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THE DISTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH PERFORMANCE ACROSS AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES, 1992–2003, AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ‘BUILDING DIVERSITY’
Author(s) -
VILLE SIMON,
VALADKHANI ABBAS,
O’BRIEN MARTIN
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
australian economic papers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.351
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1467-8454
pISSN - 0004-900X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8454.2006.00298.x
Subject(s) - distribution (mathematics) , diversity (politics) , lorenz curve , convergence (economics) , inequality , political science , regional science , econometrics , economics , sociology , economic growth , mathematics , gini coefficient , law , mathematical analysis , economic inequality
We contribute to the debate on research performance by comparing the distribution of research inputs and outputs across Australian universities during 1992–2003. We have calculated annual Gini coefficients for various performance measures and Lorenz curves for the final year of the study. Various findings are evident. Research‐input measures have remained relatively unevenly distributed across universities. Output measures were more evenly distributed and this exhibited a gradual and rather consistent convergence through time, supporting the view that the research output is being generated gradually more equally across Australia's universities. The exclusion of the ‘Group of Eight’ (Go8) universities results in a more even distribution of performance. However, in 2003 this group took the lion's share of research inputs but produced a smaller share of outputs. Our findings are relevant to current funding policy discussion.