“合”而不同:高校合并异质性对内部经费配置的影响研究

Mergers Without Uniformity:The Effects of Heterogeneous Mergers on Internal Funding Allocation in Universities

合并是世界范围内高等教育改革的重要工具,但相关成效评估尚缺乏规模经济视角下的分类型、跨时期经验证据。基于我国134所本科高校1993—2016年教育经费统计数据,运用双向固定效应模型发现:整体而言,合并仅对高校少数支出指标有个别时期的微弱影响;异质性分析进一步表明,合并对高校内部经费配置的影响有办学水平、院校类型、学科门类差异,原“211工程”高水平合并、本科间合并、综合性合并均使高校总支出及部分子项显著上涨,与之相对的各类合并则使高校办学支出显著下降,影响模式分化在合并发生后持续存在且有所加强。基于高校合并后规模经济与规模不经济并存的现象,提出综合评估合并风险、全面审视合并效益、加强相关高校成本管理等对策建议。

Mergers are an important tool for higher education reforms worldwide,but the related effectiveness assessment lacks empirical evidence by type and across time from the perspective of economies of scale.Based on the 1993-2016 education expenditure statistics of 134 universities,this study utilized the two-way fixed effect model,and found that mergers only had a weak impact on a few expenditure indicators of universities in individual periods on the whole.Heterogeneity analysis further showed that the impact of mergers on the internal fund allocation varied across the level of operation,type of institution,and disciplinary category.The"project 211"university-related mergers,undergraduate mergers,and comprehensive mergers all led to a significant increase in the total expenditures and some sub-items,while the opposite types of mergers resulted in a significant decrease in the expenditures,and the pattern of impacts persisted and strengthened after the mergers occurred.Based on the coexistence of economies of scale and diseconomies of scale after the merger,countermeasures such as comprehensively assessing the risks and examining the benefits of the merger,and strengthening the cost management are proposed.