshipbetweentheoperatingcostsofinstitutionsandthenumberofstudentsin10broadsubjectareasandthreelevelsofstudies,usingaquadraticfunctionofthestudentnumbers(implyingconstantmarginalcosts).TheircostfunctionwasusedbyBaker,CreedyandJohnson(1996)toevaluatethecostofoverseasstudents.
Anumberofissuesariseinderivingandusingsuchamodel.First,previousstudiesfailedtoaccountforunobserveddifferencesbetweenuniversities.Eachinstitutionhasaparticularstructurethatmaymaketheprovisionofparticularcoursesmorecostefficientinoneuniversitythaninothers.Inaddition,theexplanatoryvariableschosenmaynotadequatelyrepresentthecharacteristicsofparticularinstitutions;
forexample,theremaybevariationofqualityandtheproportionofresourcesdevotedtoresearch.Theimplicitassumptionthatqualityofteachingisindependentofvariationsinstudentnumbersisalsomade.
Second,thereareaggregationproblemsassociatedwiththeaccuratespecificationofthevariables.Theseoccurbecausethechoiceofdisciplineorcourselevelcategoriesmaskslargedifferencesbetweencomponentsoftheaggregateddiscipline.Forexample,healthincludesthetrainingofbothhigh-costdoctorsandrelativelylow-costnurses.Attheaggregateleveltheymaybecombinedintoasinglecompositegroup,butindividualuniversitiesmayspecialiseineitherthehigh-costorthelow-costproduct.Accordingly,theirtotalcostswillbeunder-orover-estimatedbytheuseofanaveragedsetofparametersdefinedovertheuniversitiesasawhole.
Third,theconventionalcostminimisationassumptiondoesnotapplynaturallytothehighereducationsectorwhengovernment(toalargeextent)determinesboththefundingandtheoutput.Infact,manyuniversitiesmayusethesamemodelasusedbythegovernmenttodeterminethefundingofdomesticstudents(theRelativeFundingModel)forsettingfeesforoverseasstudents.
Ingeneral,thefirstandsecondproblemsarefeaturesoftheavailabilityofappropriatelydisaggregateddataandmodelspecification.Preliminaryinvestigationhasrevealedthatwhilefindingananswertothesecondproblemisdifficult,amorerigorousstudycantacklethefirst.Thisthirdproblemisintrinsictothecostfunctionmethodology.
Thecostfunctionapproachisnonethelessausefultoolforhighereducationpolicydevelopment.Universitiescancomparetheirownperformancewiththeaverageperformanceestimatedbythecostfunction.Universitiescanvarysizeandstructureofthestudentbodyandconsiderthelikelyeffectontheirbudget.ThecostfunctionmayalsobefedintothemechanismforprovidingfundingfordomesticstudentsthroughtheRelativeFundingModel.Thecostfunctionmayalsobeusedtoevaluatenewwaysofreimbursinginstitutionsandcanbeusefulinevaluatingpricingpolicyfordomesticfull-feestudents.Itmaybeusedtoestimatethecostsandbenefitsofprovisionofhighereducationforoverseasstudents,andtherebyguidepricingpolicywithrespecttothem.
3.(ellipsis)
4.ApplicationoftheCostFunction
4.1.TotalCosts
Inthissubsection,theestimatedcoefficientsofthechosencostfunctionaboveareusedtoderiveestimatesoftotalcostasdefinedinequations
(2).Thepredictedvaluesfor1997,usingdataforallstudents,arepresentedinTables3and4below.InTable3,theuniversitiesarearrangedfromsmallesttolargest(byEFTSUload),andarepresentedwithinformationonstudentload.Totalcostfigures–bothactualandpredicted–arealsoshown.Themodelyieldspredictedvaluesoftotalcoststhatarereasonableapproximatesoftheactualcosts,withover70percentofpredictedvalueswithina10percentmarginoferror.Thereappearstobearelativelyconstantrelationshipbetweenthestudentloadandthetotalcostofteachingimplyingthataveragecostsareinatightband.Thisissueisexploredfurtherbelow.
Thecubicformofthecostfunctionindicatesrisingcostsofteachingatlowstudentloadlevels,whiletherateofgrowthgraduallydiminishesasstudentnumbersrisebecauseofgainsfromeconomiesofscale.Atveryhighstudentnumbers,thecostfunctionimpliesarenewedrapidriseinthecostsincurredbyAustralianuniversities.AtypicalcubiccostfunctionispresentedinFigure1,whichrepresentsthecostofprovidinghighereducationtoaPostgraduatebyResearchstudent,usingUNSWfixedvaluesfordisciplinesharesandotherlevelsofstudy.ThecurveistypicalofuniversitiesinAustraliawithlargepostgraduateenrolments.ForsmalleruniversitiessuchastheUniversityofCanberraortheNorthernTerritoryUniversity,thetotalcostcurveissimilarlyshapedbutwithrelativelylowerlevelsofcosts.Therenewedrapidriseathighpostgraduatestudentloadmaybeaconsequenceoftheuniversitieshavingamoreexpensivestaffprofilewithhigherproportionsofprofessorsastheirpostgraduatestudentloadincreases.AsuniversitiesincreasethesizeoftheirPhDprogramstheyareabletomountmoreambitiousandmorecostlyresearchprogramsthatalsoattractthemoreableandhigherpaidacademicstaff.
ThetotalcostcurvesforPostgraduatebyCourseworkStudents,usingfixedvaluesforalltheothervariables,yieldaflattercubiccurvethanforpostgraduatebyresearchwork.WhereasmoststudentsundertakingpostgraduatebyresearchdegreesarePhDstudents,thecourseworkpostgraduatecoursesarepredominantlyattheMasterslevel.MasterslevelcourseswouldnotrequireasexpensiveastaffprofileasPhDstudents.
AcontrastisshownbythecorrespondingcurveforUndergraduatestudents,showninFigure2,wherecostsmonotonicallyincreasebyvirtueofthepositivecoefficientsobtainedforallthreeundergraduatestudentloadregressors,L3,L3
andL3
andovertherangeshownthecubictermappearstohavelittleeffect.Inthiscase,economiesofscalegainedfromincreasingpostgraduatestudentsnumbersarenotrealisedinthesamewaywiththeincreaseinundergraduatestudentnumbers.Itisalsopossiblethatwithinuniversities,cross-subsidisationofteachingcostsoccursbetweenlevelsofstudies,whereitbecomescheapertomountparticulartypesofpostgraduatecourseswhentherearelargenumbersofundergraduatestudents.
4.2.AverageandMarginalCosts
Theaverageandmarginalcostestimatesfor1997arepresentedinTable4.Theaveragecostofhighereducationacrosstheuniversitiesrangedbetweenbetween$7900tojustunder$14000in1997.Columns(3)to(5)presentthemarginalcostsbylevelofstudy.Themarginalcostsforundergraduatestudentsarearound$2000forsmalleruniversitiesandthesecoststendtoincreasewiththeEFTSUloadoftheuniversities.MonashUniversity,thelargestuniversitywith15timesthestudentloadoftheNTU(thesmallestuniversity),hasamarginalco
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- 外文 翻译 澳大利亚 高等教育 成本 函数