Competition and efficiency: overseas students and technical efficiency in Australian and New Zealand universities

Economic theory suggests that competitive pressures will impact on organisational efficiency. In recent years, universities in Australia and New Zealand have faced increased competition for students. The aim of this paper is to explore the efficiency of Australian and New Zealand public universities and to investigate the impact of competition for students from overseas on efficiency. Output distance functions are estimated using panel data for the period 1995–2002 for Australia and 1997–2003 for New Zealand. The results show that competition for overseas students has led to increased efficiency in Australian universities. However, competition for overseas students appears to have had no effect on efficiency in New Zealand.