Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/240542 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 1399
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
Organizations, both non-profit and for-profit, needs to allocate labor for both production as well as internal administration. If this allocation is skewed towards internal administration, organizations, and especially non-profit organizations, might develop sclerosis over time with too much labor allocated to internal administration compared to production. Using detailed registry data on all individuals working at Swedish universities and colleges, we document a rapid increase in the number of qualified administrators, both in the number of employees and in total wages paid for these. This increase is not present in less qualified administration, and is mainly driven by an increase by a few professions such as communication and human resources. The increase does not lead to a significant reduction, or increase, in the time that researchers and teachers spend on administration. This in turn suggests that Swedish higher education over-allocates resources to high-skilled administration.
Subjects: 
Organization theory
Sclerosis
Productivity Growth
Bureaucracy
Higher education
JEL: 
P16
L25
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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