Economies of scope in research and teaching: A non-parametric investigation

We propose a non-parametric methodology to study the presence of economies of scope between teaching and research (i.e., the teaching–research nexus). In particular, the paper advocates a conditional version of the ‘benefit-of-the-doubt’ approach to estimate the relationship between professors’ overall academic output, measured by a composite measure of multi-dimensional and importance-adjusted scores of teaching effectiveness and research productivity, and the time devoted to teaching and to research. The methodology is illustrated with a dataset of professors working at a Business & Administration department of a university college where the time allocation of teaching and research was assigned exogenously. The outcome of the analysis indicates the presence of limited scope economies for professors with an extensive research time.

► Non-parametric methodology for measuring teaching effectiveness and research productivity. ► Full-time researchers could improve performance more teaching. ► This favorable effect of increasing teaching time is fairly modest. ► Specialization in teaching and research correlates with better academic performance.