| Abstract: | Academic observers have for some time been questioning whether industrial mergers produce identifiable economies of scale. They have found little evidence that efficiencies result from mergers. Is this also true in higher education? What does the evidence tell us about the practical implications of recent mergers? This paper examines this topic from a strictly empirical perspective. We begin by studying as an analogy, the recent mergers of professional accounting and consulting firms and me then turn to higher education and look in detail at the savings and the extra costs claimed from recent mergers. |
