Differences in the Academic Performance of Italian Univesities: Exploring the Relationships with Markets and Public Policies

The paper investigates factors affecting inequalities between HEIs performance because of their localization in more or less developed regions; for this aim it tests the relationships existing between public policies, market investment and inequalities in HEIs performance, according to three hypotheses: 1.Good scientific performance is related to the wealth of the economic context; 2.Public policies aimed at reducing inequalities may rather increase them, as they do not intervene on the real causes of inequality; 3.Market forces are correlated with inequalities: i.e. disciplines with higher share of private investment and more variance of private investment are those with stronger qualitative inequalities.